Messages we can't place are held, never dropped

A verified message to a number or address no account claims is stored under a sentinel account with a note explaining why, instead of being discarded.

What it is

A holding place for messages that arrive legitimately but cannot be attributed to an account — usually a number bought outside the provisioning flow, or an ambiguous shared email domain. The row records how routing was attempted and why it failed.

Also called: message from an unknown number to an unknown line · held for triage · lost message

See it
Messages we can't place are held, never dropped
Area
Platform & Admin
Group
Receiving
System
Customer Communications
Solves
2 named problems
01Storage happens under the reserved _unrouted account
02routed_by and route_note record the attempt and the reason
03No contact matching or notification is attempted for a message we cannot even assign to an account
Diagram only: verified message → no owning account → held with a note, alongside the discard path crossed out. Sample data — no customer information appears here.
How it works
  1. 1Storage happens under the reserved _unrouted account
  2. 2routed_by and route_note record the attempt and the reason
  3. 3No contact matching or notification is attempted for a message we cannot even assign to an account
  4. 4The failure is logged loudly for operators
Why we built it

A verified message arriving for a number or address no account claims means something went wrong at our end — usually a number bought outside the normal flow — and the customer who sent it has no idea. Discarding it would be exactly the failure the receivers exist to prevent. Those messages are held under a sentinel account with a note explaining why, so they can be found and placed rather than lost.

The problem
  • Legitimate messages discarded because of a configuration gap
  • No forensic trail for a routing failure
Sound familiar?
What you get
Configuration mistakes cost a delay, not a customer
The reason routing failed is recorded on the message

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