Discover
Use this page when Captain is silent, gives wrong answers, or is not learning. Most problems come from a setting, not a fault.
Plan & access: Captain needs Startups, Business or Enterprise Pricing & Plans . Most fixes need an administrator.
Set up & try: the quick check
When the assistant is silent, check these in order:
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Plan: is Captain in the sidebar? If you see Upgrade to use Captain AI, the account is on Hacker (free). Captain is not available during the free trial.
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Credits: Settings > Billing > Captain. With no credits left, Captain does not run.
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Inbox: is the inbox listed in the assistant's Inboxes?
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Audience: is it set to Specific audience, and does the customer match?
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Schedule: is it During business hours or Outside business hours, and does the time match?
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Timing: rules are checked when a conversation starts or reopens. An ongoing conversation keeps its first decision.
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Status: Captain replies only while a conversation is Pending. If it is Open, Captain stays silent. That happens when an agent replied, the assistant handed off, or an automation rule assigned the conversation to someone. Captain does not come back to an open conversation unless it is assigned to the assistant again.
Test it
Start a brand new conversation, as a customer who matches the audience, inside the schedule, in a connected inbox.
Get value: silent versus failed
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Silent: no reply at all usually means one of the checks above stopped Captain before it started.
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Silent at certain times of day: the schedule follows the inbox's business hours and their time zone. Check the time zone in the inbox settings.
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Handed off: when Captain cannot answer, it sends your Handoff message and passes the conversation to your team.
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Out of credits: a new conversation goes straight to your team with no reply. In a conversation Captain is already handling, it sends "Transferring to another agent for further assistance." and passes it on.
Troubleshoot
Replies
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Assistant never replies | One of the quick checks | Work through the quick check above |
| Replies to people you excluded | Their details changed after the conversation started | Expected; applies from the next conversation. See Control who Captain replies to and when |
| Replies outside the schedule | Business hours are off for the inbox | Turn on business hours in the inbox settings |
| Wrong or made-up answers | Missing or outdated knowledge | Add or refresh documents; approve FAQ suggestions. Use Report Captain message on the reply to tell Chatwoot what went wrong |
| Assistant is in a conversation the audience or schedule should have skipped | An agent assigned it to the assistant from the assignee dropdown | Expected. Assign it to a person to take it back |
| Answers off-topic questions | No guardrails | Add guardrails. See Guardrails, guidelines and scenarios |
| Hands off too often | Knowledge gaps, or a failing custom tool | Review FAQ suggestions; check Tools |
| Conversations resolve too early | Always resolve is set with a short wait | Choose Let Captain review it (recommended) or a longer wait |
Knowledge
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Document shows Failed to sync | The page needs a login, or your site blocked the request (error 401 or 403). The page may also be missing or slow. | See Add knowledge: documents |
| Added a website but no pages appear, or answers are generic | Your robots.txt may block the crawler. | Allow the crawler in your robots.txt, then add the document again. See Add knowledge: documents |
| No FAQ suggestions | Generate FAQs from resolved conversations is off. Or no agent replied in the resolved conversations. Suggestions need at least one agent reply. | Turn it on. See FAQs and FAQ suggestions |
| Document limit reached | The account has 2,000 documents across all its assistants | Delete unused documents; see Pricing & Plans |
Tools, Copilot and credits
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Custom tool never used | Vague description, or too many tools | See Custom tools |
| Copilot error message | Temporary error, or out of credits | Retry; check credits |
| Credits used fast | Busy inboxes, or AI features used heavily | See AI credits and usage |
When to contact support
Contact support if the quick check passes and Captain is still silent in a new conversation. Send:
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Your account ID (Settings > Account settings).
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The assistant's name and the inbox.
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A link to one affected conversation, and the time it happened.
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Whether the assistant replied in the Playground.