See what your bot is doing

What this does for you

While a bot works on your message, the chat shows one calm status line instead of a stream of technical rows. The line tells you whether the bot is working or waiting for you, how long it has been going, and lets you look at its steps or stop it, without leaving the conversation.

Before you start

• You have a bot and have sent it a message (see Start here).
• How the bot's avatar moves in each state is on What your bot's avatar is telling you.

Steps

1. Read the status line. While the bot works, one line sits under the last message: the bot's avatar, Working, and the time so far, which counts up each second. Nothing else is added to the chat while it works.

2. Open the step list. Click the status line, or move to it with the keyboard and press Enter, to show its steps. Each step is said in plain words, such as Thinking, Using a tool or Saving to memory, and the steps are numbered from 1. Every step but the last has a check mark; the last one is what the bot is doing now. Click the line or press Enter again to hide them.

3. Answer an approval card. When the bot needs your permission before it goes on, an approval card appears above the status line, and the line reads Waiting for you. The card says what the bot wants to do and offers its buttons, such as Allow once and Deny. The bot carries on as soon as you choose. See Approval cards for what each button does.

4. Stop the bot. Stop sits at the end of the status line. While the bot works and you have nothing typed, the send button in the message box turns into a Stop button too. Either one halts the task straight away; whatever the bot already did stays done. If you type a message instead, the send button comes back, and your message waits its turn behind the running task.

5. Read a failure. If something goes wrong during the task, a failure card appears in the chat that says what happened and what to do next. It never shows as a red line in the step list.

A worked example

You ask your bot to send this week's figures to the finance team. Under your message, the status line reads:

(o) Working · 0:12   Show steps                                [Stop]

You click it, and the steps open:

(o) Working · 0:12   Hide steps                                [Stop]
    1 ✓ Thinking
    2 ● Using a tool

The bot then needs your permission to send the email. An approval card appears above the line, and the line changes:

(o) Waiting for you · 0:31   Show steps                        [Stop]

You choose Allow once on the card. The bot sends the email and writes its reply, and the status line goes away when the task is done.

What can go wrong

See also

• Approval cards — what each button on an approval card does.
• What your bot's avatar is telling you — the avatar's states, including Working and Needs you.
• Read a transcript — queuing a message while a bot works.
• See what your bots are doing — every run of every bot, in one place.