Flows

A flow is a small graph of steps. Each action your assistant can take has a flow that decides how it answers. Journeys run in the background when a moment happens. Sub-flows are reusable blocks that other flows call. You edit all three on a canvas, and nothing reaches customers until you publish.

What you see

The Flows page opens on a list with three tabs. Each tab shows how many items it holds.

• Actions: every action your assistant can use. Each row shows the action's name, what it replies with (for example "Standard answer" or "Custom reply"), its status and how many times it ran. A note at the top counts how many actions are customized and how many use the default reply.
• Triggers: your journeys. Each row shows the trigger, a short summary of its steps, its status, an on/off switch and its run count.
• Sub-flows: your reusable blocks, with their step count and how many flows use each one.

Status chips tell you where each item stands:

• live or off for an action, on or paused for a journey.
• custom when an action no longer uses the default reply.
• draft when there are saved changes that are not published yet.

Click any row to open it in the editor. The editor has:

• A top bar with the flow's name, its save state, undo and redo, an on/off button, Discard, Publish and, for journeys and sub-flows, Delete.
• A palette on the left with the steps you can add, grouped as Conditions, Agents, Data sources, Flow, Response and Alert. Which groups appear depends on the kind of flow and on what your company has set up.
• The canvas in the middle.
• An inspector on the right when you select a step.
• A Flow builder box at the bottom of the canvas, where you can describe a change in plain words.

How to change what an action does

1. On the Actions tab, click the action.
2. Drag a step from the palette onto the canvas.
3. Connect it by dragging from a port on one step to another step. A check has two ports: YES continues down the green one, NO down the red one.
4. Click a step to open the inspector and fill in its settings. For example, a Reply with a message step takes a message and whether it should Replace the reply or Guide the assistant.
5. Your edits save as a draft automatically. The top bar tells you the draft is saved and needs publishing to go live.
6. Click Publish. The change is live on the next call.

To remove a step, select it and click Remove step, or press Delete. The trigger step can't be removed.

How to use the flow builder

1. Open a flow.
2. Type a question or a change into the box at the bottom of the canvas, for example what the flow should reply when nothing is found. Click Send.
3. The builder answers in a side panel. If it proposes a change, it applies it to your draft and tells you to review and publish.
4. Check the canvas, then click Publish, or Discard to drop the draft.

How to choose who can use an action

1. Open the action and click its trigger step.
2. Under Who can use this action, pick Anyone (guest) or Signed-in customers only.

This setting does not wait for Publish. It applies at once, on every channel.

How to create a journey

1. Open the Triggers tab and click + New journey.
2. Type a name and confirm. The editor opens with a single trigger step.
3. Click the trigger step and choose the moment under Fires when, for example "Sentiment turns negative" or "No reply for 2 days".
4. Add the steps that should follow. Add A person approves first from the Alert group if someone on your team should approve before anything goes out.
5. Click Publish.
6. A new journey starts paused. Click Paused in the top bar, or use the switch on the Triggers tab, to turn it on.

How to create a sub-flow

1. Open the Sub-flows tab and click + New sub-flow.
2. Type a name and confirm.
3. Build the steps after the sub-flow's input step, then click Publish.
4. In another flow, add Run a sub-flow from the Flow group and pick your sub-flow.

How to turn a flow on or off

In the editor, click the on/off button in the top bar (Live or Off for an action, Trigger is on or Paused for a journey). For journeys you can also use the switch on the Triggers tab. This takes effect right away, without publishing.

How to undo changes

• Use the undo and redo buttons in the top bar, or Cmd/Ctrl+Z and Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z.
• To throw away all unpublished changes, click Discard and confirm. The flow goes back to its published version.

How to delete a journey or sub-flow

1. Open it and click Delete.
2. Confirm. Runs that were already recorded keep their snapshots.

Actions can't be deleted. You can turn them off instead.

How to replay a past run

From a conversation in Live sessions, click View on canvas next to a flow run. The canvas shows the flow as it was during that run, with how long each step took. Click a step to see the data it returned. Click Exit trace to go back to the list.

Good to know

• Steps for showing a message, asking follow-up questions, suggesting a next tool and offering a deal are only available in actions.
• In messages and some other steps you can insert values with templates such as {{goal}} or {{user.name}}. The inspector lists them.
• Commerce data sources and commerce moments only appear if your company has the commerce capability.
• Past runs are kept for a limited time. An older run may no longer be available to replay.