Start - Voiceflow Documentation

The start command initiates an interactive conversation with your Voiceflow project. This allows you to test your project’s dialog flow by sending text inputs and receiving responses.

Usage

voiceflow dialog start [options]

Options

Option	Shorthand	Description
`--environment`	`-e`	Alias of the environment to use (default: “main”)
`--user-id`	`-u`	User ID for the conversation (optional)
`--record-file`	`-f`	File to save the conversation recording (optional)
`--save-test`	`-t`	Save the conversation as a test file (optional)

Examples

Start a basic conversation

voiceflow dialog start

This starts a conversation with your Voiceflow project in the default environment (Main). You can type messages and see the responses from your project.

Start with a specific user ID

voiceflow dialog start --user-id user123

Using a consistent user ID allows the conversation to maintain state across multiple sessions.

Record a conversation

voiceflow dialog start --record-file my-conversation.json

This will save the entire conversation to a file that can be replayed later using the replay command.

Start a conversation and save it as a test

voiceflow dialog start --save-test

This records the conversation and automatically saves it as a YAML test file that can be used with the voiceflow test commands.

Conversation in a specific environment

voiceflow dialog start -e my-feature

Starts the conversation using the environment whose alias is my-feature. You can find each environment’s alias in Settings → Environments.

Interactive Commands

During an active conversation session, you can use these special commands:

Command	Action
`exit` or `quit`	End the conversation and exit
`Ctrl+C`	Interrupt the conversation (will save recordings if enabled)

Recording Format

When you use the --record-file option, the conversation is saved in JSON format with the following structure:

{
  "name": "Recording_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS",
  "interactions": [
    {
      "id": "launch",
      "user": {
        "type": "launch"
      },
      "agent": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "value": "Hello! How can I help you today?"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "interaction_1",
      "user": {
        "type": "text",
        "text": "What's the weather like?"
      },
      "agent": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "value": "I don't have access to weather information."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

This recording can be used with the voiceflow dialog replay command to repeat the conversation.

​Usage

​Options

​Examples

​Start a basic conversation

​Start with a specific user ID

​Record a conversation

​Start a conversation and save it as a test

​Conversation in a specific environment

​Interactive Commands

​Recording Format