Inactivity reminder

Speech-to-speech models do not natively handle "user goes silent" scenarios – when the user stops talking, the model simply keeps waiting. The inactivity_reminder advanced configuration parameter detects user silence and sends a reminder text to the model, prompting it to re-engage the user.

This is currently supported by:

• OpenAI Realtime models – gpt-realtime, gpt-realtime-mini, gpt-realtime-1.5
• Gemini audio models – gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio, gemini-3.1-flash-live – only when Silero VAD is enabled (gemini_audio.vad_mode set to silero, as described in VAD mode for Gemini models)

If the user remains silent for the configured timeout, the reminder text is sent to the model. After the model responds, the timer re-arms and may fire again for the same silent period, up to repeat times. The counter resets once the user speaks.

Parameter	Type	Description
timeout	int	Duration of user silence, in milliseconds, after which the reminder text is sent to the model.
text	str	Reminder text sent to the model. Optional, defaults to Note: user has been silent for {silence_time} seconds. Supports the variables listed below.
repeat	int	Maximum number of reminders sent during a single silence period. Optional, default is 3, maximum is 10.

The text parameter supports the following variables:

• {count} – number of inactivity events fired during the current silent period (resets when the user speaks)
• {timeout} – the configured timeout, in seconds (with up to one decimal digit, e.g. 2 or 2.4)
• {silence_time} – elapsed time since the agent finished playing its last response, in seconds

For example:

{
    "inactivity_reminder": {
        "timeout": 5000,
        "text": "NOTE: User has been silent for {silence_time} seconds. Please re-engage them.",
        "repeat": 3
    }
}