Routing and automation overview
Routing in Ochre turns inbound conversations into the right assignment, priority, and response automatically. This is the map of how the pieces fit.
Routing in Ochre is the system that decides what happens to a conversation the moment it arrives. Who picks it up. What priority it lands at. What tags get attached. What the SLA clock looks like.
This page is the map. Each piece below has its own deep-dive.
The shape of automation in Ochre
Five moving parts:
- Routing rules — match a condition (channel, subject, from-domain, priority, first message, or a custom field) and apply one action (assign, set priority, or add a tag).
- SLA policies — a single workspace-wide first-response target, configured at Settings → Routing. A cron emits a breach notification when a conversation hasn't been replied to within the window.
- Office hours — a per-day schedule plus a business-hours-only toggle that pauses the SLA clock outside of working hours.
- Auto-replies — a single workspace email template that sends once on the first inbound when it's enabled.
- Auto-close — a cron that closes stale conversations after N days of no reply and fires a CSAT survey.
Each one is independently togglable. You can run with just routing rules and ignore the rest until you need them.
What routing rules do
A routing rule is a condition plus an action. Conditions look at things you can see on the conversation: the channel, the sender's email domain, words in the subject, the current priority, whether this is the first message, or the value of a custom field.
Actions do exactly three things: assign (to a teammate or round-robin), set priority, or add a tag.
Rules evaluate top to bottom on every newly-ingested conversation. The first rule whose condition matches wins, its action runs, and evaluation stops. Specific rules go on top, broad rules on the bottom.
For the full breakdown, see Routing rules.
What the SLA layer does
One first-response target, in minutes. When a conversation has no first reply within that window, Ochre emits a sla_breach notification to the assignee, the org owners, and admins. There is no per-priority target and no "warning at 75%" event in v1.
See SLA policies.
Office hours
A per-day schedule plus a business-hours-only toggle, both at Settings → Routing. When the toggle is on, the SLA clock pauses outside business hours. See Office hours.
Auto-replies
An auto-reply is a single workspace-wide email template. When enabled, it sends once on the first inbound message of a new email conversation. It's off by default and is suppressed when the AI is auto-sending in that channel. See Auto-replies.
Auto-close
A daily cron that closes conversations idle longer than the configured window. Default is 7 days. The closing inserts a system note and triggers a CSAT survey. If the customer replies later, the conversation reopens. See Auto-close.
Email blocklist
Separate from routing but worth knowing about: senders or domains on the email blocklist are dropped at the inbound webhook before any rule runs. Block from the customers page, or via the add_to_blocklist RPC. See Email blocklist.
A reasonable starting setup
If you're configuring routing for the first time, this takes about 15 minutes:
- Set the first-response SLA to 60 minutes (default), business-hours-only on.
- Add two rules:
- From-domain matches your VIP list → set priority urgent. - First message in thread → assign round-robin (catch-all).
- Turn on auto-close at 7 days idle.
Layer in more rules as patterns emerge.
How automation interacts with the AI
Routing applies before the AI drafts anything. The AI's classification feeds priority, which routing rules can match on. If autopilot is enabled, the AI sends after routing has run.
Where to go from here
- New to Ochre? Pair this with Inbox overview.
- Setting up rules now? Jump to Routing rules.
- Worried about response times? Start with SLA policies.
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