> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.flowyte.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# After-hours & overflow answering

> Catch the calls you'd otherwise miss — route the urgent ones, capture the rest.

The calls you lose aren't during business hours — they're at 9pm, on a Sunday, or all at once when every line is busy. A Flowyte **agent** picks those up so an unanswered ring never becomes a lost customer. It knows when you're open, what to do while you're closed, and which calls truly can't wait.

## The two gaps it closes

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="After hours" icon="moon">
    When you're closed, the agent still answers — books what it can, takes a message for the rest, and tells the caller when you reopen.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Overflow" icon="phones">
    When your team is on other calls, it answers in parallel instead of sending callers to voicemail. No busy signal, no queue.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## It knows when you're open

Each agent carries your **business hours** — a timezone, a weekly open/closed grid, and one-off holidays. The agent is live-aware of whether you're open or closed and changes its behavior accordingly, so a closed Sunday and a busy Tuesday afternoon are handled differently and correctly.

## What happens while you're closed

By default the agent keeps full functionality after hours — it can still answer questions, book, and capture requests. You decide what changes:

* **Take a message** — capture the caller's details and email them to your team for the morning.
* **Route urgent calls** — let self-declared emergencies (no heat, a leak, an outage) go to an on-call number, even when ordinary transfers are off.
* **Hand off to a person** — turn on after-hours transfer to a specific number when someone is genuinely on call.

<Warning>
  Most businesses have no one to take a 2am call, so after-hours human transfer is **off by default** — the agent helps directly and leaves a clean message instead of ringing an empty desk. Turn it on only when an on-call person is real.
</Warning>

## In the API

Business hours and after-hours behavior live on the agent. You set them with a normal agent update, then publish.

| Action                                    | Endpoint                    | Scope          |
| ----------------------------------------- | --------------------------- | -------------- |
| Set business hours & after-hours behavior | `PATCH /agents/{id}`        | `agents:write` |
| Add a take-a-message skill                | `POST /agents/{id}/skills`  | `skills:write` |
| Publish the change                        | `POST /agents/{id}/publish` | `agents:write` |
| Review what you caught                    | `GET /agents/{id}/calls`    | `calls:read`   |

<Note>
  Editing changes the **draft**; phone and chat serve the last **published** version. Publish after you adjust hours, or the live agent keeps the old schedule.
</Note>

See also: [warm transfer to your team](/solutions/warm-transfer) and the [AI answering service](/solutions/answering-service).