---
title: Keywords
summary: 'A hierarchical label the AI uses to classify what a call was about, driven by a plain-language prompt.'
section: features
tags:
  - crud
  - telephony
  - ai
  - classification
updated: '2026-06-17'
---

> A **keyword** is a hierarchical label the AI uses to classify what a call was about. Each keyword carries a plain-language prompt that tells the call-analysis layer when to apply it, building a structured tag tree such as *"Support -> Billing -> Refund"* on top of call audio.

## Overview

Keywords power reporting, routing decisions in [Smart Assistants](smart_assistants.md), and quality reviews. They form a tree up to four levels deep: a top-level keyword is a broad category, its children are subcategories. Each keyword carries an **AI prompt** describing the criteria the AI uses to decide whether a call matches.

## What it does

After a call ends and is submitted for analysis, the AI evaluates each keyword's prompt against the transcript and tags the call with every keyword that matches, including ancestors. A call matching *Refund* inherits the *Billing* and *Support* tags too. Matching never affects the live caller, only reporting, CDR detail pages, and future [Smart Assistant](smart_assistants.md) routing.

The **Prompt** is the most consequential field. Good prompts are specific about what should match and what should not: *"The caller mentions a refund, money back, return, or chargeback request"* matches cleanly, while *"The caller mentions money"* is too broad.

> [!TIP]
> Start broad and let the tree grow as patterns emerge. A few top-level keywords with a handful of children each is plenty at first.

> [!CAUTION]
> Renaming or re-prompting a keyword does not re-classify past calls. Each CDR keeps the tag as it was at analysis time. Trashing a parent trashes its children, and restoring the parent restores them.

## See also

- [CDRs](cdrs.md) - where the AI's keyword tags appear on individual calls.
- [Smart assistants](smart_assistants.md) - the AI IVR feature that can route based on keywords.
- [Tags](tags.md) - manual labels applied to users and devices (different from keywords).

```yaml fields
name:
  label: Name
  tab: General
  hint: 'The display name of the keyword, shown with indentation to reflect its depth in the hierarchy.'
prompt:
  label: Prompt
  tab: General
  hint: 'Plain-language instructions that guide the AI when deciding if a call matches this keyword. You can edit this directly from the list view.'
parent:
  label: Parent
  tab: General
  hint: 'The parent keyword in the tree hierarchy. Leave empty to make this a top-level keyword.'
```