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Diagnostic Approach

When issues arise in production, work through this process:
  1. Identify the symptom — Calls failing? Agent giving wrong answers? No calls at all?
  2. Check scope — All calls or a specific subset? When did it start?
  3. Review recent changes — Did you update your prompt, knowledge, voice settings, or integrations?
  4. Check conversations — Open the Conversations list, filter for failed or problematic calls, and review the timeline
  5. Test — Use Test Agent in the agent editor to reproduce the issue
  6. Fix and verify — Make the smallest change that resolves the issue, then test again

Common Issues

Calls Not Coming Through

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.
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.
Check the AI Agents list. If your agent shows an “Inactive” badge, it will not handle calls. Activate it to resume.

Agent Responds Slowly

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.
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.
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

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
If the agent frequently misunderstands specific words:
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

  • 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
  • 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)
  • 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
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

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
  • 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
  • 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

  • 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
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
Include in your request:
  • 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