Rules

Rules let you automate actions in conversations, such as assigning the conversation to a specific AI agent or tagging a conversation.

Rules automate your workflows, so your team works efficiently and your customers get a better experience.

An environment can have one or more rules. The rule list and the rule editor are on the same page. When you open or create a rule, the editor opens in a panel next to the list.

To create a rule:

1. Go to Deploy → Rules and select Create. The Create rule panel opens.
2. Enter a Name and, optionally, a Description. Then select Continue.
3. Set the Trigger, the Conditions (optional) and the Actions of the rule.
4. Select Done.

Moveo creates the rule as active, adds it to the list and shows Rule created successfully.

Customize your rule

Create the trigger

In the Trigger field, set the triggers that start the rule. If any of the selected triggers is true, the rule runs. The available triggers are:

Trigger	API value	When the rule runs
Customer starts conversation	first_message	On the first message of a new conversation, before the AI agent replies
Customer responds to a message	any_user_message	On every customer message, before the AI agent replies
AI agent has replied	post_message	After the AI agent has sent its reply

The API value is the trigger in the rules API and in the moveo_create_rule tool of the Moveo MCP server. The MCP resource moveo://schemas/rule-condition-operators lists the triggers, conditions, and actions. The filter of the rule list uses other words for the same triggers: Starting a conversation, Responding to a message, and After the AI agent replies.

The first two triggers evaluate the rule before the message reaches the AI agent, so the conditions see the conversation as the message arrives. AI agent has replied evaluates the rule after the AI agent has answered, against the conversation state the AI agent returned in that turn. Use this trigger when a rule needs to react to something the AI agent did while replying, such as adding a tag as it hands over the conversation. A rule that runs before the reply cannot see that tag, so it never matches. See Route a handover to a department for a complete example.

Rules that run after the AI agent replies

Keep the following in mind before you create a rule with the AI agent has replied trigger, or move an existing rule to it:

• The trigger is the opt-in. A rule runs after the reply only if it carries this trigger. An existing rule with Customer responds to a message does not start running after the reply.
• Replace the trigger instead of adding it. A rule that has both Customer responds to a message and AI agent has replied runs twice in every turn, once before the reply and once after it. If the rule only routes a handover, replace its trigger. If the rule also does other things, leave it unchanged and create a separate rule with the new trigger.
• Conditions see the conversation after the handover. When the AI agent hands over, it has already left the conversation by the time the rule runs. A condition such as AI agent assigned is known matches before the reply but not after it. Review any Agent assigned and AI agent assigned conditions before you move a rule to this trigger.
• Actions apply to the next message, not to the reply that the AI agent sent. The customer already has the reply when the rule runs. Assign AI agent, Assign knowledge base and Apply bundle change how Moveo handles the next customer message. Assign department and Close conversation take effect immediately.
• The rule cannot undo a handover. Moveo ignores Assign AI agent after the handover, so a rule with this trigger cannot return a conversation to the AI agent after a human agent took it over.
• It runs only after an AI agent reply. The trigger does not fire when an agent transfers a conversation manually, for a handover through the API, for campaign messages, or in the AI agent test chat and simulations. It does fire when the AI agent sends an inactivity reminder, because the reminder is a reply. A rule that closes the conversation on this trigger also closes it after a reminder.

Apply the condition

A condition is optional. A rule without a condition evaluates as true and triggers the action. Available conditions include:

• Availability

  • Business hours

• User

  • Name
  • Email
  • Phone
  • Language
  • Timezone
  • Country
  • City
  • Browser
  • Platform

• Conversation

  • Channel
  • Message content
  • Tags
  • Customer/referral URL
  • Agent assigned
  • AI agent assigned
  • Integration

Combine these conditions with and/or statements.

Then

Finally, select the actions that run when the conditions match, such as assigning an AI agent to answer the message or tagging the conversation.

List of actions:

• Add tag
• Assign AI agent
• Assign knowledge base
• Close conversation
• Apply bundle
• Assign department

Moveo creates each rule as active. A rule that you deactivate or duplicate stays inactive until you activate it.

See the AI agent routing guide for examples of assigning different AI agents based on tags and language.

Route a handover to a department

When the AI agent hands over a conversation, it can add a tag that says which team should take it. Because the AI agent adds the tag while it replies, the rule that reads the tag must use the AI agent has replied trigger. A rule with Customer responds to a message runs before the reply, does not see the tag, and leaves the conversation unassigned.

1. In the dialog that hands over the conversation, add a tag action next to the handover action. For example: handover-sales.
2. Go to Deploy → Rules and select Create.
3. Enter a name for the rule and select Continue.
4. Set the Trigger field to AI agent has replied.
5. Set the Conditions (optional) field to Tag is handover-sales.
6. Set the Actions field to Assign department and select the department. For example: Sales.
7. Select Done.

The rule assigns the department as soon as the AI agent hands over, and the department distributes the conversation to its agents according to its assignment method.

warning

Rules do not run in the AI agent test chat or in simulations. Test this routing in a real conversation.

Manage your rules

Each rule in the list shows its name and description, and when it last ran. A rule that never ran shows Not used yet. Inactive rules appear muted. Hover over a rule to see its name, description and actions.

Select a rule to open it in the Edit rule panel next to the list. The Save button is available after you change a field. If you close the panel or open another rule with unsaved changes, Moveo shows a confirmation message first.

The ⋮ menu of each rule has these options:

• Activate or Deactivate: Turns the rule on or off.
• Edit…: Opens the rule in the Edit rule panel.
• Rename…: Opens the panel to change the name and the description.
• Duplicate: Creates a copy of the rule with the same triggers, conditions and actions. The copy gets a numbered name, for example Name (1). Moveo adds the copy as inactive at the end of the list.
• Delete…: Deletes the rule.
• Send to top or Send to bottom: Moves the rule to the first or the last position.

Reorder your rules

Reorder rules by priority. Drag a rule by the icon at the start of the tile and drop it in the position that you want.

Put the highest-priority rule at the top and the lowest-priority rule at the bottom. In this video, the Outside business hours rule moves from the third position to the second, so Moveo checks it before the Sales handovers rule.

Next steps

• AI agent routing
• Different language, different AI agent
• Context bundles
• Business hours