Skip to main content
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

OptionShorthandDescription
--environment-eEnvironment to use (default: “development”)
--user-id-uUser ID for the conversation (optional)
--record-file-fFile to save the conversation recording (optional)
--save-test-tSave 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 development environment. 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 production environment

voiceflow dialog start -e production
Starts the conversation using your production environment settings.

​
Interactive Commands

During an active conversation session, you can use these special commands:
CommandAction
exit or quitEnd the conversation and exit
Ctrl+CInterrupt 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.