Single prompt or guided flow: which to choose
The switch at the top of the agent page decides how a call is structured. What each mode does, what the switch changes the moment you click it, and when a flow is worth its complexity.
7 min readUpdated 26 August 2026
How your agent runs sits above every other setting on the agent page, and the page explains the choice in a sentence: a single prompt is one set of instructions driving the whole call, and you switch to a guided flow for complex, multi-step calls.
That is accurate but it does not tell you which one your call is. This page does.
What a single prompt actually does
You describe the job and the agent works out how to get there. Questions can arrive in any order. A caller can go off on a tangent and come back. Someone can answer three things in one sentence and the agent takes all three, because nothing is forcing a sequence.
This flexibility is the whole point, and it is also why a single prompt fails in a particular way: given a badly specified job, it improvises. The fix is always in the instructions, which is a paragraph you can change in a minute.
What a guided flow actually does
A flow makes the order real. Steps happen in sequence, and a later step can depend on an earlier answer being collected first.
That is worth having when the order is not cosmetic. Qualification where a later question only makes sense given an earlier answer. Intake where skipping a field makes the record useless. Anything where a human on the same call would be working down a form.
The cost is rigidity. A flow does what it is told, which is the point, and it means a caller who arrives with an unusual situation has fewer places to go.
How do I know which one I need?
Tip
The honest test: try writing the job as a paragraph. If it comes out clear, a single prompt will hold it. If the paragraph turns into a numbered list with conditions, that is a flow telling you what it is.
| If this is true | Reach for |
|---|---|
| You can explain the job in a paragraph a new hire would follow | Single prompt |
| Callers ask things in unpredictable order | Single prompt |
| Missing one question makes the rest of the call pointless | Guided flow |
| A later question depends on an earlier answer | Guided flow |
| You keep drawing boxes and arrows to explain it | Guided flow |
| You are not sure | Single prompt |
What the switch actually does when you click it
This is the part worth reading before you touch it, because the toggle does more than change a setting.
Click Guided flow on an agent that has no flow yet and the platform immediately reads that agent's instructions, builds a workflow out of them, saves it, and attaches it to the agent. A message confirms it: converted your instructions into so many attached steps. There is no confirmation step, and it does not wait for you to press save. From that moment the agent runs the flow.
Careful
Clicking Guided flow on a live agent changes how that agent handles its next call, straight away. If the agent is taking real calls, try it on a duplicate first.
Two things it does not do. It does not touch your instructions, which stay exactly as you wrote them. And if a flow is already attached, clicking Guided flow simply shows you that flow rather than regenerating over your work.
Going back the other way behaves differently. Clicking Single prompt detaches the flow, but that is a pending change like any other edit on the agent page, so it only takes effect once you save the agent. Click it, then save.
- Open the three-dot menu at the top right of the agent and choose Edit Agent.
- Click Single prompt on the How your agent runs switch.
- Click Save.
Can I change my mind later?
Yes, in both directions, with the save step above.
The order that works is one direction: start with a single prompt, put it in front of real callers, read the transcripts, and move to a flow only when you can point at the specific place the prompt keeps failing.
Starting with a flow because the job sounds complicated is how people end up maintaining a diagram for something a paragraph would have handled. Complexity is easy to add later and unpleasant to remove.
Common questions
- Does a guided flow cost more per call?
- Cost comes from the models the agent runs and how long the call lasts, not from the mode. A flow that keeps calls short is cheaper. One that makes callers repeat themselves is not.
- Can one agent use both modes?
- It is one setting per agent. Two genuinely different jobs usually want two agents rather than one agent trying to be both.
- My agent asks questions in the wrong order. Do I need a flow?
- Not necessarily. Try telling it the order in the instructions first. A prompt that says which thing to establish before the others fixes this most of the time, and costs you nothing to try.
- Will switching modes lose my instructions?
- No. Switching to Guided flow reads your instructions to build the flow, but leaves the instructions themselves untouched. Keeping your own copy of any prompt you care about is still good practice before changing anything structural.
- I clicked Guided flow just to look. Did that change my agent?
- Yes, if no flow was attached before. That click generates a flow from your instructions and attaches it immediately, without asking and without a save. To undo it, put the agent into edit mode, click Single prompt, and save.
- Will clicking Guided flow overwrite a flow I already built?
- No. If a flow is already attached, the button just opens it.
- Why did clicking Single prompt not stick?
- Detaching the flow is a pending edit, not an instant one. You have to save the agent afterwards for it to take effect.
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