AI Agents: Route conversations to the right Specialist
What is it?
The AI Agent Router understands a customer's request and transfers the conversation to the most appropriate Specialist. It's the traffic controller of your bot — its whole job is deciding who should handle the conversation, so each Specialist can stay focused on what it does best.
For example, a Router can direct customers to Specialists for order tracking, returns and refunds, product information, technical support, appointment scheduling, or account management. The Router decides who handles the request; the chosen Specialist then handles it using its own instructions, tools, and Knowledge Base sources.
Who can use it
Routers are built in Flow Builder, so they're available to users with Flow Builder access (organization admins).
How the Router works
- The customer sends a message.
- The Router analyzes the request.
- It compares the request with the descriptions of the available Specialists.
- It transfers the conversation to the Specialist that best matches.
- The Specialist handles the conversation.
The Router can only transfer conversations to Specialists configured in its Specialists tab.
Add a Router to a flow
- Open your bot in Flow Builder.
- Open the build panel.
- Add the Router node to the flow.
- Open the node's edit panel.
- Configure the Main, Specialists, and Guardrails tabs.
- Connect each Specialist to the appropriate flow path.
Configure the Main tab
The Main tab contains:
- Instructions — define the Router's responsibility and behavior.
- Model — select the language model that powers the Router.
- Verbosity — control how detailed the Router's responses should be.
Router instructions should focus on identifying the customer's intent and selecting the correct Specialist. For example:
You are a customer support Router. Identify the customer's main request and transfer it to the Specialist best suited to help. Do not make assumptions. If the request doesn't clearly match a Specialist, ask a short clarifying question.
Add and configure Specialists
- Open the Specialists tab.
- Click Add Specialist.
- Select the new Specialist.
- Add a description explaining when it should receive a conversation.
- Connect the Specialist to the appropriate flow path.
The Router uses each Specialist's description to decide when to transfer a conversation, so the description is doing real work — it's not just a label.
Write specific Specialist descriptions
A good description explains the topics the Specialist handles, the types of requests it should receive, and any topics it should not handle. For example:
Handles questions about delivery times, shipping costs, tracking links, and delayed shipments. Do not use this Specialist for returns or refunds.
Avoid vague descriptions like "Helps customers." The more specific the descriptions, the more reliably the Router matches customer requests.
Connect each Specialist
Every Specialist must have a connection from the Router. Check that every Specialist is connected, that each connection leads to the intended flow step, and that there are no accidental or conflicting connections.
Guardrails on a Router
The Router has a Guardrails tab for restricting certain customer inputs before they reach the AI Agent. Guardrails are covered in full in their own article — but there's one rule specific to Routers that's important enough to state here:
Important: When a Specialist is reached through a Router, only the Router's guardrails are applied — the Specialist's own guardrails do not run after the transfer. If a restriction must apply to routed conversations, put it on the Router. See AI Agents: Set up guardrails for the full explanation.
Router validation
A Router requires a name, instructions, a model, a verbosity level, at least one Specialist, a description and a connection for every Specialist, and valid guardrail configuration if guardrails are used.
Common validation errors: Name is missing, Instructions is missing, Model is missing, Verbosity is missing, Specialists is missing, Specialist trigger description is missing, Connection is missing.
Best practices
- Create one Specialist for each clearly different responsibility.
- Base descriptions on customer intent, and avoid overlapping descriptions.
- Add a clarification or fallback path for ambiguous requests.
- Keep Router instructions focused on classification and handoff.
- Test similar requests that could match more than one Specialist.
- Put shared input restrictions on the Router.
Troubleshooting
- The Router selects the wrong Specialist: review the Specialist descriptions — make them more specific and add clear exclusions.
- A Specialist isn't available: confirm it's been added to the Router's Specialists tab.
- The Router configuration shows an error: check that all required fields are completed and every Specialist is connected.
- A guardrail doesn't behave as expected: if the Specialist is used through a Router, move the guardrail to the Router's Guardrails tab.