Threads & escalation
Escalation, response targets, rules, routing and team roles.
Every conversation from every agent and channel lands in Threads. Once a person is involved, it gets a TB- reference, a response target and a team. Agents can watch the AI reply in real time, take over, leave internal notes, apply saved replies and Playbooks, and hand back to the AI.
Escalation rules #
Escalation rules run after every AI turn and decide when a human should step in. Configure them per agent under Settings → Escalation.
| Rule | Triggers when |
|---|---|
keyword | The visitor’s message matches any of the configured phrases (case-insensitive). |
sentiment | Sentiment score drops below a threshold (e.g. frustrated customer). |
fallback_count | The agent used its fallback answer N times in a row. |
message_count | The conversation exceeds N visitor messages without resolution. |
tool_called | The model called escalate_to_human. |
Each rule can set status and priority, assign a teammate, pause the AI and email someone. An escalation.created webhook fires as well.
Thread lifecycle #
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| new | Created, no human has looked at it. |
| open | Being handled by the AI or a person. |
| pending | Waiting on the customer. Response target timers pause. |
| on_hold | Waiting on a third party or another team. |
| resolved | Answered. Reopens if the customer replies; a CSAT survey is sent. |
| closed | Finished. Closed automatically after a period in resolved. |
Custom statuses can be added under Settings → Threads, each mapped to one of the statuses above.
Response targets and business hours #
Response targets set first-response and resolution times per priority. Timers follow the business hours and holidays of the thread’s team. Warnings fire before a target is missed, and a thread.target_breached webhook fires on breach.
Rules #
| Trigger | Runs |
|---|---|
created | When a thread is created, before routing. |
updated | When a thread changes, for example a status, priority or new reply. |
scheduled | Every hour, for time-based conditions such as hours since the last reply. |
Conditions can use any thread field, custom field, channel, contact, company or business hours. Actions can set fields, assign, add tags, send an email template, notify people or call a webhook. Every run is logged.
Routing #
Each team chooses round-robin, load-balanced (respecting each agent’s maximum open threads) or skills-based routing. Only agents marked online receive new threads.
Team roles #
| Role | Can | Seat |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Everything, including billing and deleting the workspace. | Paid |
| Admin | Manage agents, sources, actions, team, rules, API keys and webhooks. | Paid |
| Agent | Work Threads: reply, take over, resolve. | Paid |
| Contributor | Read threads and add internal notes, without replying to customers. | Free |
| Viewer | Read-only access to agents, threads and reports. | Free |
Custom roles with fine-grained permissions are available on higher plans. Invite teammates from Settings → Team. Members can belong to several workspaces and switch between them from the sidebar.