Action node - Preferred Hunt

Introduction

The Preferred Hunt action tries to connect the conversation to one of the configured preferred endpoints (comma-separated SIP The Session Initiation Protocol, or SIP, is a protocol for multimedia communication (audio, video and data communication). SIP is also used for Voice over IP (VoIP). SIP has interactions with other Internet protocols such as HTTP and SMTP. URIs). If none of the preferred endpoints answers or accepts, the conversation is routed to the fallback skill.

What happens on success vs. fail

Preferred Hunt has two possible outcomes:

• Success: One of the preferred endpoints answers and accepts the session within the hunt timeout. The conversation is connected to that endpoint and does not enter any skill waiting queue.
• Fail (fallback): If no preferred endpoint can be connected, the conversation is routed to the configured fallback skill. At that point, normal skill routing applies and the conversation can be placed in the waiting queue of the fallback skill (if required).

A fallback occurs when the preferred endpoint(s) are:

• Not available for hunting (see hunting rules below),
• Do not accept the conversation before the hunt timeout, or
• Explicitly decline the session.

Required fields

Both fields below are required for this action.

The Sips field contains the preferred endpoints to hunt. Each entry must start with "sip:" or "tel:", and entries must be separated by commas.
Example: sip:agent@company.com, sip:agent2@company.com, tel:+31201234567

The Skill field contains the fallback skill. If Preferred Hunt does not connect to any configured endpoint, the conversation is routed to this skill and can enter its waiting queue.

Hunting rules: Agent vs. non-Agent endpoints

Hunting behavior depends on the endpoint type:

• Agent SIP (registered agent): The endpoint is only hunted when the agent is formally signed in and considered available according to the Presence-Based Routing settings (by default, this means the agent must be in the Available state).
• Non-Agent SIP or PSTN ("tel:"): These endpoints are always hunted (they do not use agent presence/sign-in checks).

This means that a configured Agent SIP might be skipped entirely if the agent is not signed in or not in an allowed presence state, while non-Agent SIP/PSTN endpoints will still be attempted.

Example of the call flow with Preferred Hunt applied (click to enlarge)

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