Chain bots into a bot flow
Bots in order, each step carrying the condition that passes to the next. A greeter that qualifies, then a specialist that books.
A bot flow puts bots in order, each step carrying the handover condition that moves the conversation to the next one. The classic shape is a greeter that qualifies handing to a specialist that books.
The reason to reach for one is not that a single bot is misbehaving. It is that you have two different jobs, each of which is easier to write, test and fix on its own. If you are building a flow to patch a bot with weak handover conditions, fix the conditions instead.
Before you start
- At least two bots that each do one job well.
- A clear condition that marks the boundary between them.
Steps
Create a bot flow under AI bots
The second tab, beside bots and knowledge bases. All three are siblings rather than a hierarchy.
Before you build one, check you genuinely have two jobs. A flow exists to chain a greeter that qualifies to a specialist that books — not to patch a single bot with weak handover conditions.
Put the bots in order
Each step is a bot, and the order is the order a conversation moves through them.
Give each step its passing condition
"The customer has given a budget and a timeframe" passes from the qualifier to the specialist. The condition is what makes the flow readable — anybody should be able to say when a conversation moves on.
Keep each bot narrow
This is the entire benefit. A greeter that qualifies and a specialist that books are each simple enough to test properly. One bot doing both is not.
Decide what happens at the end
The last bot needs handover conditions of its own, or the conversation stops with it. This is the most commonly forgotten part of a flow.
Test the whole path, then each seam
Run it start to finish as a customer. Then deliberately fail each condition and see where you land.
Check it worked
Have a conversation that should pass through every step, and one that should stop at the first. Both should behave sensibly, and the customer should not be able to tell where one bot ended and the next began.
The parts people get wrong
- A flow does not change what a bot is. Each bot still owns its instruction, model, functions and knowledge base, and can still be used on its own elsewhere.
- Call flows and bot flows are different things. A call flow decides what happens to a phone call; a bot flow chains AI agents.