Channel Routing

When an inbound message arrives on any supported channel (SMS, WhatsApp, or Email), Loquent uses a two-tier lookup to find which text agent should handle it. Understanding this hierarchy is key to configuring agents correctly.

Resolution Order

Inbound message on channel CH from contact C
  │
  ├─ 1. Contact assignment: contact_text_agent
  │       WHERE contact_id = C AND channel = CH
  │       → Found: use this agent + its auto_reply setting
  │
  └─ 2. Phone-level default: phone_number.text_agent_id
          WHERE phone_number.id = P
          → Found: use this agent + phone_number.text_agent_auto_reply
          → Not found: skip — no suggestions generated

The same resolution logic applies to SMS, WhatsApp, and Email. The phone-level default fallback only applies to phone-based channels (SMS, WhatsApp) — Email contacts require an explicit contact assignment.

A contact assignment always wins over the phone default. The phone-level agent only applies when no explicit assignment exists for that contact + channel pair.

Phone-Level Default Agent

Each phone number can have a text agent assigned as its org-wide default for inbound SMS. This is set in the Phone Details view under Text Agent.

• Assign: PUT /api/phones/{id} with text_agent_id set
• Auto-reply: the text_agent_auto_reply toggle on the phone record controls whether the agent sends replies automatically for all contacts without an explicit assignment
• Clear: PUT /api/phones/{id} with text_agent_id: null

See Phone for full details on the phone-level assignment UI and API.

Contact Assignments

Explicit per-contact assignments override the default and unlock auto-reply.

Assigning an agent to a contact

Via the UI: Open a contact’s detail page → sidebar → Text Agents section. Each channel (SMS, WhatsApp, Email) has a dropdown:

• Select an agent → creates/replaces the assignment for that channel
• Select None → removes the assignment, falling back to the org default
• When no explicit assignment exists, the dropdown shows the org default name in italics

Via API:

POST /api/contacts/{contact_id}/text-agents
Body: {
    text_agent_id: "...",
    channel: "sms",
    auto_reply: false
}

This is an upsert — submitting a new assignment for an existing (contact, channel) pair replaces it atomically (delete + insert in a transaction).

Removing an assignment

DELETE /api/contacts/{contact_id}/text-agents/{channel}

Listing a contact’s assignments

GET /api/contacts/{contact_id}/text-agents

Returns all assignments for the contact across all channels.

Data Model

-- Contact assignment (one per contact + channel)
CREATE TABLE contact_text_agent (
    id               UUID PRIMARY KEY,
    organization_id  UUID NOT NULL,
    contact_id       UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES contact(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    text_agent_id    UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES text_agent(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    channel          TEXT NOT NULL,     -- "sms" | "whatsapp" | "email"
    auto_reply       BOOLEAN NOT NULL DEFAULT false,
    created_at       TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,
    UNIQUE (contact_id, channel)
);

-- Org default per channel (one per org + channel)
CREATE TABLE text_agent_default_channel (
    id               UUID PRIMARY KEY,
    organization_id  UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES organization(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    channel          TEXT NOT NULL,     -- "sms" | "whatsapp" | "email"
    text_agent_id    UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES text_agent(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
    created_at       TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,
    UNIQUE (organization_id, channel)
);

Auto-Reply

Auto-reply sends the highest-confidence suggestion automatically when a message arrives.

Enabling auto-reply:

Auto-reply can be enabled at two levels:

• Contact assignment — toggle in the contact sidebar, or auto_reply: true in the upsert API. Applies only to that specific contact.
• Phone number — text_agent_auto_reply on the phone record. Applies to all contacts handled by the phone-level default (i.e. those without an explicit contact assignment).

How it behaves:

Condition	Result
auto_reply = false	Suggestions generated and saved; human selects from the messaging view
auto_reply = true, confidence ≥ threshold	Best suggestion sent automatically; text_agent_suggestion.auto_sent_body set
auto_reply = true, confidence < threshold	Best suggestion still sent; a warning alert note is added to the contact record
No agent configured	Nothing — message sits in the inbox

The threshold is configured per agent (text_agent.confidence_threshold, default 0.7). See Configuration for how to tune it.

Caution

Auto-reply below the confidence threshold does not block sending — it just adds an audit note. If you want to strictly prevent low-confidence auto-replies, set the threshold to 1.0 or keep auto-reply disabled.

Permissions

Action	Permission Required
Set default channel	TextAgent:Collection:Create
Remove default channel	TextAgent:Instance:Update
Assign agent to contact	TextAgent:Instance:Update
Remove contact assignment	TextAgent:Instance:Update
List contact assignments	(no ABAC check — session org-scoped)

Module Structure

src/mods/text_agent/
├── api/
│   ├── get_contact_text_agents_api.rs          # GET  /api/contacts/{id}/text-agents
│   ├── upsert_contact_text_agent_api.rs        # POST /api/contacts/{id}/text-agents
│   ├── delete_contact_text_agent_api.rs        # DELETE /api/contacts/{id}/text-agents/{ch}
│   ├── get_text_agent_default_channels_api.rs  # GET  /api/text-agents/defaults
│   ├── set_text_agent_default_channel_api.rs   # POST /api/text-agents/defaults
│   └── delete_text_agent_default_channel_api.rs # DELETE /api/text-agents/defaults/{ch}
├── types/
│   ├── contact_text_agent_type.rs
│   ├── contact_text_agent_data_type.rs
│   ├── text_agent_default_channel_type.rs
│   └── text_agent_default_channel_data_type.rs
└── components/
    └── contact_text_agent_section_component.rs  # Contact sidebar UI