A flow is a conversation drawn as a diagram. Each box is one step — send this, ask that, check something, hand over to a person — and the lines between them are the paths the conversation can take. The thing that separates a flow from an [automation rule](automation-rules) is memory. A flow **waits**. It asks the customer a question, stops, and when the reply arrives it picks up where it left off, knowing everything the customer has already said. ## When to use one When the next step depends on an answer you do not have yet. A menu of departments. An order-number lookup. A complaint taken over WhatsApp. Anything where "it depends what they say" is the honest answer. ## When NOT to use one - **On any channel other than WhatsApp Cloud.** This is a hard limit, not a default. See below. - **When nothing needs to be asked.** Labelling, routing and priority on a fact you already have is an [automation rule](automation-rules), which is simpler and easier to read. - **To start a conversation.** A flow cannot begin one. It only ever answers one. - **For a store event, a schedule, a webhook or a campaign.** None of these can enter a flow. ## WhatsApp Cloud only A flow runs on WhatsApp Cloud inboxes, and nothing else. Attach a flow to any other channel and publishing is refused with *"Not supported on "*. If a conversation on an unsupported channel somehow reaches a flow, it goes straight to your team instead. ## How a flow is entered One way only: **a customer's message on a conversation the flow owns.** For that to happen, the flow must be the inbox's active bot, the conversation must be **pending**, and nobody may be assigned to it. The message is then matched against the Start node's keywords and conditions, if you set any. If it matches, a session begins. If not, the conversation goes to your team at once. ## What you need first An **administrator** account, the flow builder enabled for your account, and a connected WhatsApp Cloud inbox ([Connect WhatsApp](connect-whatsapp)). Order lookups also need [Commerce](commerce-overview). ## The nodes | Group | Nodes | |---|---| | **Messages** | Send message, Send WhatsApp template | | **Ask and wait** | Question, Buttons, List, Delay | | **Logic** | Condition, Audience, Commerce condition, Go to | | **Customer** | Set contact attribute, Set conversation attribute, Add label, Remove label | | **Commerce** | Order lookup | | **Team** | Assign agent, Assign team, Human handoff | | **Integration** | Webhook | | **Flow** | Start, End | Four of these wait for the customer: Question, Buttons, List and Delay. Everything else runs straight through. A **Question** stores the answer — in the run, on the contact or on the conversation — for use later in message text, and re-asks when the answer does not fit. An **Order lookup** finds the newest order of the contact's own matched store customer, or the order number they quote; it never reads another customer's order, and never changes one. ## Steps 1. **Settings → Flow Builder → New flow**, or **Start from a template**. 2. Build the canvas. **Save draft** as you go; nothing you save affects a customer. 3. Press **Test** to run the saved draft against a test contact. Nothing is sent or stored. 4. Press **Publish**. Problems are listed next to the nodes that caused them. 5. Attach the published flow to a WhatsApp Cloud inbox, as you would any bot. ## Templates Eight ready-made flows: order tracking, order-issue intake, department routing, a FAQ menu, complaint intake, VIP priority routing, an Arabic-or-English welcome, and a welcome that collects the request. Each asks for your teams, labels and language, then creates a **draft** whose every message and branch is yours to edit. ## What publishing refuses Publishing is the gate, and it checks the whole graph: - exactly one **Start**, with nothing leading into it - every required output **connected** — including every button and every list option - every node **reachable** from Start - **no loop that never waits** for the customer - a **Go to** that points at a real node, not at itself or Start - teams, agents, labels, attributes, audiences and stores that exist **in this account**, and known variables - every attached inbox able to run **every node in the flow** An **optional** output — a question's *invalid* or *timeout*, a menu's *other*, a lookup's *not found* — may be left unconnected on purpose. If the conversation takes it, your team gets the conversation. ## Who can do this Administrators only. Flows are not one of the permissions a custom role can be granted. See [roles and permissions](roles-and-permissions). ## Limits - **WhatsApp Cloud only.** No other channel, and no plan to accept one here. - **Entered from a customer message only.** Not from an order change, a schedule, a webhook or a [campaign](whatsapp-campaigns). - **WhatsApp's own shape applies.** At most 3 reply buttons, titles of 20 characters; one list of at most 10 rows; 4,096 characters of text. - **At most 300 nodes and 900 connections** per flow. - **A handoff ends the flow.** Once a person takes the conversation it stops and does not resume. An agent's reply ends the session too, including one sent from the WhatsApp Business app on a coexistence number. - **One published version at a time.** Conversations already running stay on the version they started on. - **Disable before deleting.** Disabling stops new sessions and hands the live ones to your team. - **Order lookups are capped** at ten per conversation per hour. - Outside [the WhatsApp 24-hour window](the-whatsapp-24-hour-window) a flow cannot send ordinary text, so it hands over. An approved template still sends. ## Related - [Automation or flow builder?](automation-or-flow-builder) - [Automation rules](automation-rules) - [Agent bots](agent-bots) - [Connect WhatsApp](connect-whatsapp) ## If it does not work **Publish is refused.** Read the list above the canvas. Each problem names its node. **The flow never starts.** Check it is published, attached to a WhatsApp Cloud inbox, and that the conversation arrives **pending** with nobody assigned. Then check the Start keywords — one the customer did not type sends the conversation to your team. **It stopped halfway.** Open **Sessions** on the flow. Each session shows where it ended and why.