GuidesCalls
Build a Call Flow
Decide what happens to every call to a number: business hours, a phone menu, your team, a queue, the AI agent and voicemail, drawn as steps on one canvas.
A Call Flow is the route a call takes once someone dials one of your numbers. You draw it from steps, such as Time Condition, Phone Menu and AI Agent, and connect each step’s exits to the next.
- Where
- Build > Call Flows
- Plans
- Every plan, as many flows as you need
- You need
- A phone number, and the people, queue or AI agent calls should reach
How a flow works
Every flow starts from one of two places, chosen when you create it and fixed after:
- A phone number. Callers reach the flow by dialling the number. This is the usual kind.
- A transfer. Callers reach the flow when an AI agent hands them over. It has no number of its own. See Send callers from the AI agent into a flow.
The call enters at the first step and follows the exit that fits: Rule 1 or Otherwise after a Time Condition, Press 2 after a Phone Menu, No answer after Ring Agents. It moves on until it reaches a step that ends it: someone answers, the AI agent takes the call, the call is forwarded, a voicemail is left, or Hang Up.
A number runs one flow, and a flow serves one number.
Create a flow
Start
Open Build > Call Flows and select Create call flow.
Choose where it starts
Under Starts from, choose A phone number or A transfer.
Pick a template, or start blank
Templates give you a working layout to change. Leave Template empty for a blank canvas.
Name it and choose a number
Give the flow a name. For a phone-number flow, keep Assign later (recommended) or pick a number now. A number another flow uses moves to this one.
Select Create call flow and the builder opens.
| Template | Starts from | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Standard support | A phone number | Rings your team during business hours, and the AI agent answers after hours |
| After-hours only | A phone number | The AI agent answers after business hours; during hours the call ends |
| Ring one agent, then voicemail | A phone number | Rings one person and takes a voicemail if there’s no answer |
| Queue, then voicemail | A phone number | Callers wait in line for your team, then leave a voicemail if the wait runs out |
| Ring in order, then voicemail | A transfer | Rings the people you choose one at a time, then takes a voicemail |
Templates leave some choices for you, such as which AI agent answers or which queue callers wait in. The flow won’t publish until you make them.
Build it
Drag steps from the left onto the canvas. To connect a step, drag from one of its exits to the next step, or choose the next step under Then: in the step’s settings. Select a step to open its settings.
The builder saves as you go. A red badge on a step means something is missing; hover it to see what.
| Step | What it does | Exits |
|---|---|---|
| Time Condition | Sends calls one way in business hours and another way after | Rule 1 to 3, Otherwise |
| Phone Menu | Plays a greeting and lets callers press a key or dial an extension | Press 0 to 9, No input |
| Ring Agents | Rings your people’s browsers and desk phones | No answer |
| Call Queue | Holds callers in line for the next free person | Wait runs out, No one on duty |
| AI Agent | Your AI agent answers | AI unavailable |
| Play Audio | Plays a message, then carries on | One, to the next step |
| Forward Call | Sends the call to an outside number | None: the call leaves the flow |
| Voicemail | Records a message | None: the call ends |
| Hang Up | Ends the call | None |
When a step is answered, the call stays with whoever answered and the flow is done.
Time Condition
Add up to three rules. Each has its days (or Weekdays, Weekend, Every day), a From and To time, and where it sends the call. Calls outside every rule take Otherwise.
- Rules are checked in order and the first that matches wins. The panel flags rules that overlap or repeat each other; fix them before you publish, because they don’t stop a publish.
- A rule can cross midnight, such as 6:00 PM to 8:00 AM.
- A rule includes its end minute: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM still matches at 5:00 PM.
- Each Time Condition has its own Timezone, set from your workspace time zone when you first open it. Changing the workspace time zone later doesn’t change existing flows.
Phone Menu
Add a Greeting message that lists the options, then up to ten Options, one per key from 0 to 9. Each option sends the call to a step, or straight to a teammate’s extension. Callers can press a key before the greeting ends.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Timeout | How long to wait for a key after the greeting: 3 to 30 seconds, 5 by default |
| Max retries | How many times the greeting plays again when nothing is pressed: 0 to 3, 1 by default |
| No input | Where the call goes when the retries run out. Required |
| Dial by extension | Lets callers type a teammate’s three-digit extension at the prompt |
A key that isn’t an option is ignored. With Dial by extension on, an extension that doesn’t exist or isn’t answered also goes to No input. Give people extensions in Settings > Extensions.
Ring Agents
Choose Who should ring:
- Members of this number: the people who have access to the number the flow is on.
- Specific users: the people you pick.
- Everyone in the workspace: every active user. Usually you want one of the others.
Then choose a Ring strategy:
| Strategy | How it rings |
|---|---|
| All at once | Everyone together; the first to answer gets the call. The default |
| Round robin | One person per call, taking turns across calls |
| Longest idle | The person who has been available longest |
| Sequential | One at a time in the order you set, each for the Per-step ring duration (15 seconds by default) |
| Single user | The one person you picked |
Total ring timeout caps the whole step: 5 to 120 seconds, 30 by default. Each person’s browser and desk phones ring together. People who are Away or on a call aren’t rung, and in Sequential they’re skipped without using any time. Set where the call goes under If no one answers, go to, and add optional Hold audio for the caller to hear while it rings.
Call Queue
Choose a queue. Who answers, the order they’re rung in, the longest wait and how many callers can wait are set on the queue itself, in Settings > Call queues, so every flow that uses the queue shares them. Callers hear hold music and keep their place if someone misses the call. Set up call queues covers the queue settings.
- Wait runs out: where callers go when the longest wait passes or the line is full. Required.
- No one on duty: where callers go when no one in the queue can take calls. See When no one is on duty. Optional; left empty, callers take Wait runs out.
AI Agent
Choose a published agent. Who it can hand callers to is set on the agent, under Call Handling > Handoff, and shown here for reference. See Hand calls to your team.
If the AI can't answer (no AI minutes), go to is required. It’s used when the workspace has no AI minutes left and no wallet balance, and when the agent has been deleted or switched off. Point it at your team, a queue or voicemail, so no caller is dropped.
Play Audio
Plays a message, then moves to the next step. Use it for an announcement before a menu or a queue.
Forward Call
Sends the call to an outside phone number you’ve set up in Settings > Call destinations, verified before you can choose it. You can’t type a number into the flow itself. An optional Announcement plays to the caller first; without one they hear the transfer tone. For a destination set to Bridge, the caller hears hold music while it rings, for up to 45 seconds. Once forwarded, the call has left the flow; if the forward can’t be placed, the call ends. A destination’s opening hours don’t apply here.
Voicemail
Records a message of up to Max recording duration: 5 to 300 seconds, 2 minutes by default. Recording also stops when the caller presses #, goes quiet for about 5 seconds or hangs up. Without a Greeting, the caller hears only a beep.
Voicemails appear in Conversations, marked Voicemail; see Take voicemails. The people on the number that was called get a notification in Crulon, and an email too if they’ve turned on email for calls. If the number has no one on it, the workspace owners are notified.
Hang Up
Ends the call.
Greetings and other audio
Every greeting, message and announcement can be:
- Text to speech: type up to 1,000 characters and pick a voice, then Generate. The audio is made once, so callers hear the same recording each time.
- Upload: an MP3 or WAV file of up to 5 MB and 60 seconds.
- Record: record in your browser, up to 60 seconds.
Put the flow on a number
Assign the number from the phone chip in the builder’s toolbar, or from the Phone column of the Call Flows list. A number runs one flow at a time: moving a number to another flow takes it off the old one, which goes back to draft.
A number with no published flow doesn’t reach the AI agent. If the number has Default ring turned on, its members ring; otherwise the caller hears a short apology and the call ends.
Publish
Select Publish. A phone-number flow needs its number first. Crulon checks the flow, and if something is missing, such as an exit with nowhere to go or an AI agent not yet chosen, Publish failed lists it and the steps show red badges.
Once a flow is published, edit it as usual. Callers keep getting the last published version while you work, and the toolbar shows Unpublished changes. Select Merge to Publish to put your changes live, or Discard changes in the ... menu to drop them.
Flows have no test mode, so check a change by calling the number after you publish, at a quiet time if you can.
Versions and rollback
Every publish is a version. Open Version history from the ... menu to see each one, who published it and when, and select Rollback to go back.
Warning
Rollback puts that version live straight away, without the checks a publish runs.
Send callers from the AI agent into a flow
A transfer flow lets the AI agent hand a caller to your team with your own rules for who rings and what happens if nobody answers.
- Create a flow that starts from A transfer, build it and publish it. Ring in order, then voicemail is a good start.
- In Settings > Call destinations, add a destination of kind Call flow and choose the flow.
- In the agent’s Call Handling > Handoff, add that destination.
When the agent uses it, it tells the caller, leaves the call, and the flow takes over; the agent doesn’t come back. This works on inbound calls only. See A Call Flow for the handoff side.
AI minutes
Only the AI Agent step uses AI minutes, for the time the agent is on the call. Menus, ringing, queues, forwarding and voicemail don’t.
Archive and delete
Choose Archive from a flow’s status or ... menu to take it out of use. Archived flows can be restored as drafts, or deleted for good with Delete permanently, which removes the flow and its versions but not your call history.
Warning
Choosing Revert to draft or Archive takes a flow off its number at once. Until another flow is published on that number, calls get the no-flow handling above.
A flow can’t be archived, reverted or deleted while a call destination sends callers into it, and can’t be deleted while it’s published or on a number.
Last updated 18 Oct 2026