Shopping Flow

A flow with a numbered menu and branching using .choose().

The flow

import { Bot, flow } from '@botmesh/core'
import { BaileysProvider } from '@botmesh/baileys'

const bot = new Bot({
  provider: new BaileysProvider({ session: 'demo-bot', qr: { terminal: true, small: true } }),
})

const catalog: Record<string, string> = {
  electronics: '📱 *Electronics* — iPhone 15 ($999), Samsung S24 ($899), Xiaomi 14 ($599)',
  clothing: '👕 *Clothing* — Shirt ($25), Jeans ($45), Jacket ($80)',
  home: '🏠 *Home* — Lamp ($35), Rug ($60), Glass ($12)',
}

const buy = flow('buy')
  .say('🛒 *What do you want to buy?*')
  .choose('Write the option number', {
    electronics: 'Electronics 📱',
    clothing: 'Clothing 👕',
    home: 'Home 🏠',
  }, 'category')
  .say((_ctx, c) => catalog[String(c.state.category)])
  .say('✅ Thanks for your interest! Anything else?')

bot.use(buy)

await bot.start()

How it works

1. User sends "buy"
2. .say(...) sends the intro, then .choose() builds a numbered menu from the options keys (1) Electronics 📱, 2) Clothing 👕, 3) Home 🏠) and waits for a valid number
3. The chosen KEY (electronics, clothing or home — not the number the user typed) is stored in c.state.category, since 'category' is the 3rd argument to .choose()
4. The next .say() reads c.state.category to print the matching catalog text
5. The flow closes with a thank-you message

Branch with then sub-steps

Instead of reading c.state afterwards, each option can run its own then step right when it's picked. Control returns to the parent flow once the sub-step finishes — there is no separate nested flow to build:

const buy = flow('buy')
  .say('🛒 *What do you want to buy?*')
  .choose('Write the option number', {
    electronics: {
      label: 'Electronics 📱',
      then: (_ctx, c) => { c.state.summary = '📱 iPhone 15 — $999' },
    },
    clothing: {
      label: 'Clothing 👕',
      then: (_ctx, c) => { c.state.summary = '👕 Shirt — $25' },
    },
    home: {
      label: 'Home 🏠',
      then: (_ctx, c) => { c.state.summary = '🏠 Lamp — $35' },
    },
  })
  .say((_ctx, c) => `${c.state.summary}\n\n✅ Thanks for your interest!`)

bot.use(buy)

The chosen key is still available afterwards as c.state.choice (the default stateKey when you don't pass one) if you need it later in the chain.

Give the whole flow a timeout

.timeout() sets how long each wait in the flow (including the .choose() menu) waits for a reply. The message sent on timeout is NOT a .timeout() argument — configure it once on the bot:

const bot = new Bot({
  provider: new BaileysProvider({ session: 'demo-bot' }),
  conversation: { timeoutMessage: '⏰ Session expired due to inactivity.' },
})

const buy = flow('buy')
  .timeout('2m')
  .say('🛒 *What do you want to buy?*')
  .choose('Write the option number', {
    electronics: 'Electronics 📱',
    clothing: 'Clothing 👕',
    home: 'Home 🏠',
  }, 'category')
  .say((_ctx, c) => catalog[String(c.state.category)])

bot.use(buy)

Back to the main menu

An option with goto leaves the current flow for another one; an option whose then is a whole flow runs it inline and comes back (like .use()):

const menu = flow('menu').choose('Main menu', { buy: 'Buy 🛒', help: 'Help' }, 'section')

const address = flow('address').ask('Street?', 'street').ask('City?', 'city')

const checkout = flow('checkout')
  .choose('Confirm your order?', {
    yes: { label: 'Yes ✅', then: address },   // runs the sub-flow, then continues below
    back: { label: '⬅️ Main menu', goto: menu }, // leaves this flow
  })
  .say((_ctx, c) => `📦 Shipping to ${c.state.street}, ${c.state.city}`)

bot.use([menu, checkout]) // `address` runs inline, it needs no registration

bot.lint() reports a goto to a flow that is not registered (see Inspect & lint flows).

Next steps

• Support with timeout — timeout and fallback
• Flows — full DSL guide