Agent
An agent is a configured conversational worker: instructions describing its job, a voice, a set of languages, and a list of actions it may take. One agent typically owns one phone line. Agents are configuration, not code. Changing what an agent does usually means changing its instructions rather than deploying anything.Call
A call is one conversation from answer to hangup. It carries the audio, the running transcript, any actions the agent took, and the summary produced at the end. Calls are the unit you review, measure, and bill against. When something goes wrong, the call record is where you look.Turn
A turn is one exchange — the caller speaks, the agent responds. Calls are sequences of turns, and most quality problems are turn-level: the agent misheard one thing, or answered a question the caller didn’t ask.Reading transcripts turn by turn is the single most effective debugging technique available to you. Nearly every “the agent is bad” report resolves to two or three specific turns.
Action
An action is something the agent does in the world rather than in the conversation — creating a ticket, looking up an order, updating a record. Actions are what separate a useful agent from a recording. An agent with no actions can only talk. See Actions.Barge-in
Barge-in is the caller interrupting the agent mid-sentence. Real conversations are full of it, and an agent that ignores interruptions feels robotic and frustrating within about two turns. Voho agents stop speaking when the caller starts. This matters most on long confirmations — the caller who already knows their order number will talk over you every time.How they fit together
1
A call arrives
The agent answers and greets the caller in its configured language.
2
Turns accumulate
Caller and agent exchange turns. The agent tracks what has been established so far.
3
Actions fire
When the agent has what it needs, it takes an action — logging the ticket, fetching the record.
4
The call closes
The agent confirms, hangs up, and a transcript and summary are written to the call record.
Writing instructions
The highest-leverage thing you control.
Actions
Give the agent something to do.