What is an agent inbox API?
An agent inbox API connects an agent built in your own system to business conversations. It separates receiving messages, selecting authorized context, preparing a reply, and tracking delivery. Your agent supplies the reasoning; the inbox infrastructure supplies the conversation boundary and human ownership.
Bring your own agent: the intended lifecycle
Conceptual design, not a runnable quickstart: receive a customer message → provide the authorized conversation context to your agent → prepare a controlled reply or request human takeover → record the delivery outcome. Receiving an event is not proof that a reply reached a customer.
Three capability states
The full Agent Inbox API is upcoming. Channel connections are pilots that require provider setup and acceptance testing. MCP tools and assistant integrations, including ChatGPT and Claude connections, are planned; directory approval and availability are separate from implementation.
Business messaging and customer ownership
The intended channel scope includes business WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, web chat, email and selected social conversations. This is a design scope, not a promise that every channel is production ready. WhatsApp uses a business-owned number to serve that business’s customers; it is not a shared personal assistant.
Arabic and English customer support
For Saudi and MENA teams, test Arabic dialects, mixed Arabic and English messages, names, right-to-left presentation and escalation language. For US and global teams, use the same ownership and delivery controls with your own language evaluation. A bilingual interface does not establish reply accuracy.
Evaluate before connecting a production channel
Define tenant boundaries, message deduplication, retry ownership, reply authorization, human takeover and delivery audit records. Test duplicate messages, delayed events, agent timeouts and a human replying while an agent draft is pending. Ask for release-specific documentation and successful inbound and outbound pilot evidence before rollout.