Support Flow with Timeout

A support conversation with an inactivity timeout, built with bot.conversation() for full control over the exchange.

The conversation

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

const bot = new Bot({
  provider: new BaileysProvider({
    session: 'demo-bot',
    qr: { terminal: true, small: true },
  }),
  conversation: { timeoutMessage: '⏰ Your support session expired due to inactivity.' },
})

bot.conversation('support', async (c, ctx) => {
  await ctx.reply('🛠️ *Technical support*\nDescribe your issue in one sentence (you have 2 minutes):')
  const issue = await c.waitText({ timeout: '2m', maxAttempts: 3 })

  const priority = await c.choose('How urgent is it?', {
    high: 'Urgent 🔴',
    medium: 'Can wait a few hours 🟡',
    low: 'No rush 🟢',
  })

  await ctx.reply(`🎫 Ticket registered ("${issue}", priority: ${priority}). We will contact you soon.`)
})

await bot.start()

How it works

1. User sends "support" and the conversation starts — ctx is the message that triggered it, c is the ConversationControls for this conversation
2. ctx.reply(...) announces the flow, then c.waitText({ timeout: '2m', maxAttempts: 3 }) waits up to 2 minutes for a text reply
3. If the user goes silent for 2 minutes, a ConversationTimeout is thrown, the conversation ends, and the bot sends the conversation.timeoutMessage configured on the Bot
4. c.choose(...) sends a numbered menu built from its options and returns the chosen KEY (high, medium or low)
5. The bot confirms the ticket with the collected issue and priority

Handle timeout and cancellation explicitly

c.waitText / c.choose throw dedicated errors when a conversation ends early — catch them to customize the reply instead of relying on the global conversation.timeoutMessage:

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

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

bot.conversation('support', async (c, ctx) => {
  try {
    await ctx.reply('🛠️ Describe your issue (or send "cancel"):')
    const issue = await c.waitText({ timeout: '2m' })
    await ctx.reply(`✅ Registered: "${issue}". We will contact you.`)
  } catch (err) {
    if (err instanceof ConversationTimeout) {
      await ctx.reply('⏰ Session expired due to inactivity.')
    } else if (err instanceof ConversationCancelled) {
      await ctx.reply('🛑 Session cancelled.')
    } else {
      throw err
    }
  }
})

await bot.start()

Commands always escape

A slash command such as /reset (see slashCommandsPlugin) always beats an active conversation — users are never trapped in a flow.

Next steps

• Plugin: rate limiter — limit messages
• Flows — full DSL guide