Configure Escalation

This tutorial walks you through the simplest end-to-end escalation setup in the CMS: enable escalation, add one trigger condition, write the response message, assign a supervisor, and test it in the Preview queue.

Before you start

• Read Hand Off to a Human for how escalation works and the short preparation checklist.
• Your agent answers well in Preview. See Preview and Publish Changes.
• The people who will act as supervisors are users of your organization. See Manage Who Can Use and Build.

Scenario used in this tutorial

Step 1: Open Escalation settings

Move your pointer over the icon sidebar on the left edge of the CMS to expand it (on a narrow screen, click the menu button (☰) at the top left instead). Then open Conversation → Escalation.

You see the Escalation page with the cards Escalation, Trigger Conditions, Escalation Response Message, Supervisors, Webhook Notifications, and Escalation Queue. A single Save button at the bottom saves them all.

Step 2: Enable escalation

In the top card, switch Escalation on. The label changes to Enabled: "Allow the AI agent to escalate conversations to human supervisors when configured trigger conditions are detected."

Once escalation is enabled, the card also shows an Escalation Queue button, which opens the supervisor queue in a new browser tab.

Step 3: Add a trigger condition

In Trigger Conditions, click Add Trigger Condition and fill in the two fields. At least one condition is required when escalation is enabled, and each label must be unique.

Confirm the row with the check icon. Use the pencil icon to edit a condition later and the delete icon to remove it.

Write the description as a natural instruction for the AI ("Escalate when..."), not as a technical label. Name the concrete signals: here, a missing rule, an exception request, and a safety emergency. The label is what supervisors see as the trigger on each case, so keep it short and readable.

Step 4: Write the escalation response message

In the Escalation Response Message card, fill in Response Message. The card explains: "This message goes to the user word for word when the agent hands the conversation to a person. Leave it empty and the agent writes its own closing message." It can be up to 500 characters.

For Atlas:

This needs a person to decide. I have passed your conversation to the Operations duty supervisor, who will continue here shortly.

Make it explicit that a person now has the conversation. Avoid vague wording like "please wait" without saying who was notified.

Step 5: Set the summary language

In the same card, choose Summary Language: the language your supervisors read the case summary in. For Atlas, keep English.

Choose a language your supervisors use daily, so summaries are actionable without translation.

Step 6: Set the phone country code

Still in the same card, choose Phone Country Code. It applies when someone types a local number, such as 0812 3456 7890: the agent turns it into an international number with this country code, so supervisors can contact the user (for example through a WhatsApp link). The default is Indonesia (+62), which is right for Kirana.

Pick the country where most of this agent's users are.

Step 7: Assign supervisors

In Supervisors, add the organization users who can claim and handle escalated conversations:

1. Click Add Supervisor.
2. In Search organization user, type a name and pick the person. For Atlas, pick Rina Wijaya.
3. Optionally, restrict the supervisor with Topic and Area: type a value and press Enter to add it. Leave both empty for ALL.
4. Confirm the row.

For your first setup, assign one supervisor with ALL topics and areas, as Kirana does with Rina Wijaya. Add topic and area scopes later, after the first successful test. In the supervisor queue, topics and areas work as filters to focus the list.

Step 8: Save

Click Save at the bottom of the page. A message confirms Escalation settings saved successfully.

If something is missing, a Save Failed message explains what. For example, with escalation enabled and no supervisor, it says At least one supervisor is required when escalation is enabled. Fix the card and save again.

Like other agent settings, escalation settings are saved as a draft first. The Preview uses them right away; live users get them only after you click Publish (see Preview and Publish Changes).

Step 9: Open the escalation queue

The Escalation Queue card at the bottom has two buttons:

• Open Preview Queue: opens the escalation queue for this agent in preview mode. Use it to test your escalation setup before publishing.
• Open Published Queue: opens the live escalation queue for your published agent. Supervisors handle real user escalations here.

Start with Open Preview Queue. Use the published queue once your draft flow passes end to end (trigger, claim, summary, and completion) and you have published.

Check the result

Before moving to real-time operations, verify:

• The Escalation switch shows Enabled
• At least one trigger condition exists
• The response message says what you want users to read (or is empty, if you prefer the agent to write its own)
• Phone Country Code matches the country of most of your users
• At least one supervisor is assigned
• Save succeeds without errors

Then test in the Preview chat. Click the reload button to start a fresh conversation, and send a message that matches your trigger condition. For Atlas:

I need an exception: can I approve a USD 1.2 million project myself? The Regional Director is on leave and the vendor deadline is tomorrow.

Atlas says it cannot approve an exception to the approval limits and asks for a name and phone number, so a person can follow up. Reply with the contact details, in this test Rina Wijaya, 0812 0000 0000. Atlas then confirms that it handed the urgent approval exception request to the Operations duty supervisor, who will continue in the same conversation.

Open the Preview Queue: a new Pending case with the trigger Decision outside the SOPs appears. The local number 0812 0000 0000 is stored as 6281200000000, thanks to the phone country code.

Next steps

• Next in the journey: Receive and Manage Escalations, to claim and complete the case you just created.
• Notify other tools: Send Escalation Events to a Webhook.