Diagnostic Approach
When issues arise in production, work through this process:- Identify the symptom — Calls failing? Agent giving wrong answers? No calls at all?
- Check scope — All calls or a specific subset? When did it start?
- Review recent changes — Did you update your prompt, knowledge, voice settings, or integrations?
- Check conversations — Open the Conversations list, filter for failed or problematic calls, and review the timeline
- Test — Use Test Agent in the agent editor to reproduce the issue
- Fix and verify — Make the smallest change that resolves the issue, then test again
Common Issues
Calls Not Coming Through
Phone number not assigned to an agent
Phone number not assigned to an agent
Go to Telephony → Phone Numbers and confirm the number is routed to the correct agent. For direct routing, check the Routing or Inbound Agent setting on the number. For scheduled routing, confirm the right fallback agent and routing rules are in place.
Number still provisioning
Number still provisioning
Newly purchased numbers can take up to 10 minutes to become active. Check the number status in your telephony settings — if it’s still showing as “Pending”, wait for provisioning to complete.
Agent is inactive
Agent is inactive
Check the AI Agents list. If your agent shows an “Inactive” badge, it will not handle calls. Activate it to resume.
Agent Responds Slowly
Slow agent responses
Slow agent responses
Some models are slower than others. If your agent is using a larger model (e.g., GPT-4.1), try switching to a faster model like GPT-4.1 Mini in AI Model settings. You can check per-message response time in the conversation detail timeline.
Large knowledge base in Context mode
Large knowledge base in Context mode
If you have assigned a large knowledge base using Context mode, that content is loaded into every conversation. Reserve Context mode for short, must-always-know content and move larger sources to RAG mode to improve response times.
Slow custom integrations
Slow custom integrations
If your agent calls custom integrations and those integrations are slow to respond, the agent will wait. Check the conversation timeline for tool events and their duration. Consider adding timeout limits or fallback responses in your integration configuration.
Poor Call Quality
Audio is choppy or robotic
Audio is choppy or robotic
This is usually a network issue on the caller’s side. If it happens consistently:
- Check the voice provider — try a different provider to rule out voice-generation issues
- For web calls, ensure the caller has a stable internet connection
- For Connect Your Own phone setups, verify your SIP/trunk configuration and network quality
Transcription errors (wrong words)
Transcription errors (wrong words)
If the agent frequently misunderstands specific words:
- Add those terms to Keyword Boosting (Deepgram) or Phrase List (Azure Speech) in Transcriber settings
- Use Custom Pronunciations for brand names or technical terms
- Try a different transcription provider — Deepgram works well for accents, Azure for technical vocabulary
Agent interrupts too often
Agent interrupts too often
Adjust Voice Activity Detection settings:
- Switch Response Timing to a more patient preset
- In Expert Mode, increase Silence before responding
- In Expert Mode, increase Speech duration to trigger interrupt
Agent Gives Wrong Answers
Agent does not follow prompt
Agent does not follow prompt
- Review your agent prompt — is it specific enough? Vague prompts lead to inconsistent behavior.
- Check for conflicting rules (e.g., “be concise” vs. “explain in detail”)
- Lower the Response Style slider toward “Consistent” in AI Model settings to reduce creative responses
- See the Prompt Engineering Guide for effective prompting techniques
Agent makes up information (hallucination)
Agent makes up information (hallucination)
- Add explicit guardrails to your agent prompt: tell the agent to say “I don’t have that information” rather than guessing
- Add missing information to your knowledge base
- Move critical knowledge to Context mode so it’s always available
- Lower the Response Style slider toward “Consistent”
- Consider using a more capable model (e.g., GPT-4.1 instead of GPT-4.1 Mini)
Agent does not use knowledge base content
Agent does not use knowledge base content
- Verify knowledge is assigned in the Knowledge tab
- Check that all items show green (ready to use)
- If items show as failed, click Reindex to retry
- Make sure the knowledge content uses the same language and terminology your callers use
- For critical information, switch from RAG to Context mode
Agent gets stuck in loops
Agent gets stuck in loops
If the agent keeps repeating the same question:
- Add guidance to your agent prompt for handling unclear responses (e.g., “If the caller’s answer is unclear after two attempts, offer to transfer them”)
- Check inactivity settings — set a conversation timeout to prevent indefinitely long calls
- Review the conversation transcript to identify what’s causing the loop
Integration and Tool Failures
Custom action fails
Custom action fails
Open the conversation detail and look for tool call events in the timeline. These show the tool status and any error messages.Common causes:
- Authentication error — Check that your API key or credentials are correct in the tool configuration
- Wrong endpoint URL — Verify the URL is correct and accessible
- Timeout — Your API took too long to respond. Increase the timeout or optimize the API
- Request format — Ensure the request body matches what your API expects
Call transfer fails
Call transfer fails
- Verify the transfer destination number is correct and reachable (try calling it manually)
- Check that the number is in the correct format
- Review transfer settings — ensure ring duration and hold options are configured
- Check the conversation timeline for transfer-related events and error details
Calendar booking fails
Calendar booking fails
- Verify your Cal.com integration is connected and the API key is valid
- Check that the calendar has available slots
- Review the booking tool configuration for correct event type settings
Campaign-Specific Issues
Campaign not placing calls
Campaign not placing calls
- Check that the campaign is in Active status
- Verify business hours — calls are only placed during configured hours
- Ensure there are contacts remaining in the campaign that haven’t been called
- Check that a phone number is assigned to the campaign’s agent
High voicemail rate
High voicemail rate
If most calls go to voicemail:
- Review the campaign Dashboard and Analytics tabs to find times when people actually pick up
- Adjust business hours to focus on high-answer-rate windows
- Enable voicemail handling so your agent responds appropriately when it detects a voicemail
When to Contact Support
Contact support@itellico.ai when:- Platform-wide issues affecting all agents or calls
- Phone number provisioning stuck for more than 30 minutes
- SIP trunk connectivity problems after verifying your configuration
- Billing discrepancies or unexpected charges
- Issues you can’t resolve after following the troubleshooting steps above
- Agent name and affected conversation IDs (copy from conversation detail)
- What you’ve already tried
- When the issue started
- How many calls or users are affected
Next Steps
Production Checklist
Keep your agents running smoothly
Test Your Agent
Test changes before deploying to production