# Create Agent Groups and Set Assignment Rules in Robylon

Create groups of agents, choose which channels each group handles, set its working hours and decide how chats and emails are assigned inside the group.

> Source: https://www.robylon.ai/docs/human-users/groups
> Section: Team

A group is a team of agents that handles the same kind of work, such as a chat team, an email team or a refunds team. Each group has its own members, working hours and assignment rules, so conversations reach the right people in the right way.

Open it from **Settings → Team → Groups**.

## What does a group control?

A group decides four things for the conversations routed to it:

* **Who** can be assigned: the agents in the group.
* **When** the group is available: its working hours and holiday calendar.
* **Which channels** it routes: chat, email or both.
* **How** work is assigned: manual, round robin or balanced, plus welcome and unavailability messages.

Every workspace has a **General** group, the default group containing all paid agents. The Groups list shows each group's number of agents, its assignment logic per channel, its business hours and who last updated it.

## How do I create a group?

Click **New Group**, name the group, add agents, choose its working hours and channels, set the assignment rules and click **Save group**.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Name the group">
    Go to **Settings → Team → Groups** and click **New Group**. Under **Group info**, enter a **Name** (required) and an optional **Description**, for example "Refunds team: handles refund and return questions".
  </Step>
  <Step title="Add agents">
    Under **Agents**, pick the teammates in **Add agents**. Only agents on a paid seat can be assigned conversations, so Lite teammates will not receive work. See [seat types](https://www.robylon.ai/docs/human-users/add-human-users#what-do-the-seat-types-include).
  </Step>
  <Step title="Choose working hours">
    Under **Working hours**, select a **Working hours** schedule and a **Holiday calendar**. These decide when the group counts as available. Create schedules first in [Business hours](https://www.robylon.ai/docs/human-users/business-hours).
  </Step>
  <Step title="Choose channels">
    Under **Channels**, turn on **Chat** (live chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and other messaging channels), **Email** (email tickets and the shared inbox), or both. Only connected channels can be turned on.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Set chat and email assignment">
    For each channel you turned on, choose the assignment logic and the other options described below.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Save">
    Click **Save group**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Frame>
  <img src="/assets/docs/app-groups.webp" alt="Groups list showing each group, its agents, assignment logic and business hours" width="1734" height="653" />
</Frame>

<Frame>
  <img src="/assets/docs/app-new-group.webp" alt="New group page with group info, agents and working hours" width="1734" height="1350" />
</Frame>

## Which assignment logic should I choose?

Pick **Balanced** if you want work spread by current workload, **Round Robin** for strict turns, and **Manual** if a supervisor hands out work or agents pick it themselves.

| Assignment logic | What happens |
| --- | --- |
| Manual | Conversations are not auto-assigned. Agents pick them up, or a supervisor assigns them. |
| Round Robin | Conversations go to teammates in sequential order. |
| Balanced | Each conversation goes to the teammate with the fewest active tickets. |

Round Robin and Balanced only assign to agents who are available (their status allows replies, see [agent statuses](https://www.robylon.ai/docs/human-users/agent-status)) and who are below their [assignment limit](https://www.robylon.ai/docs/human-users/assignment).

## What are the other chat assignment options?

Under **Chat assignment**, you can also set:

| Option | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Assign to | The roles that chats in this group can be assigned to (for example only Agents, or Agents and Supervisors). |
| Statuses counted toward limit | Which conversation statuses count toward an agent's limit: **Open**, **In Progress**, **Waiting on Agent**. Leave empty to count all statuses. |
| Allow reassignment | Lets the assignee reassign the conversation to another agent. Choose which **Roles that can reassign**: Super admin, Admin, Supervisor, Agent. |
| Welcome message | Sent to the customer automatically when a chat is assigned to an agent. |
| Agent unavailability message | Sent to the customer when no agent is available to take the chat, for example outside working hours or when every agent is at their limit. |

## What are the email assignment options?

Under **Email assignment**, you get the same **Assignment logic**, **Assign to** and **Allow reassignment** options as chat, plus **Auto-acknowledgment**: a reply sent automatically when an email arrives during working hours, before an agent is assigned.

<Tip>
Use the auto-acknowledgment to set expectations, for example "Thanks for writing in. A member of our team will reply within one business day."
</Tip>

## How do conversations reach a group?

A conversation reaches a group through a [queue](https://www.robylon.ai/docs/human-users/queues), or directly when a workflow or AI agent hands it over to a named group. If no queue matches, the conversation goes to the default queue, which uses the conversation's own group. If it has none, it goes to the **General** group.
