Open original guide with interactive examples →
The big picture #
The Agent Command Center is the single place you configure the building blocks of routing — your agents, your Teams, the assignment strategies, and tag matching. It does not decide everything on its own; it’s the shared config that two assignment paths both draw from.
Config hub
Agent Command Center — agents · Teams · strategies · tag matching · visibility
↓ feeds both ↓
Path A · automatic
Command Center engine
Fires on its 4 built-in moments. No flow needed.
Path B · a flow
“Assign to Agent” action
Fires whenever its trigger runs — any moment you choose.
One-line mental model Configure agents & Teams once in the Command Center → then either let the engine handle the standard moments, or use a flow for everything else (field changes, exclusive handoffs, specific timing).
The two assignment paths #
Path A
Command Center engine
Self-contained. Turn on Auto-Assign, pick a Strategy, enable the Triggers you want. No flow.
Fires on its 4 built-in moments:
- New contact is created
- Contact sends first inbound message
- Unassigned conversation gets a reply
- Agent responds (claim)
Path B
A flow’s “Assign to Agent” action
A flow with an Assign-to-Agent node, triggered however you like — manual send or a trigger.
Use it for moments the engine can’t:
- Lead status changed (Field Change trigger)
- Appointment booked · link clicked
- Manually sending a flow to a contact
- Exclusive handoff (this toggle is flow-only)
The key difference The engine only fires on its 4 built-in moments. There is no “field changed” engine trigger — so a lead-status-driven handoff must use Path B (a flow + a Field-Change trigger). And the Replace previous owner (exclusive) toggle exists only on Path B.
Which path do I need? #
Pick when you want assignment to fire — the guide tells you which path handles it.
When should the contact get assigned?
Pick a moment above…
The six strategies #
A strategy decides which agent gets the contact. Both paths use these. Click to explore.
Pick a strategy…
Co-assign vs Exclusive handoff #
By default, assigning a contact adds the new agent alongside the current owners (co-assignment). Turn on Replace previous owner (exclusive) and the new assignment removes all other agents. Try it 👇
Replace previous owner (exclusive) — OFF (co-assign)
Acme Lead lead_status: Lead
Run “Assign to Agent → Team C” Reset
Safety built in Exclusive only removes others when the assignment actually succeeds. If the action matches nothing (e.g. Team Based with no matching team + fallback “leave unassigned”), nothing is removed — it never strips a contact and leaves it orphaned. And if it re-picks an agent who’s already an owner, that agent stays and the others go.
Why was this contact assigned? #
Open Live Dashboard → Recent Assignments and read the Source column — it tells you which system did it. Click a row to decode it.
Recent assignments — click a row
Click a row above…
“self-assigned” can be misleading An assignment shows as “self-assigned” only when a human actually claims it. Flow/engine assignments are now labeled “Auto-assigned … via flow / via
Strict Owner visibility — make the handoff complete #
“Removed” means the agent is no longer an owner. To make them actually lose sight of the contact, set Access & Routing → Strict owner visibility. Under the default Shared visibility, agents can still view contacts they don’t own.
| Visibility | After an exclusive handoff, can the removed agent still see the contact? |
|---|---|
| Shared (default) | Yes — they’re no longer the owner, but can still view it. |
| Strict owner | No — they only see contacts assigned to them, so it disappears for them. ✅ |
The complete department handoff Flow “Assign to Agent” + exclusive ON + Strict owner visibility = old agent out, new agent in, and the old agent can no longer see it.
Channel Automation · Help · Last updated 2026-06-25. Questions? Ask your account manager, or open Help Docs inside the app — the same guidance lives there.