Intent Step

Intents are a fundamental core concept in the world of conversation design. To learn about conversation design in Voiceflow and the relationship between conversational components, reference this doc here.

The Intent step lets you create non-linear and flexible conversation paths within your assistant. The Intent step listens for the linked intent and triggers the conversation path. It operates as linearly as the Choice step, or as globally by allowing the user to trigger any open-intent available.

You would use an intent step in your conversation assistant design when you are creating a conversation flow that is triggered when an intent is detected from a Choice step. This flow does not have to be physically connected to your Choice step as the assistant can jump from the choice step to the corresponding intent step if the matching intent is detected. 

For example, if the user responds "I want to get a refund" in a choice step, the assistant will first look for matching intents with defined paths in the Choice step, and if unsuccessful, then look for intent steps either in the same canvas view (topic) or globally in the entire assistant. A Choice step path can also use a go-to action to go to an intent step. 

Because of this flexibility, Intents provide the flexibility to jump between conversations, Topics & Components/Flows and other Intents.

You will also notice dragging an Intent step makes it appear differently and as a chip-like UI as opposed to other Step(s) dragged from the sidebar.

This is because Intent steps operate a little differently than other block(s)/step(s):

Note:The Intent step requires no direct link and can be activated from anywhere within the assistant (as long as it's in contextual scope) by its linked intent. Unlike the Choice or Buttons step, you can't link to an Intent step. It only accepts outward connections.

Linking Intents to an Intent Step

Intent steps are constantly listening for their linked/trigger intent to be invoked by a user. When their linked intent is invoked, the Intent step is triggered and users are directed to its corresponding conversation path.

To link an intent to an Intent step, you can choose an existing intent or create a new intent. Once the desired/linked intent is selected, clicking the pencil icon can allow you to quickly edit your selected intent and its properties.

Intent Actions

Under the Intent step, you can perform these nested actions per trigger Intent:

• Go to Block- Goes to a specific block referenced within the assistant
• Go to Intent- Goes to an existing intent contained in the assistant
• End- Ends the conversation at its current state
• Set variable-Allows you to set and change the value of variables
• API- Allows you to set up, configure and execute API calls & functions
• Code- Allows you to set up and code custom Javascript functions & commands

Tip: Learn more about Actions in-depth and in detail here.

Available from Other Topics Toggle

You can toggle whether the Intent triggers globally or locally to the specific topic the Intent is located within.

When toggled on, the intent acts as a 'Global' intent, meaning it can be triggered anywhere in the assistant; regardless of topic or Canvas location.

Pulling Entities from an Intent Step

Intents linked within an Intent step act like a normal intent and can thus pull entities from the user's utterance if the entity values have been defined.

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