Flows or the AI agent?
Parrot can answer a customer two ways, and they are separate systems that do not read each other.
| Flow | AI agent (Parrot) | |
|---|---|---|
| Answers from | the steps you drew | your business profile, catalogue and knowledge base |
| Behaviour | exactly what you scripted, every time | written fresh for each message |
| Language | whatever you typed | the language the customer wrote in |
| Cost | none | one model call per reply |
| Handles a question you did not expect | no | yes |
| Can send tappable buttons | yes | no |
The important consequence: a flow's text is not given to the agent. If a flow asks "Which product caught your eye?", Parrot does not know that was said.
Which fires
A flow only runs when it matches one of these. Anything else goes to the agent.
| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
| Welcome greeter | The first message of a new conversation |
| Keyword | The message contains one of your keywords |
| Ad referral | The message arrives from an ad carrying your ref |
| Button | The customer taps a button inside a flow that is already running |
Once a flow finishes, the next thing the customer says goes to the agent as usual.
When a flow is worth it
Most shops need no flows at all — the agent already answers from your catalogue and takes orders. Reach for a flow when you need one of these three things:
- Certainty. Someone clicks a specific ad and must see exactly the product it promised, not a generated greeting.
- Buttons. "Track my order / Talk to sales / Browse" as things to tap. The agent replies in words; only a flow can send buttons.
- Volume and cost. A thousand identical "hi"s a day answered by a fixed greeting is a thousand model calls you did not pay for. The same applies to wording that must never be paraphrased, like a refund policy.
Start with the agent. Add a flow when you can name the exact opening you want to control.
Building one
Flow Builder → Create New Flow, then on the canvas:
- Add a step in the toolbar — a message, buttons, a carousel, a condition, or a hand-off to Parrot.
- Drag a card to move it. Drag the dot on its right edge onto another card to connect them.
- Click a connection to remove it.
- A step with nowhere to go says End the flow here. That is a real ending, not a mistake — the agent picks up from there.
- End with Hand to Parrot when you want the agent to continue with full context of what the customer has already said.
Three read-only examples ship paused under names beginning Sample ·. Open one, copy the shape, then build your own.