These docs describe the current Dante AI platform. On the earlier platform? Your API reference is api-v2.dante-ai.com/openapi.json, and your key goes in the x-api-key header.
Inbox
Human Handover. When a visitor asks for a real person, the chat lands in your team inbox so someone can take it over and reply live, whether they are chatting in the web widget or over WhatsApp.
How a handover starts
Once you turn Human Handover on, a Talk to a human pill sits under every reply in the chat widget, so a visitor can reach a person at any point in the conversation. The pill shows even when the agent has no suggested prompts, and it stays available after the first reply. A visitor can also ask in their own words, such as "can I talk to a human", and the widget picks that up as well. Either way, the conversation is escalated to your team and appears in the Inbox marked Awaiting, and the visitor sees a short holding message ("Your request has been sent to the team." by default) while they wait.
When a new request arrives, your team gets a notification sound and an unread badge on the Inbox so nobody is left waiting.
Take it, reply, resolve
- Open the conversation. The transcript streams in real time, and you can see when the visitor is typing.
- Click Take it. The status flips to Active, the AI stops auto-replying, and the conversation is assigned to you.
- Type in the composer. Your reply shows up in the visitor's chat just like a message from the agent. Only the teammate who took the conversation can reply to it.
- Click Resolve when you're done. The AI picks back up and answers the visitor's next message automatically.
What the Inbox shows
The Inbox lists conversations that have been handed over to your team, not every chat your agent is having. Use the search box and the filter pills to find one:
- Awaiting, a visitor asked for a person and no one has taken it yet.
- Active, a teammate has taken the conversation and is replying live.
- Resolved, the conversation was handed back to the AI.
Each row shows the visitor, the latest message, and how long since the last activity. If a conversation is already taken by someone else, you'll see who it is assigned to.
Handover from WhatsApp
Handover is not just for the web widget. If you have connected a WhatsApp number, a person messaging your agent on WhatsApp can ask for a human too, and that conversation lands in the same Inbox alongside your web chats. You take it, reply, and resolve exactly as above; the only difference is where the customer sees you.
- While the AI is handling the chat, it answers on WhatsApp as usual. Once a teammate clicks Take it, the AI stops auto-replying so it never talks over your operator.
- Replies you type in the composer are delivered straight back to the customer on WhatsApp. You do not need a browser open on their end.
- Click Resolve to hand the conversation back to the AI, which resumes answering the customer's next WhatsApp message automatically.
Turn it on for your agent
Open your agent's Publish page and select the Handover tab. Toggle Human Handover on, then customise:
- The pill label visitors tap. Default is Talk to a human.
- The holding message visitors see while they wait. Default is Your request has been sent to the team.
When Human Handover is off: Offer to take contact details
Human Handover is a paid feature, and plenty of agents run without it on purpose. A visitor can still type "can I talk to a human" on an agent that has no handover, and the Offer to take contact details switch decides what happens next.
You will find it on your agent's Publish page, on the Handover tab, at the top of the section. It is available on every plan, including Free and Starter, and it does not need Human Handover itself. It is a separate setting from Human Handover itself, not a sub-setting of it: it only ever applies while Human Handover is off.
Left on (the default). A visitor who asks for a person is shown a short form asking for their name and email, introduced with "The team is not available right now. Leave your name and email and they will get back to you." If they fill it in they see "Thanks. Your details have been passed to the team." If they would rather not, they can dismiss it and keep chatting, and your agent carries on answering. Whatever they leave is saved to Contacts and leads, attached to that conversation, so you can follow up yourself.
Switched off. A visitor who asks for a person gets an ordinary answer from your agent. No form, no name, no email, and nothing that suggests somebody will call them back. This is what you want if your chat is entirely self-serve and nobody is watching an inbox.
Two things to know. It is a promise in your name, so leave it on only if somebody will actually read those addresses and reply. And like every other setting on this page, a change reaches your website when you press Update live agent, not when you press Save changes.
The offer only ever appears on your published widget, from a visitor typing the request in their own words. The preview beside the settings does not show it.
How to unlock Human Handover
Human Handover is the live-takeover feature plus the team inbox that powers it. It is included on two plans:
- Advanced ($120 / month). Human Handover is included, along with full white-label (Remove Dante branding), lead capture, a rentable phone number and 3 AI agents.
- Pro ($400 / month). Everything on Advanced, with 10 AI agents, 30,000 credits a month and API access.
It is not sold on its own. There is no Human Handover add-on to buy on Free or Starter; moving to Advanced is the way to get it.
Troubleshooting
The "Talk to a human" pill is missing from the chat
Symptom. Visitors never see the Talk to a human pill, and no conversations arrive in the Inbox.
Cause. Human Handover is a paid feature and is off by default. The pill only renders once Handover is both included on your plan and toggled on. On Free or Starter the feature stays locked, so there is no pill to show.
Fix. Unlock Human Handover first: move to Advanced or Pro, where it is included. Then open your agent's Publish page, select the Handover tab, and toggle Human Handover on. The pill appears for visitors right away.
Visitors are asked for a name and email, but nobody is monitoring the chat
Symptom. A visitor types something like "can I talk to a human" and your agent shows a two-field form saying the team will get back to them. You do not run a staffed inbox, so nobody does.
Cause. The Offer to take contact details switch is on for that agent, which is how every agent starts. It is a separate switch from Human Handover, and it applies precisely when Human Handover is off.
Fix. Open the agent's Publish page, select the Handover tab, and turn Offer to take contact details off. Press Save changes, then Update live agent to push it to your site. From then on a visitor who asks for a person simply gets an answer from your agent, and nothing is promised on your behalf. The switch is per agent, so turn it off on each agent you want it off for.
Stuck? We're here.
Every plan, including Free, comes with human support. If something isn't behaving the way you expect after following the steps above, send us a note and we'll get back to you promptly.