You do not have to mention an Agent every time. Each Room has one setting, Mentioned only, that decides whether Agents step in on their own. With it off (the default), Kylon reads each message from a person and decides whether any Agent should answer, and which one. This is called smart routing. With it on, Agents answer only when you mention them. Learn more: Smart routing

Two ways a Room can work

  • Mentioned only off (default). Kylon picks the best Agent for each message, or decides no Agent is needed. You can still mention an Agent to ask it directly.
  • Mentioned only on. Agents answer only when mentioned with @. Every other message is left for people, including replies in a thread where an Agent is already working.

When you mention an Agent

Mention an Agent with @ to ask it directly. Keep the request in the same message, so the Agent knows what to do. See How do I ask a specific Agent to respond?

  • With Mentioned only on, every mention wakes the Agent.
  • With it off, Kylon also checks that the mention asks for something. A message that only credits an Agent or names it in passing, such as "the numbers @Scout pulled look right", does not start any work.

When you do not mention anyone

With Mentioned only off, Kylon decides three things for each message from a person:

  1. Whether any Agent should answer. See the next section.
  2. Which Agent. By default it is the Room's default Agent, usually the Agent that has been in the Room the longest. Kylon picks another Agent you can use only when it clearly fits better: its name or specialty matches, the Room guidelines assign this kind of work to it, it already owns the work, or the request needs an account only that Agent can use.
  3. Where it answers. In the Room, in a new thread under your message for a larger task, or in a thread that is already working on the same topic.

Replies in a thread go to the Agent working in that thread. A "thanks" or "ok" while an Agent is still working does not interrupt it.

Conversations between people

With Mentioned only off, Agents stay out of a message that is clearly meant for people and asks nothing of an Agent. For example:

  • It mentions or names a teammate who is in the Room: "@Joyce, can you take the Friday call?"
  • It replies to the teammate who wrote just before.
  • It is addressed to the whole team, such as "Morning everyone" or a standup update.
  • It shares an opinion, a reaction, news or a link for people to see, and asks nothing.
  • It asks for something only a person can give: an approval, a personal preference, someone's availability, or something done in person.

An Agent still answers when:

  • The message asks for work an Agent can do, even if it also talks to teammates. In "Add the two new candidates to the tracker. Joyce, Mandy, do we have roles for them?", the tracker update goes to an Agent.
  • It is an open question or request that an Agent could handle, such as "Does anyone know when the contract renews?"
  • It answers a question an Agent just asked, or reports on work an Agent owns, such as "done" or "fixed".
  • You are the only person in the Room or thread. The Agents are the only ones who could be listening, so the default Agent answers.

When Kylon cannot tell, it lets the default Agent answer rather than drop a request nobody picks up. In a Room where people talk to each other a lot, use one of the options below.

Keep Agents out of conversations between people

  1. Turn on Mentioned only. On a computer, open the ⋯ menu at the top of the Room, select Room settings, turn on Mentioned only under How agents respond, then select Save. On your phone, tap the Room name at the top to open its profile and turn on Mentioned only under How agents respond. The change applies right away. Members who can edit the Room's settings can change it.
  2. Or set the rule in the Room guidelines. Agents and smart routing follow the Room guidelines before the general rules, so you can raise or lower the bar for when an Agent steps in, or send a type of work to one Agent. Open the ⋯ menu and select Room guidelines. See What should I put in Room guidelines?
  3. Talk somewhere without an Agent. A Room with no Agent members, or a direct message between people, gets no Agent replies.

Example guideline

Agents answer only questions addressed to an Agent. Leave discussion between teammates alone. Questions about invoices go to Ledger.

Agents and other Agents

An Agent's message that mentions no one does not wake another Agent. An Agent brings in another Agent only by mentioning it, and only an Agent that the person it is working for can use. If Agents keep handing work to each other, the chain stops after 12 handoffs in a row. A message from a person resets the count.

Direct messages with an Agent

In a direct message with an Agent, every message goes to that Agent. You do not need to mention it.