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# Specialists

A **specialist** is another expert that this expert can hand a live call to. Instead of one expert that does everything, you build a few focused ones (a front desk, billing, technical support) and connect them. When a caller asks for a colleague by name, the expert says one short line and the specialist takes over the same call, with its own voice, persona and knowledge, and with the conversation so far.

The caller can ask to go back ("can I talk to the front desk again?"), and the specialist hands the call back.

## Before you start

The specialist must be a Rydhm expert that is:

1. **Live**: **Live** or **Live and listed**, set with **Make live**. See [Share links](/channels/public-links).
2. **Active**: its **Active** switch on the Profile tab is on.
3. **Discoverable by other agents**, to appear in the list below. Turn it on in the specialist's **Share** tab, under **Let other AI find and use this expert**.

## Connect a specialist

#### Open the hand-offs section

Open the expert that answers first, then **Tools**. Scroll to **Hand off to specialist agents**.

#### Add a colleague

Under **Your workspace experts**, choose **Add** next to the specialist. It moves to **Connected agents** with a label and its Agent Card URL.

To add an expert from another workspace, choose **Add external agent** and paste its Agent Card URL.

#### Name it the way callers will

The **label** is the name the expert listens for. Use the name a caller would say: *Billing*, *Priya*, *Technical support*.

#### Save the section

The section shows **Unsaved** while you edit. Choose **Save** at its foot. It applies straight away, and it does not wait for the expert's **Save changes**.

#### Try it

In the **Test** panel, choose **Voice**, start a test and say *"Can you put me through to Billing?"*

## How a hand-off behaves

* **Only on request.** The expert transfers only when the caller asks for someone on its list by name. It never hands a call over because it lacks a tool or doesn't know an answer; it says so instead.
* **Never a substitute.** If the caller asks for someone who isn't on the list, the expert says who it *can* bring in and lets the caller choose.
* **One line, then the switch.** The expert says a short handover line and the specialist greets the caller. Anything the specialist should know travels with the call.
* **Back again.** The specialist can hand the call back once the caller has spoken to it. A call allows up to 6 transfers; after that the current expert keeps helping.
* **In meetings too.** A specialist can take over in a meeting the expert has joined.

## Where hand-offs work

| Where                                              | Hand-offs |
| -------------------------------------------------- | --------- |
| In-app voice calls and the Test panel's voice test | Yes       |
| Meetings                                           | Yes       |
| Share links, the website widget, phone calls       | No        |
| Text chat                                          | No        |

Visitors on a share link, the website widget or the phone never get hand-offs: a specialist joins with its own tools, and those act on your workspace.

## Specialists from another workspace

You can add another workspace's live expert by its Agent Card URL. It joins the call with only what a visitor would get from it: its knowledge, its conversation controls and web search. It can't use its own workspace's calendar, email or custom tools on your call.

> **Warning**
>
> **Only Rydhm experts can take a call today.** You can save the Agent Card URL of an agent built elsewhere, but an expert can't hand a live call to it yet. Use outside agents' tools through [MCP servers](/experts/tools#outside-tool-servers-mcp) instead.

## Let other AI use your expert

The reverse direction lives on the **Share** tab. **Discoverable by other agents** publishes a standard **A2A Agent Card** and an **MCP manifest** for a live expert, so other AI assistants can find it and ask it questions. See [Agent-to-agent](/developers/a2a) and [MCP](/developers/mcp).

## Gotchas

* **Moving a specialist back to draft, or deactivating it,** takes it off the expert's list from the next call. The expert then tells callers who it *can* bring in.
* **Keep labels distinct.** Two specialists with similar names make it harder for the expert to know which one the caller meant.
* **Hand-offs are voice only.** In text chat the expert answers by itself.

## Related

* [Tools](/experts/tools)
* [Voice engines](/experts/voice-engines)
* [Meetings](/channels/meetings)