What you will build
Customers stay in their Voiceflow conversation while your team replies from Gorgias. Your service translates the platform’s conversation operations and events into the live agent handoff system.
This is a developer implementation guide, not a native connector. The API approach has been reviewed against provider documentation; a live account test is required before rollout.
Before you begin
You need Gorgias API access and permission to configure an HTTP integration in a test workspace, an HTTPS service, and access to Custom Handoff in Voiceflow. Start with the shared connection starter. Choose one test customer and one support destination.
A ticket existing in Gorgias is not enough: validate that its reply channel invokes your HTTP integration. Follow the third-party-channel source mapping exactly.
Implement the connection
Prepare the support workspace
Create an HTTP integration for ticket message events. Use Gorgias’s third-party-channel approach so public replies are delivered to your receiver instead of an unrelated email channel.
Confirm a teammate can receive and answer a manually created test conversation before adding Voiceflow.
Implement conversation creation
Create or resolve the customer, then POST /api/tickets with a first incoming message and the channel/source configuration required by your integration.
Use the starter’s create(request, connectionId) hook. Persist the provider ID and connection ID together. Forward relevant context as an initial summary or supported private note; never inject internal metadata into customer-visible replies.
Forward customer messages
POST /api/tickets/{ticket_id}/messages as an incoming customer message. Keep sender and receiver channels consistent with the ticket.
Implement the starter’s message(providerConversationId, message) hook. Deduplicate the Voiceflow message id. For the first test, support text and explicitly reject unsupported files rather than acknowledging and dropping them.
Receive human replies
Configure the HTTP integration to deliver new ticket messages and status changes. Relay outgoing public human replies only. Do not relay internal notes or messages your service posted.
After provider authentication succeeds, look up the mapped connection ID and send a normalized message.received event to the starter’s authenticated /events route. Include a stable provider event ID, timestamp and human display name. Do not manufacture an agent.joined event merely because a conversation was created.
Implement closure
Close the mapped ticket through the ticket update operation and translate the corresponding status transition into conversation.ended.
Implement the end(providerConversationId) hook. Deliver conversation.ended for provider-initiated closure. Make both paths idempotent so a reflected closure cannot trigger an endless loop.
Connect and test in Voiceflow
Configure your service in Settings → Integrations → Custom Handoff, then follow Set up live agent handoff. Set Queue ID only when your service has a documented mapping. Publish to a test environment and use the actual customer channel.
Provider mapping
Gorgias’s third-party-channel guide uses a controlled email address to route replies for an external messaging channel. Configure this delivery address and the HTTP integration together. Do not substitute the customer’s real email and assume replies will return through Voiceflow. Test the reply route before enabling customer traffic; the ticket’s channel, sender and receiver affect delivery.
Verify a complete handoff
Run this acceptance sequence with a teammate in Gorgias:
- Escalate and confirm exactly one conversation appears in the intended inbox.
- Check the customer identity and escalation context.
- Send “customer test 1” from Voiceflow and “human test 1” from the support inbox. Both must arrive once.
- Add a private note; it must not reach the customer.
- Replay the same customer-message ID and provider event ID; neither should duplicate a message.
- Close from the support inbox and verify the configured return-to-AI path.
- Repeat with invalid credentials and an unavailable provider; verify the fallback.
If messages disappear, inspect the provider delivery log, the ID mapping and Voiceflow callback response in that order. A successful create call alone does not establish that the connection works.
Reference and next steps
Provider setup/API documentation · Provider messages/events documentation
Connection API · Event contract · Troubleshooting
Before production, replace in-memory state with durable storage, implement the provider’s retry/refresh rules, and test attachment and routing support only if your deployment needs them.