## Overview

By default, **the Robot that answers a conversation is the inbox's Robot**. That covers most cases and
needs no configuration: you connect a Robot to an inbox and it handles everything that arrives there.

But one inbox usually receives very different things. A sales WhatsApp number receives pre-sales
questions, support from existing customers and collections from overdue accounts — three conversations
with different tone, knowledge and tools. You can already route each one to a different **team**. Now
you can route each one to a different **Robot**.

When you set a Robot for a specific conversation, it **replaces** the inbox Robot on that conversation
— it is not added to it. Exactly one Robot answers, always.

## Prerequisites

- Maestro configured on the account (Settings → Maestro).
- At least two Robots, each with its own persona, instructions and tools.
- To switch from an automation, macro or FlowBuilder: administrator permission to edit those rules.

## Step by step

### From the conversation panel

1. Open the conversation and go to the **Maestro** side panel.
2. Click the **AI Robot on this conversation** block. The account's Robots are listed.
3. Pick the Robot. The switch applies from the contact's next message.
4. To undo it, click **Use the inbox default Robot again**. That option appears only when there is
   something to undo.

The block shows the current Robot and, when it was set for that conversation, the **Routed to this
conversation** tag — so you can tell "somebody chose this Robot here" apart from "this is simply the
inbox's Robot".

Directly below it, the **Autonomy mode** card lets an administrator choose Autopilot, Copilot or
Hybrid for this conversation only. The choice is independent from the Robot, persists until reset,
and can be removed with **Use Robot default**.

### From an automation

1. Settings → **Automations** → new rule.
2. Choose the trigger and conditions — for example, *when the conversation is created* **and** *the
   contact belongs to company X*, or *when the `collections` label is added*.
3. Under actions, choose **Set the AI Robot for this conversation** and select the Robot.

The conditions are the same ones every automation has: contact, company and conversation attributes,
labels, custom fields. That is where the flexibility lives — the Robot is decided by the condition you
wrote, not by a fixed rule of the system.

### From a macro

Same action, available in the macro action list. Useful when the decision belongs to the agent: they
open the conversation, recognise a collections case, and run the macro that switches the Robot.

### From the FlowBuilder

The action appears in the **Chatwoot action** node. Useful for flows that qualify the contact first and
only then decide which Robot takes over.

### From the API

```http
POST /api/v1/accounts/{account_id}/conversations/{conversation_id}/assignments
Content-Type: application/json

{ "assignee_id": 18, "assignee_type": "AgentBot" }
```

`assignee_id` is the Robot's id. Without `assignee_type`, the endpoint still assigns a **human agent** —
its historical behaviour is unchanged.

### From MCP

The `assign-a-conversation` tool accepts the same fields. It lives in the **Conversation Assignments**
toolset, which is enabled by default in Settings → MCP.

## Settings & options

| What | Where | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox Robot | Settings → Inboxes | The default for every conversation in it |
| Conversation Robot | Panel / automation / macro / flow / API / MCP | Replaces the default, on that conversation only |
| Back to default | Panel → *Use the inbox default Robot again* | Removes the choice and returns the conversation to the inbox |
| Conversation autonomy | Panel → *Autonomy mode* | Overrides the Robot's mode without changing the Robot |

## Use cases

- **Collections**: when the `overdue` label lands, the conversation moves to the collections Robot, with
  its own tone and tools.
- **Enterprise customer**: conversations from company X go to a Robot with strategic-account
  instructions.
- **Post-sale**: once the sale closes, a flow moves the conversation to the onboarding Robot.
- **Soft escalation**: instead of transferring straight to a human, move to a more specialised Robot
  first.

## Tips, limits & best practices

- **The switch applies from the next message onward.** A reply already being composed finishes with the
  previous Robot — switching mid-turn would be worse, producing a reply that is half of each.
- **The conversation loses its human assignee.** A conversation is handled by a person **or** by a
  Robot, never both. Setting a Robot removes the assigned agent.
- **Auto-assignment does not steal it back.** A conversation held by a Robot does not count as
  "unassigned" for round-robin.
- **A disabled Robot stays in the list**, marked *Off*. That is deliberate: a choice made while it was
  on must remain explicable after somebody turns it off. While disabled, the conversation falls back to
  the inbox Robot.
- **The service sequence starts over.** If the previous Robot had a step sequence, the step the
  conversation was on is discarded and the new Robot starts its own sequence from the beginning. The
  alternative is worse: the new Robot would open mid-script on a script that is not its own, or — more
  likely — the stored step would not exist in its sequence and the conversation would end up with no
  sequence at all, with no error anywhere.
- **Pausing does not depend on a Robot being on this inbox.** Pausing is about the **conversation**:
  while it is active the button is available even when the panel says *No Robot on this inbox*. That
  matters in exactly the case where it is needed most — an inbox that keeps delivering to Maestro with
  no Robot bound. There the panel also shows the warning **"Inbox delivering with no Robot bound"**,
  and the real fix is to tick the inbox in the Robot's inbox list (or remove the bot from the inbox).
- **The conversation history is preserved.** The summary of what the contact already said still
  applies: the new Robot does not re-ask what has already been answered.

## Troubleshooting

**The panel says "No Robot on this inbox" but something is answering.**
That is the divergence the **"Inbox delivering with no Robot bound"** warning describes: the inbox
keeps delivering to Maestro, but no Robot is bound to it. Pause the conversation (the button is
available) and then tick the inbox in the Robot's inbox list — or remove the bot from the inbox in
Settings → Inboxes.

**I switched the Robot and nothing changed.**
Check that the conversation is not paused (the panel shows *Paused*) and that no FlowBuilder flow holds
priority over it. In both cases no Robot answers, whichever one is set.

**The Robot I want is not in the automation list.**
The list holds the account's Robots. If you just created one, reload the automations screen.

**The action ran but the conversation still has the old Robot.**
Check that the chosen Robot has a webhook URL configured. A Robot with no URL receives no messages at
all — which is why the action refuses the switch instead of leaving the conversation without any AI.

**It switched on its own.**
Look for the entry on the conversation timeline: every Robot switch is recorded there, with who did it.
If it names an automation, one of your rules matched its conditions.

## See also

- [Autonomy and human approval](/hc/ajuda/articles/maestro-brain-autonomia-e-aprovacao-humana-en)
- [Actions per reply and closing](/hc/ajuda/articles/maestro-brain-acoes-por-resposta-e-encerramento-en)