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Restarting an Active Flow

A looping flow in Rasa lets users repeat actions in a conversation. You can use this for things like adding items to a list, making repeated requests, or providing iterative input.

To restart an active flow, add a unique identifier to the top of your flow. This id step is used as a reference point to loop back to the beginning of the flow when you want to restart it. It is important to note that you cannot use a link to restart the flow. This is because links are reserved for connecting an active flow to other flows. You cannot connect a flow to itself.

It's also important to clear any relevant slots before restarting the flow. This prevents Rasa from skipping required collect steps. You can do this by adding a set_slots step or by setting the ask_before_filling parameter to True in your collection steps.

Here's an example of a looping flow that lets users add multiple contacts:

Start the flow with id: "start".
Collect contact information.
Add the contact.
If successful, ask if the user wants to add another.
If yes, reset slots and restart the flow (using set_slots and jumping back to id: "start").

add_contact.yml

flows:
  add_contact:
    description: add a contact to your contact list
    name: add a contact
    steps:
      - id: "start"
        collect: "add_contact_handle"
        description: "a user handle starting with @"
      - collect: "add_contact_name"
        description: "a name of a person"
      - action: add_contact
        next:
          - if: "slots.return_value = 'success'"
            then:
              - action: utter_contact_added
                next: "restart"
          - if: "slots.return_value = 'already_exists'"
            then:
              - action: utter_contact_already_exists
                next: "restart"
          - else:
              - action: utter_add_contact_error
                next: END
      - id: "restart"
        collect: restart_add_contact
        next:
          - if: "slots.restart_add_contact is True"
            then:
              - set_slots:
                  - add_contact_handle: null
                  - add_contact_name: null
                  - restart_add_contact: null
                next: "start"
          - else: END

Another way to loop without resetting slots is to set ask_before_filling to True in all collect steps. This makes Rasa always ask for input, even if the slot was already filled.

add_contact.yml

      # ...
      - id: "start"
        collect: "add_contact_handle"
        description: "a user handle starting with @"
        ask_before_filling: true
      - collect: "add_contact_name"
        description: "a name of a person"
        ask_before_filling: true
      # ...
      - id: "restart"
        collect: restart_add_contact
        ask_before_filling: true
        next:
          - if: "slots.restart_add_contact is True"
            then: "start"
          - else: END