CoAgentorHand-Raise Protocol
The Hand-Raise Protocol is an optional feature for Live agents that lets your agent signal it has something to say without immediately interrupting the conversation. The agent waits to be invited to speak, giving the meeting host full control over when the AI contributes.
Why it exists
Live agents that respond immediately to every trigger can feel jarring — especially in formal presentations, client meetings, or any scenario where a sudden AI voice would be disruptive. The Hand-Raise Protocol gives you the feel of a "raised hand in a classroom": the agent is ready, the room knows it, and the host decides when to call on it.
How it works
When Hand-Raise is enabled on a trigger rule:
- Trigger fires — the agent detects the trigger condition and generates a response
- Visual signal — instead of speaking immediately, the agent's camera feed in the meeting displays a "Waiting to speak" panel showing the agent's name and the label of the trigger that fired. Up to three pending triggers are shown simultaneously.
- Host invites — the host says a configured acknowledgement phrase (e.g. "Go ahead, Alex" or "Agent, your response") — or simply "next" — and the agent speaks its prepared response
- Timeout fallback — if the host doesn't invite the agent within the configured timeout window, the response is either discarded or routed silently to the configured back-channel
XXX SCREENSHOT: The Hand-Raise camera feed panel as it appears in a Google Meet or Zoom meeting — showing the "Waiting to speak" visual with the agent name, a pulsing indicator, and a list of queued trigger labels
XXX SCREENSHOT: The Hand-Raise Protocol toggle in the Trigger Rule Builder, visible only when the rule's action type is set to "Speak"
Enabling Hand-Raise on a trigger rule
- Open the agent in the Agent Builder (Edit agents →)
- Expand a trigger rule
- Ensure Action type is set to Speak
- Toggle Request floor before speaking on
The Hand-Raise option is only available for rules with action type "Speak" — silent rules don't need it.
XXX SCREENSHOT: The expanded Trigger Rule Builder showing the Hand-Raise toggle, visible only when Action Type = Speak, with the toggle in the ON position
Queue visibility
When multiple triggers fire before the host invites the agent to speak, all pending responses are queued. The camera feed shows up to three queued trigger labels so participants can see what the agent is waiting to address.
When the agent is invited, it delivers the oldest queued response first and cycles through the queue.
Agent-level raise hand flag
Separate from the per-rule Hand-Raise setting, each agent has an agent-level Raise Hand flag. This controls whether the agent participates in the hand-raise visual queue overall — useful for setting an agent's baseline participation posture.
The per-rule setting overrides this for individual rules.
Current implementation status
⚠️ Note: The Hand-Raise UI toggle and the camera feed visual are live. The acknowledgement detection logic (recognising when the host invites the agent to speak) is currently in development. In the current version, once a Hand-Raise response is queued, it will time out and fall back to the back-channel. Full acknowledgement-based invocation is coming in an upcoming release.
Tips
- Use Hand-Raise for high-stakes triggers — price discussions, contract terms, compliance flags — where you want the agent to wait for the right moment
- Keep your back-channel configured — if the response times out, it routes silently, so you won't lose the insight
- Announce the protocol at the start of the meeting — tell participants: "Our AI assistant will raise its hand when it has something to add — I'll invite it in when appropriate." This sets expectations and makes the meeting flow naturally.