Conversation triage & routing
Triage decides which mailbox a new conversation belongs in. Helpin supports two mechanisms — deterministic rules, and AI intent routing — evaluated in that order. This page covers both, plus what happens to the customer's view.
See also: Conversation routing settings and Inboxes / routing settings for the settings reference.
The two layers
Rule-based triage — manual rules you define: "if the subject contains invoice, move to Billing." Rules are evaluated first and win when they match.
AI routing — when no rule matches and routing is enabled, an AI classifier reads the conversation and picks the best inbox based on each inbox's routing prompt and description. AI routing applies a confidence threshold: below it, the conversation stays put.
Automated routing settings
In Settings → Inboxes & Routing → Routing & Assignment, the Automated routing section controls the whole pipeline:
Enable routing — master switch for automated triage.
Channels — choose which sources get routed: Widget, Email, and/or Internal & API conversations.
AI routing confidence — a slider that balances precision vs. automation. Higher values route fewer, more confident conversations; lower values route more aggressively.
Rerun on meaning change — when a later message changes what the conversation is about, re-evaluate routing.
Fallback behavior — what happens when nothing matches with confidence: keep the conversation in the shared inbox (default) or move it to a designated default inbox.
Daily budget — a cap on AI triage evaluations per day to bound AI usage.
Skip spam — do not spend routing effort on conversations already marked spam.
Deduplicate first message — avoid re-triaging identical first messages.
Manual triage rules
Each rule has:
Name and priority — lower numbers evaluate first.
Channels — widget, email, internal/API, or all.
Conditions — match on subject or message phrase contains, email domain equals, or sender email contains, combined with all/any logic.
Target mailbox — where matching conversations go.
Rules run in priority order; the first match wins. If multiple rules match, higher priority (lower number) determines the outcome. Rules can be activated or deactivated individually.
What the customer sees
Routing is invisible to customers in most cases:
For chat conversations, the thread simply appears in the chosen inbox; the customer experience does not change.
For email conversations, replies come from the target inbox's sender address, so replies continue the same thread.
If a conversation moves after the customer replied, a routing system event (for example "moved to Billing") is added to the thread so agents see the history.
Suggested vs. auto-moved
Triage results carry one of several statuses:
Suggested — the classifier (or a rule) proposes a mailbox, surfaced in the conversation for a human to accept.
Auto-moved — the conversation was moved automatically (rule match, or AI above the confidence threshold).
Dismissed — a human rejected the suggestion; it is remembered so it is not re-proposed for the same conversation.
Overridden — a human moved the conversation somewhere else; the override wins over future suggestions.
Feedback on suggestions (accept, dismiss, correct) is stored, improving future routing quality.
Where to see it
Each conversation's Details panel shows its current mailbox and any triage status.
The thread shows system events like "moved to Billing" inline.
Recommendations
Start with a handful of high-precision rules for your loudest categories (refunds, outages, security).
Turn on AI routing for everything else; set the confidence slider at a moderate value and adjust after a week.
Use routing prompts that describe categories, not procedures — the AI routes on intent.
Review dismissed suggestions occasionally: they often reveal a missing inbox or a confusing routing prompt.
Related pages
Conversation routing settings — settings reference for automated routing
Inboxes / routing settings — settings reference for inboxes
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