​ To learn more, see the sources I considered: [[1] Discord message from @suryabanthia on 2025-10-30](https://discord.com/channels/1186424376300679209/1294891368505937952/1433377769508700170) [[2] Discord message from @moein4128 on 2025-10-31](https://discord.com/channels/1186424376300679209/1294891368505937952/1433925046459564042) [[3] Create Voice Agent](https://docs.retellai.com/api-references/create-agent) [[4] Update Voice Agent](https://docs.retellai.com/api-references/update-agent) ​

Feel free to tag @AI Evy with additional questions. I also appreciate feedback, it helps me improve.

### Answer To instruct your agent to remain silent until the user speaks, you can use the no response functionality documented at [) . [(1) ]() A few things to note: - Single Prompt agents tend to honor the "no response" instruction correctly. - Conversation Flow agents may sometimes output

no_response_needed

instead of staying truly silent. A workaround is to use a silent system message or conditional pause in the flow to keep the agent quiet while still processing logic in the background. [(2) ]() , [(1) ]() Additionally, you can adjust the

responsiveness

parameter (value 0–1) when creating or updating your agent—lower values make the agent wait longer before responding. [(3) ]() , [(4) ]() If you're using tool/function nodes in Conversation Flow and the agent goes silent after execution, make sure to enable "speak after execution" on the function node. [(7) ]()