What to do when your agent couldn't reply

Sometimes your agent can't answer a message: the model fails, a tool fails, or there's no balance left. When that happens, the Inbox marks the conversation, tells you why and lets you fix it, so no customer is left waiting.

Step 1: Find the conversations that failed

In the Inbox, click the Failed tab. You'll see only the conversations your agent couldn't answer. If the list says No conversations found, there's nothing to fix.

Step 2: Read why it failed

Open the conversation. A notice shows the cause, how long ago it happened and whether the customer is still waiting:

• The customer received nothing and is still waiting. Answer this one first.

• The customer knows something happened and can retry the request. The agent already asked the customer to send their message or file again, so it's less urgent.

What to do depends on the cause:

• The model failed, it took too long or The agent couldn't reply: retry the agent (Step 3).

• A tool failed: check the HTTP tool or the integration the agent uses, then retry.

• Not enough balance: click Top up balance. Retrying won't help until the balance is topped up.

• It couldn't read the attachment: the agent asks the customer to resend the file.

• The agent's reply couldn't be delivered: retrying resends the reply the agent already wrote.

• This conversation is controlled by another app: see the common problem related to Instagram below.

Step 3: Retry the agent

Click Retry agent. The agent tries again in the background and the result appears in the conversation:

• The agent replied to the customer. The failure mark goes away.

• The agent failed again. You can retry once more. The notice shows how many retries you've used, for example 1 of 2 retries used.

You can retry up to 2 times for each failure. After that, answer the customer yourself.

Step 4: Answer the customer yourself

If retrying doesn't work, or you'd rather answer directly, click Take over and write to the customer. When you reply, the failure mark goes away. See How to take over a conversation and reply manually.

Technical reference

• The mark clears on its own: if the customer writes again and the agent answers, the failure mark goes away without you doing anything.

• Low balance email: when your balance drops below $1.00, you receive an email so you can top up before your agents stop.

• In a client's subaccount: the notice may say Contact your agency to get the agent running again. The agency fixes the cause, for example by adding balance.

• WhatsApp Business: if Meta blocks the messages your agent sends, the channel card shows a warning with what to do in Meta, for example getting your display name approved.

Common problems

Done

You now know how to find and fix the conversations your agent couldn't answer. Check the Failed tab often so no customer is left waiting.