Responses

Video


Here's an example snippet from a domain.yml file that shows some example responses.

responses:
  utter_greet:
    - text: "Hey there!"
  utter_goodbye:
    - text: "Goodbye :("
  utter_default:
    - text: "Sorry, I didn't get that, can you rephrase?"
  utter_youarewelcome:
    - text: "You're very welcome!"
  utter_iamabot:
    - text: "I am a bot, powered by Rasa."

There is a utter_<thing> naming convention so that each response starts with "utter". Note that we very much recommend having a utter_iamabot in your domain file since because assistant should be able to explain that they are not a human.

You're not limited to static responses though. You can also define responses that are dynamic. For example, you can include more than one possible response for a specific template. Rasa will then randomly select which response to pick.

responses:
  utter_greet:
    - text: “Hello! How are you?”
    - text: “Hello there :)”
    - text: “Hi. How can I help you today?”


  utter_goodbye:
    - text: “Bye bye!”

In this case, Rasa will randomly select one of the three responses whenever it needs to send the utter_greet response. You can make it even more dynamic by including slots in the responses.

slots:
  name:
    type: any




responses:
  utter_greet:
    - text: “Hello {name}! How are you?”
    - text: “Hello there :)”
    - text: “Hi. How can I help you today?”

It will also fill in the {name} variable with a slot value if there is one that's available.

Content Responses

You're also able to have responses that contain images or buttons as well!

responses:
  utter_greet:
  - text: "Hey! How are you?"
    buttons:
    - title: "great"
      payload: "/mood_great"
    - title: "super sad"
      payload: "/mood_sad"
  utter_cheer_up:
  - text: "Here is something to cheer you up:"
    image: "https://i.imgur.com/nGF1K8f.jpg"

You can even customise the message based on the channel that you're using.

responses:
  utter_ask_game:
  - text: "Which game would you like to play on Slack?"
    channel: "slack"
  - text: "Which game would you like to play?"

This way, slack users will be able to get a different message. You can even send custom payloads if you've made your own channel. It's an advanced use-case, but Rasa really allows you to customise what you send to the front-end.

responses:
  utter_book_time:
  - custom:
      blocks:
      - type: section
        text:
          text: "Book a time for your appointment:"
          type: mrkdown
        accessory:
          type: datepicker
          initial_date: "2019-05-21"
          placeholder:
            type: plain_text
            text: "Select a date"

Training

If you want your assistant to actually use the defined responses, you will have to include them into your training stories as well. For example:

stories:
- story: greet user
  steps:
  - intent: greet
  - action: utter_greet

Links

Exercises

Try to answer the following questions to test your knowledge.

  • Which content types can responses contain?
  • How do you create specific response templates per channel?
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