Troubleshooting your AI agent: not replying, not running actions, or stuck in a loop

When an AI agent goes quiet, doesn't run the action you described in the prompt, or seems to repeat the same reply over and over, it's almost always one of these causes. Check them in order.

1. The agent doesn't reply at all

• Agent inactive: in the agent editor's Identity tab, confirm the status toggle is on.
• Outside active hours: if you set an Active hours window ("Business hours only") or an advanced schedule under Behavior, the bot stays silent outside those windows on purpose, so a human picks it up.
• Daily budget exhausted: if the agent has a daily token cap and hits it, it stops replying and the conversation is handed to a human automatically.
• Plan cap reached: every plan has a monthly "AI tokens" allowance. If your organization used it all, the system stops calling the model and escalates the conversation instead of leaving the customer unanswered — check usage under Settings → Billing.
• Channel set to "never": if the channel's AI routing strategy is "never", that channel simply never triggers the bot.

2. The agent replies but doesn't run the expected action

• The tool is toggled off for that agent: every tool (close conversation, assign, etc.) has its own switch under the agent's Custom actions/editor. If it's off, the model never even sees it as available, no matter what the prompt says.
• The tool isn't included in your plan: some tools (book meeting, trigger workflow, HTTP actions) require the Crece plan or above; voice call handling (handle_call) requires Escala.
• The prompt doesn't say WHEN to use it: the model only calls a tool when the system prompt explicitly describes the trigger condition (e.g. "if the customer confirms it's resolved, close the conversation").
• Malformed parameters: if a tool needs an exact value (e.g. a lifecycle stage slug or a numeric workflow_id) and the model doesn't have it, the call fails silently for the customer but shows up in the Sandbox trace/log.

3. The agent gets stuck in a loop / repeats the same reply

• Use the editor's Sandbox (live tester) to replay the conversation and inspect the full turn-by-turn trace.
• Turn on the anti-loop lock: under the Behavior tab, "Escalate to a human after N replies without resolving" cuts the cycle automatically after N replies in a row without a resolution (see the dedicated article).
• Check the confidence threshold (auto_handoff_confidence_threshold): if it's set too low, the model may keep replying even when it isn't confident.
• If the customer sends several messages in quick succession, anti-spam (Behavior → Anti-spam) batches them into a single reply — if it's off, you may see duplicated or crossed replies.

Example

A Sales agent never closed conversations even when the customer said "thanks, all good". Checking the Actions tab, close_conversation was toggled off for that agent — flipping it on (the prompt already had the instruction) fixed it immediately.

Tips

• Always test changes in the Sandbox before assuming "the model got it wrong" — most cases are configuration, not the model.
• If the issue persists after checking all of the above, contact support with the affected conversation ID.