Inbox handoff

What Inbox handoff does

The Inbox handoff step routes a conversation into the Shared Inbox so a human can take over. In operational terms, handoff is the boundary between:

• automation (workflow execution)
• human ownership (assignment, departments, tags, resolution in Shared Inbox)

Some project settings only matter when:

• workflow routing is enabled
• the default workflow is enabled
• the default workflow contains an Inbox handoff node

Handoff design principles

• Escalate with context: aim to hand off with enough customer intent captured so an agent can resolve quickly.
• Minimize ambiguous states: if a conversation is handed off, avoid continuing to send automated messages that compete with human replies.
• Operationalize assignment: once visible in Shared Inbox, use assignment and departments to keep concurrency controlled and routing predictable.

Departments and routing intent

While departments are configured under Project, workflows are where you typically encode routing intent (e.g. which lane a request belongs to) and then hand that request off into Shared Inbox for execution.

In practice:

• workflows determine who should handle this (Sales vs Support vs Billing)
• Shared Inbox determines who is handling it right now (the current assignee)

See also:

• Shared Inbox section
• Hours & availability behavior