Understanding Context Burden Levels

Context burden levels determine how much the agent involves the caller when using an integration. Each level adds more friction — from invisible background operations to full identity verification.

The Five Levels

Ambient (Level 0)

The agent uses the integration silently. The caller doesn't know an API call happened.

Example: Looking up the caller's phone number in your CRM to see if they're an existing customer. The agent just knows — "Hi Sarah, thanks for calling back."

Conversational (Level 1)

The agent mentions it naturally as part of the conversation.

Example: "Let me check our availability for you... I have openings at 10 and 2 on Tuesday."

Requested (Level 2)

The agent only uses the integration when the caller explicitly asks.

Example: The caller says "Can you check if my insurance is on file?" — then the agent looks it up.

Confirmed (Level 3)

The agent asks for confirmation before taking action.

Example: "I can book that appointment for Tuesday at 2pm with Dr. Smith. Shall I go ahead and confirm it?"

Verified (Level 4)

The agent requires identity verification before using the integration. Used for sensitive operations.

Example: "Before I can access your account details, can you confirm your date of birth?"

Choosing the Right Level

• Read-only, non-sensitive operations → Ambient or Conversational
• Actions that modify data (booking, cancelling) → Confirmed
• Sensitive data access (medical records, financial info) → Verified
• Caller-initiated lookups → Requested

Default Levels

Pre-built integrations have sensible defaults:

• Calendar availability check → Conversational
• Booking an appointment → Confirmed
• CRM lookup → Conversational
• Zapier webhook → Conversational

You can change the level for any integration from the skill configuration page.