A monthly clean-up for your AI agent: tags, notes and old chats
Over a few months, the systems around an AI agent collect clutter. Tags multiply, chats stay handed to someone who has moved on, routines keep running for an offer that ended, and the business brief fills up with lines nobody remembers adding. None of it breaks anything on its own, but together it makes the agent's answers vaguer and your team slower. This guide gives you a 30-minute monthly clean-up, in order, with the questions to ask your agent, a checklist to copy and the things you should never delete.
Why a monthly clean-up helps
Your weekly review looks at what the agent said. The monthly clean-up looks at everything around it: how chats are sorted, who owns them, what runs automatically and what the agent has been told. A tidy setup means your agent finds the right facts, your team finds the right chats, and nothing goes out that should have stopped.
Pick the first working day of each month and keep it short. Thirty minutes is enough for most small businesses, and less once you have done it a few times.
The order to work in
| Minutes | Area | What you are looking for |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 5 | Forgotten hand-overs | Chats still handed to a person that should have been handed back |
| 5 to 10 | Tags and owners | Duplicate tags, unused tags and chats owned by someone who has left |
| 10 to 15 | Old chats | Finished conversations cluttering the main inbox |
| 15 to 22 | The business brief | Old prices, expired offers, past dates, rules nobody follows |
| 22 to 27 | Routines and scheduled messages | Anything that would send something out of date |
| 27 to 30 | Agents and accounts | Agents nobody uses, and accounts that need reconnecting |
Work in this order because the first items affect customers who are waiting right now, and the last ones are housekeeping.
Forgotten hand-overs
A chat handed to a person stays that way until someone hands it back. Spaces keeps the agent out of it in the meantime, which is right while a person is dealing with it, and unhelpful a month later when the customer asks a simple question and nobody answers.
Ask your agent for every conversation that is still handed over, oldest first. For each one, either reply yourself if the customer is waiting, or hand it back to the agent if the matter is closed. Leave alone any chats you always handle personally, such as a long-standing client.
Old chats: archive, do not delete
Finished conversations make it harder to see the ones that matter. Archiving moves a chat out of the main inbox without losing it, and you can move it back at any time. Ask your agent to archive conversations that have had no messages for a set time and are not tagged follow up or quote.
Avoid deleting chats as a tidy-up. A deleted conversation is gone from the account, and an old chat is often where you find what was agreed with a customer months ago. Archive instead, and delete only when there is a clear reason, such as a customer asking you to remove their messages.
Here is how that might look with your agent. Names and details are examples.
| Who | Message |
|---|---|
| You, to your AI agent | Archive WhatsApp and Instagram chats with no messages in the last 60 days, unless they are tagged follow up or quote. Tell me how many first. |
| AI agent | There are 142 chats that match. None are handed over. Shall I archive them? |
| You | Yes. And list any follow up chats older than 30 days. |
| AI agent | Archived 142 chats. Four follow up chats are older than 30 days: Lena, Marco, Dee and a number ending 4471. |
The business brief
This is the part that most affects your replies. Ask your agent to show the brief, then read it as if you were a new member of staff.
- Remove offers, sale sections and holiday hours whose dates have passed.
- Check every price against your current price list, and add the date you checked it.
- Check the hand-over section names the right people and their working days.
- Remove rules you added for a one-off problem that no longer happens.
- Move the most important rules, such as what never to promise, back near the top if they have drifted down.
- Ask the agent which questions came up this month that the brief does not answer, and add the answers.
Ask for one-part updates as you go, rather than replacing the whole brief. A full replacement clears anything you leave out.
Routines and scheduled messages
Routines send set replies, tags or alerts on triggers you choose. They are not an AI, so they keep doing exactly what you told them, even after the reason has gone.
- Ask your agent to list your routines and what each one did in the last month.
- Pause or delete any that mention an ended offer, an old price or a past date.
- Check comment routines still match keywords people actually use on your posts.
- Ask for scheduled messages that are waiting, and cancel any that are out of date.
Agents and accounts
- Ask for the list of AI agents with access to your Spaces. Revoke any that nobody uses, such as one a former teammate set up, so its key and sign-in stop working.
- Check each connected account is working. Your agent can check account health and tell you if one needs a new sign-in.
- If an account was signed out, reconnect it with a fresh link or QR code.
A checklist to copy
Monthly clean-up: ____________ (date)
[ ] Handed-over chats checked. Handed back: ___ Still with a person: ___
[ ] Tags merged and unused tags dropped. Tag list in the brief updated.
[ ] Chats owned by people who left: moved to ___________
[ ] Old chats archived (not deleted): ___
[ ] Follow up chats older than 30 days: answered or closed
[ ] Brief: expired dates removed, prices checked on ______
[ ] Brief: hand-over names and working days correct
[ ] Routines checked. Paused or deleted: ___
[ ] Scheduled messages checked. Cancelled: ___
[ ] Unused AI agents revoked. Accounts all connected.Common mistakes
- Deleting old chats instead of archiving them.
- Creating new tags during the clean-up instead of merging old ones.
- Replacing the whole brief to remove one expired offer.
- Forgetting routines, so an ended offer keeps being sent as a set reply.
- Leaving a former teammate's AI agent connected.
- Skipping a month, then facing three months of clutter at once.
Summing up
Once a month, spend half an hour in order: forgotten hand-overs, tags and owners, old chats, the brief, routines and scheduled messages, then agents and accounts. Archive rather than delete, merge tags rather than add them, and update the brief one part at a time. A tidy setup keeps your agent's answers sharp and your team's inbox clear.
Pricing
FAQ
Should I delete old customer chats?
Usually not. Archive them instead, which moves them out of the main inbox without losing them. Delete only when there is a clear reason, such as a customer asking you to remove their messages.
How many tags should a small business use?
Five to eight covers most businesses. Write the list into your business brief, so your agent only uses those names and new duplicates do not appear.
What is a forgotten hand-over?
A chat that was handed to a person and never handed back. The agent stays out of it, so if the customer asks something simple later, nobody answers. The monthly clean-up finds and fixes these.
Can my AI agent do the clean-up for me?
It can do most of the work when you ask: list tags, retag chats, archive old ones, list routines and scheduled messages, and check account health. Make the decisions yourself, and ask it to tell you how many items will change before it changes them.
Why check routines if nothing seems wrong?
Routines are not an AI, so they keep sending exactly what you set, even after an offer ends or a price changes. A quick look each month stops an out-of-date set reply going out.
What should I do with an AI agent nobody uses any more?
Revoke it. Its key and sign-in stop working, which removes access you no longer need.
How long does the clean-up take?
About thirty minutes the first time, and often less after that. Doing it every month keeps it short.