Setting the rules your agents work within

Before agents contact people at volume, decide the rules they work within. This guide walks through the settings that matter, in the order to set them. All of them are enforced by the platform before anything is sent, whatever the agent is doing.

Step 1: contact hours

Open Operations → Governance → Contact hours & limits.

Choose the days and the from and until times agents may start contact.
Set a default time zone for contacts whose time zone isn't known.

Hours apply in each recipient's time zone, so "9:00 to 18:00" means those hours wherever the contact is. Playbooks and channels can narrow these hours but never widen them.

Under Require recorded consent before agents use, decide per channel. WhatsApp requires it by default, in line with WhatsApp's opt-in rules. For email, decide based on your market's rules and your own policy.

If you require consent, make sure leads arrive with it: tick They agreed to be contacted when adding by hand, include a consent column in imports, and keep each lead source's consent text accurate. You can also record consent by hand, with its basis and evidence.

Step 3: opt-outs

Choose When someone opts out on one channel. The recommendation is block them on every channel: someone who asks you to stop by email rarely wants a WhatsApp message instead.

If you have an existing suppression list, add those people under Opt-outs.

Step 4: volume limits

Set workspace ceilings for messages per day, per hour and to one person per day. Start cautiously; you can raise them once you've seen a week of activity. Then, on each channel's Answer incoming messages settings, check replies per conversation and new conversations per day.

Step 5: auto-pause thresholds

Set the thresholds at which running work pauses itself within a time window: opt-outs, refusals, negative replies and AI spend. A sudden rise in opt-outs or negative replies is the early sign that a message isn't landing; pausing automatically limits the damage.

Step 6: the monthly platform allowance

In Operations → Automation, look at Used this month and set a Monthly cap if you want a hard ceiling on platform conversations. Every workspace includes 200 a month.

Step 7: test before you trust it

Use Check a send to try a few real cases (a contact who opted out, a contact outside hours, a contact without consent) and confirm each is refused for the reason you expect.

Step 8: know where the stop button is

Work → Swarm has Stop everything, for admins. It refuses every send in the workspace until an admin lifts it, and paused work stays paused until someone resumes it. Make sure everyone who might need it knows it's there.

How do I review what happened?

Governance → Blocked lists every refused send with its reason, and Work → Activity records every message, outcome and hand-over.