Start

The Start node is the entry point for all conversations in your flow. Every flow must have exactly one Start node.

How It Works

When a conversation begins, the Start node receives the user's first message and stores it in a variable that can be accessed in subsequent nodes. The conversation then flows to the connected node.

Entry Points

Entry points allow you to create multiple conversation paths based on the first message sent by the user. When a user sends their initial message, the system matches it against the defined entry points to determine which path to follow.

Use Cases

• Campaign tracking: Create entry points for different marketing campaigns. When users click campaign links (e.g., Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp links with pre-filled messages), the conversation starts at the appropriate entry point based on the pre-filled message.
• A/B testing: Test different conversation openings by directing users to different entry points based on their first message.
• Message-based routing: Route conversations to different paths based on keywords or phrases in the first message.

How Entry Points Work

1. User sends their first message to start a conversation
2. The system matches the message against configured entry points, by id or by label, ignoring case and surrounding space
3. The conversation flows through the matched entry point's connection
4. If no match is found, the default connection is used

An entry point you have not drawn a connection from also takes the default connection, so you only need to wire the ones that lead somewhere different.

Matching on the label means a link can carry a sentence rather than an id, which reads better to whoever clicks it: ?text=I want to see a demo and ?text=demo both arrive at the same entry point.

Examples

• Campaign link: https://m.me/yourpage?ref=summer_sale → Pre-fills "SUMMERSALE" → Matches "summersale" entry point
• WhatsApp link: https://wa.me/1234567890?text=support → Pre-fills "support" → Matches "support" entry point

On webchat

There is no link to pre-fill a message, so the widget offers your entry points instead: a card shows them as the way in, a chat as replies to its greeting. Picking one sends it as the first message, which is the same thing a campaign link does. The conversation is only created once someone picks, so a page carrying the widget costs nothing until a visitor says why they came.