Rules vs Listening: what goes where

Rules and Listening do superficially similar things — both detect
something the contact said and act on it — but they serve different jobs.
Knowing which to reach for saves you from forcing square pegs into round
holes.

Rules: you know what you want and where to put it

The agent is a matching engine. You've already decided the field and the value.

Example

• Contact says: "I'm out of town this week"
• Rule fires: set custom.out_of_town = Yes
• The rule definition knows:

Data lives in: your CRM (GHL contact field). Visible to anyone who
opens the contact in GHL.

You author this when: you have a structured field you want populated.
The value is predictable — it's going to be Yes, Buyer, Tier 3, etc.

See the full Rules guide.

Listening: you know what kind of thing to remember

The agent is a note-taker. You've named a category of interest. The agent
writes the content in its own words.

Example

• Contact says: "My mum is sick, I've been a bit distracted"
• Listening rule fires: category Family context
• The agent writes a note: "Mother is unwell — contact is distracted this week"
• The rule definition only knows:

Data lives in: the agent's private memory for that contact. NOT pushed
to GHL. Shown back to the agent on future turns as "what you already know
about this contact" so it behaves like a human rep who remembers.

You author this when: the valuable info is unpredictable and
contextual — family events, hobbies, objections, quirks, running jokes.

See the full Listening guide.

Side-by-side

| | Rules | Listening |
|---|---|---|
| User pre-defines the output? | Yes — field + value | No — agent writes content |
| Where info lands | CRM contact field | Agent's private memory |
| Visible in GHL? | Yes | No |
| Shape | Structured | Free-text note |
| Classic trigger | "I'm out of town" | "My mum is sick" |

Rough heuristic

• If the value belongs on a form you'd ask someone to fill in → Rules
• If the value belongs in a sticky note a sales rep would stick to the

Why both exist

Rules can't handle "mum is sick" cleanly — you'd need a custom field called
family_situation with a value like Parent illness, and you'd be trying
to classify real human detail into a fixed taxonomy.

Listening can't handle "out of town" — you want custom.out_of_town = Yes
specifically so your automations, tags, and workflows can trigger off that
exact boolean. Free-text in a memory note can't drive a workflow.

Use both.