Flows
Build a flow ARCY runs inside your Product step by step, from clicks and fills to notes, questions, typed answers and calls to your API, choose who reaches it and publish it.
A flow is a sequence of steps ARCY carries out inside your Product for a user in the chat, built and published on Configure > Flows.
Before you start
- The environment needs a verified domain (Origins).
- arcy.js must have been seen on your Product once, or the builder cannot target elements (Quickstart).
- Your Plan caps the flows you can hold; past it, Create flow is disabled (Billing).
- A Request step needs an endpoint on Endpoints.
Setting it up
Create flow asks for a Name your team alone sees.
Hand it to your agent with the ARCY MCP. Your coding agent drafts flows from a name and a sentence each; Open guide leads to ARCY MCP.
Steps. What it does offers eight types: Click, Fill, Navigate (a path such as /settings/team or a full https:// address), Tooltip, Say, Ask, Request and Collect; at most 30 per flow.
Picking the element. For Click, Fill and Tooltip steps, Target Element opens the page you name in a new tab with the picker on; click the element. Loosen Matching when ARCY finds nothing, tighten it when it finds the wrong element. Turn on This element's text is dynamic for a date or a label such as "3 items". An element behind an open dialog or menu is never matched; a captcha and another site's frame are refused.
Fill steps. The badge on the step's node names the control ARCY will operate. When the picked element has no accessible role, Treat as lists every kind plus Let the person do this one; ARCY acts as you said without checking, so Preview it. Value is Ask the person (the Question to ask in chat, word for word), Answer or attribute (one reference from Insert attribute) or Fixed value (typed in exactly). A control ARCY cannot operate is handed to the user. Expected input type (optional) refuses an answer that does not fit.
Tooltip steps. Write the Note (markdown), an optional Title and a Placement; clicking the element counts as Next.
Say steps. The Message appears in the chat as ARCY, markdown allowed, no chat spent. Offer a Quick Flow adds a button that starts another flow and ends this run.
Ask steps. Always a pick: the Question and two to six Choices appear as buttons; the tapped label is the answer. Save the answer as an attribute writes it to one of your attributes: a typed answer needs a text attribute, a choice fits text or a list; read-only attributes are never offered.
Collect steps. The Question appears in the chat and the user types one value. Answer type (Text, Number, Email, Date, URL, Phone) shapes the card and refuses an answer that does not fit; the same wrong answer twice ends the run. Required is on; off, the card offers Skip and the answer is empty. Already known from names an attribute: a held value answers the step without asking, an empty one leaves the question. Save the answer as an attribute offers text attributes only. The grey line under the name is what later steps read, such as {{ answers.email }}.
Request steps. Endpoint picks one from Endpoints; the call runs in the visitor's browser, with a working line in the chat until the answer lands. Under Inputs, bind each input as Answer or attribute or Fixed value; every required input must be set. The call waits 10 seconds.
Answers in this flow. Every Ask, Collect and Fill answer, never a password, and every Request response field is offered to later steps under Answers in this flow as {{ answers.company_name }}, the step's name in lowercase with underscores. Answers live for the run only and never reach ARCY.
Triggers. A step can carry triggers that watch a Condition while it is active, then Go to step or Dismiss flow; Which step must be set before the flow saves. Conditions join with AND and OR. Answer to a question (an Ask or Collect step) and Request result pick a saved step, so save first; is empty and is not empty route around a skipped question. Wait before checking (optional) delays the action up to 60 seconds.
Flow settings. Key is the flow's handle for the ARCY MCP: lowercase letters, digits, _ and -, up to 64 characters, starting with a letter, unique in your Product. Public name is what users see when ARCY offers the flow; empty, the flow never reaches them. Summary is what the agent reads to decide when to offer it, so use a user's words. Element wait limit is how long a step waits for its element: up to 60 seconds, default 30.
Finish. Turn on End of the flow on one step; otherwise the last step counts.
Needs review. A step an agent drafted with confidence below 70%, one missing its element, a trigger condition or a required endpoint input, one reading an answer no earlier step collects, or a Request binding an optional Collect answer to a required input, wears a Needs review badge: check it and press Mark as reviewed. Publish is refused until none remain.
Save, Preview, Publish. A save needs every step complete. Preview runs the saved draft on your site, touches no analytics and marks each node pass or fail. Publish sends the saved copy to one environment at a time.
What it changes
Who reaches a flow. A visitor is Identified with a user id and at least one attribute you sent us, Anonymous otherwise; Audience is Everyone, Identified only or Anonymous only.
Publishing. Each environment serves its own copy: Never published, Published, Pending changes when it serves an older copy than your draft, or Unpublished. Publishing overwrites it, with no history.
Measurement. Click and Fill steps are measured; a Navigate step when it opens a page on your own Product without a wildcard. The other five say Not measured. When users can finish through a control you did not pick, set Completion event (optional): the funnel ends on that name, from arcy.track() or an Integrations tool. A flow's row opens its analytics: the funnel, how each step ended, who answered, skipped or left a Collect step, the errors, and Flow-assisted against Unassisted.
Deleting. Delete removes the flow, its steps and its funnel once it is unpublished everywhere.
Checklists. The Checklists section holds the lists of outcomes an agent's Show trigger puts on the chat bar; see Checklists.
When it goes wrong
- A step cannot find its element. The flow stops after the wait window and the user sees a short apology; the analytics record the reason and the fix. Behind a dialog, a menu or a sticky bar: pick the element inside what was open, or add a step that closes it.
- A Request step ends the run. The endpoint answered outside 2xx or past 10 seconds; the analytics show the status. Fix it, or branch on a failed Request result.
- Your save is refused. Someone else saved meanwhile: copy what you need, then Reload the flow.
- The picker opens your site but nothing arrives. Switch to the new tab; ARCY writes the reason there. A blocked
cdn.arcyai.com: Troubleshooting.