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Configure each agent’s instructions, knowledge, property access, and tools. Start by choosing its job, such as guest support, and who handles requests it must escalate.

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Before you start

Prepare the property facts and policies the agent needs. Your workspace role determines which agent settings and knowledge you can edit.

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Put information in the right place

Understand the available context in Trellis
The agent combines its standing instructions with the conversation, reservation, and relevant retrieved information. Keep a single maintained source for each fact:
  • Agent identity and instructions: tone, purpose, and stable limits.
  • Policies: how to handle a situation, including when to ask a person.
  • Property and reservation records: facts about the home and stay.
  • Documents: reference material the agent can look up.
  • Skills: procedures for carrying out a repeatable task.
A parking update belongs on the property; a rule about approving exceptions belongs in the relevant policy. Copying the same detail into several places makes later corrections harder.

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Set up an agent

Set the agent’s identity and instructions in Trellis
Open AI Hub, select the agent, and open its settings. Review its identity and instructions: who it helps, how it should communicate, and which decisions belong to a person. Keep property-specific facts out of the general identity instructions. Then review the agent’s allowed properties, inboxes, tools, and connected accounts. Adding information does not automatically grant access to every record or permission to act. See Agent permissions and approvals.

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Choose when a policy applies

Choose Always read or Conditional policies in Trellis
In Knowledge > Policies, choose Always read for guidance the agent needs whenever the policy’s scope and filters match. Choose Conditional for a topic it should consult when relevant, such as cancellations or refunds.
Apply policy filters in Trellis
Select the agents and booking or guest filters that should use the policy. “Always read” still respects those filters: a rule limited to repeat guests does not apply to every conversation.
Set when a topic-specific policy applies in Trellis
For a conditional policy, name the situation clearly and explain what to check, what the agent may say or do, and when the team takes over. Put the actual handling rule in the policy, with reference material linked or stored separately as needed.
Limit a policy to the right properties in Trellis
Choose whether the policy applies across the workspace, to property groups, or to selected homes. Test the scope so a rule for one building is not used for another property.

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Maintain property facts and reference documents

Keep property and reservation facts accurate in Trellis
Keep property facts in Properties and booking facts in the relevant reservation source. The agent receives core context and can retrieve additional fields when needed. Accurate rooms, amenities, access instructions, and custom fields help it answer the right question for the right stay.
Add reference documents and connected sources in Trellis
Use the knowledge base for reference documents and supported connected sources such as Notion or Google Drive. Organize material by subject with clear titles. After an import or sync, open the document and check that it contains the expected text.
Separate instructions from reference information in Trellis
Separate reference facts from handling instructions. A document can explain a cancellation policy; a policy tells the agent which conditions to check and when a manager must decide. Remove or update conflicting copies when the rule changes.

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Define the fallback and escalation

Plan what happens when information is missing in Trellis
Explain what the agent should do when information is missing: ask a specific clarification or escalate to the responsible team. It should not fill an unknown property fact with an assumption. Configure and test the actual notification destination as well as the written instruction.
Use urgent tags to trigger escalation in Trellis
Conversation tags can affect Autopilot. An urgent tag can cause escalation and stop automatic handling for that conversation. Read the message and escalation before deciding whether automation should resume.
Configure the tag’s behavior in Trellis
Set the tag’s urgency or escalation behavior in conversation-tag settings. Remove the tag when the issue is resolved and automatic handling should resume.

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Add a repeatable procedure

Use skills for operational procedures in Trellis
Use Knowledge > Skills for procedures the agent should follow, such as maintenance triage or property onboarding. Describe the inputs it needs, the steps to take, and the result to check. Tool permissions still apply when a skill asks the agent to perform an action.

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Choose how Autopilot handles properties

When Autopilot is on, property access controls which conversations can receive an automatic reply.
  • If you do not select a property or property group, Autopilot can reply for any property it can identify.
  • If you select properties or property groups, Autopilot sends automatic replies only for those selections.
  • For conversations outside the selection, use Create drafts for unselected properties to choose whether Trellis saves a draft for review or does nothing. This setting appears after you select at least one property or property group.
  • Properties in Never responds for do not receive an automatic reply or a draft.
If Trellis cannot identify the property for a conversation, it follows the same draft setting as an unselected property.

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When a team member messages the inbox

Autopilot treats inbox contacts as guests: it shares door codes and other access details only with a guest who has a confirmed reservation at that property. If the contact is linked to an active workspace member, Autopilot treats the conversation as that member writing from their own phone:
  • It can share the access details of the properties where the member has a task today or a task in progress, if the member’s role allows viewing properties.
  • The member can report progress on those tasks: start or pause the task, tick or answer checklist steps, add notes and photos, and complete it. Completion follows the same required steps and photos as in the app.
This applies to the team contact Trellis creates for each member. Add the member’s phone number to their profile so their messages reach that contact. Changing another contact’s type or name does not grant this.

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Test the agent

With automatic replies off or under review, test one property question, one policy case, one procedure, and one request that needs a person. Open the available sources or trace to confirm which information was used. Check an in-scope and out-of-scope property when testing filters. If a result is wrong, correct the source and repeat the same case. Follow Fix wrong AI information before expanding automatic use.

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Common problems

Check whether the necessary property fact or reference exists and whether the agent can read it. Add the missing detail to its proper source, then test again.
Review its property, Inbox, and tool access, together with the teammate’s own access.
Review the relevant tool in Access & Safety and use Ask first where review is required. A written instruction and a tool permission serve different roles.
Open the agent’s connected account, verify the intended account, and complete any additional sign-in step through the provided flow.