scenariobot-guide

05. Building a scenario

How to get there: Top bar → Phones → click a phone → 🤖 Scenarios tab. Create a new one, or click an existing one to open the designer.

The designer opens full screen and covers everything. Closing it returns you to the scenarios tab.

The three columns

EXPECT  |  CANVAS  |  SEND

• CANVAS in the middle is the conversation, top to bottom.
• EXPECT is what the bot sends and then waits on.
• SEND is what the reply side supplies.

That naming reads backwards to most people the first time. The full explanation and every step type is in Chapter 06.

A conversation alternates EXPECT → SEND → EXPECT → SEND down the canvas.

Drag components onto the canvas and connect them. Works with a mouse and with touch on a tablet.

While you work

Action	How
Save	Ctrl/Cmd + S, or the save button
Undo	Ctrl/Cmd + Z — up to 50 steps
Redo	Ctrl/Cmd + Y or Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z
Duplicate a step	the duplicate action on the step
Reorder	drag, or the up/down arrows
Export / import	buttons on the ribbon — raw JSON

An errors panel flags problems as you go and pops open by itself whenever new issues are found.

The two side columns can be resized, pinned and collapsed, and your layout choice is remembered between sessions.

Scenario settings

The ⚙️ settings button on the ribbon holds everything that applies to the whole scenario rather than one step:

• description
• bot contact — which contact identity the bot presents as
• interval between messages
• estimated duration — set by hand, or calculated automatically
• event type — scheduler (started by a schedule) or trigger (starts on an incoming message)
• priority (default 15) — which scenario wins when several could match

Saving vs publishing

Save keeps it as a draft. A draft can be edited freely and will not run.

Publish makes it runnable. Publishing runs three checks first, and is blocked until all pass:

1. components and their required fields
2. the templates used by scheduler steps
3. custom code compiles — the scenario is compiled on the Worker

When a check fails you get the list of issues back, not just a refusal, and the errors panel shows them. Only after all three pass does the scenario become active.

Once published, the save button is disabled and shows “published”. To edit again, unpublish first.

Testing before it goes out

• Playback reads the scenario back as a chat window → Chapter 07
• Check code validates a custom-code step against a sandbox → Chapter 06

A real send still needs a real linked contact.

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Next: Scenario components