A flow is what a project does in a conversation, laid out as nodes linked one after another from a Start node. Each node does one job: it sends a message, asks the customer something, calls a service, sets a variable, or hands the conversation to a virtual agent or an AI agent.
Every project has a Main flow. Some flows appear when you turn on a project feature, subflows are the ones you add yourself, and two kinds of flow belong to an intent or to an AI agent and open from there.
The flows in a project
The Flows menu in the project navigation lists the project's own flows.
| Flow | Where you find it | When it runs |
|---|---|---|
| Main | Flows > Main. Every project has one. | When the conversation starts. Each branch ends with a Return To Start or an Exit node. The End node is not offered in Main. |
| SubFlow | Flows > SubFlows. You create these. | When a SubFlow node in another flow calls it. Its End node returns the conversation to the calling flow. |
| Survey | Flows, one per project language, for example Survey (EN). Appears when the project's Survey switch is on. | After a Virtual Agent node has handled an intent other than the fallback intent. |
| FallbackSR | Flows, one per project language, for example FallbackSR (EN). Appears when a speech recognition (SR) integration is attached to the project. | When speech recognition fails on a turn: the customer says nothing, the audio is noise or cannot be recognised, or recognition confidence is below 0.5. Its End node returns the conversation to the node that was waiting for the customer. |
| Post Session Flow | Flows > Post Session Flow. Appears when the feature is enabled for your tenant and the project's Post Session Flow switch is on. | After the conversation ends. The customer is no longer connected, so its palette offers no nodes that send messages or ask questions. |
| Intent action | The intent's Actions tab. Not in the Flows menu. | When the intent matches. Its End node returns the conversation to the Virtual Agent node. See Intent Actions. |
| AI Agent tool flow | The AI agent that uses it. Not in the Flows menu. | When the AI agent calls the tool. See Creating an AI Agent. |
The designer's palette offers only the nodes that the open flow type allows, so the same node can be available in one flow and missing from another.
Adding, renaming and deleting subflows
Subflows are the only flows you create, rename or delete. Use one for a part of the conversation you want to reuse, or to keep Main short, and call it from a SubFlow node. Main, Survey, FallbackSR and Post Session Flow come with the project or with their switch, and you cannot create, rename or delete them.
You work on subflows in the project's draft version, and you need permission to edit the project.
- Open the Flows menu and select + SubFlow. A subflow named SubFlow 1 is created immediately, with no dialog. The next one is SubFlow 2, and so on.
- Rename it from its item in the menu. The Edit SubFlow window opens. Give it a name that says what it does, for example
Verify Customer. - To delete a subflow, use Delete on its item in the menu.
📝 Note: You cannot delete a subflow while a SubFlow node uses it. Remove the SubFlow nodes that call it, or point them at another subflow, and then delete it.
Draft and published
You always edit the draft version of a project. Live conversations do not see your changes until you publish the project. When you open a published version, its flows are read-only and a banner shows the version number. To change something, switch back to the draft.
Publishing checks the Main flow, the Post Session Flow when it is switched on, and every subflow those flows call. If one of them fails a check, the project is not published. See Designing a Flow.
What a flow is not
- It is not self-contained. A subflow works with the same variables as the flow that calls it, and dynamic variables are shared by every flow in the project version, including intent action flows and AI Agent tool flows. A subflow takes no parameters, so you pass values to it in variables. See Variables and Context.
- It is not an AI agent. A flow runs its nodes in the order you link them. To have a large language model reason and choose tools, use an AI Agent node in the flow.
When you turn a switch off
- Survey: the survey flows are removed from the project.
- Post Session Flow: the flow is kept as it is, but it leaves the Flows menu, is not checked at publish and does not run.
Working with flows
- Designing a Flow: add and link nodes, use subflows, validate, and export or import a flow.
- Variables and Context: the values a flow reads and writes, and how long they last.
- Nodes at a Glance: every node in the palette, by category.
Related articles:
- Intent Actions: the flow each intent runs.
- Sentiment: the sentiment score a flow can read during the conversation.
- Real-Time Translation: serving customers who write in a language the project does not have.
- Multilingual Projects: projects with more than one language, including the Language Condition node.