Canonical page: https://docs.teloring.com/docs/product/studio/simulator Last modified: 2026-09-02T07:03:21.000Z # Test your chatbot with the simulator The **simulator** lets you talk to your chatbot before a customer does. You type as the customer; the flow answers exactly as it would in a real conversation — same wording, same buttons, same branching — and **nothing is sent, nothing is saved, and no run is recorded**. It is the difference between *"I think this flow works"* and *"I have had the conversation".*  ## Opening it 1. Open the flow in Studio. 2. Click the **Incoming Message** trigger on the canvas. 3. In the properties panel on the right, click **💬 Test this flow**, just under the block's description. The panel turns into a conversation. **← Back to settings** returns you to the block's properties whenever you want. :::note Incoming Message only The simulator is a chatbot tester, so it starts from the one trigger a chatbot starts from. On any other block the button is not shown. Selecting an Incoming Message block first is what makes it appear. ::: Your unsaved canvas changes are saved automatically before the simulation starts, so what you talk to is what is on your screen right now — **the draft, not the published version**. That is the point: you are testing what you are about to publish. ## Having the conversation  | Element | What it is | | --- | --- | | **Simulation** badge | A reminder that none of this is real. | | **This is a simulation only** | The notice at the top of the panel, spelling out what is and is not played out. | | **Your messages** (right, teal) | What you typed, playing the customer. | | **Bot messages** (left, white) | Exactly what the flow would send, with the block's name above each one. | | **Grey system lines** | The simulator explaining itself — a block it skipped, a branch it took, a dead end it found. | | **↻ Start over** | Throws the conversation away and begins a fresh one from the trigger. | | **Message box** | Type and press **Enter** to send. `Shift + Enter` adds a line break. | | **Hint line** | Below the box: what the flow is waiting for right now. | Send the first message and the flow starts, exactly as it would if that message had arrived from a customer. ### Buttons are clickable When your flow sends an interactive WhatsApp message — reply buttons, a list, a carousel — the simulator shows the buttons and you can **press them**. Pressing one sends its label as your reply. Walking a button-driven chatbot is a matter of pressing its buttons. Buttons from earlier in the conversation grey out once the flow has moved on, so you cannot accidentally answer a question that is no longer being asked. A button that opens something on the customer's phone — a URL, a phone number, an email address — is shown as **Button opens: …** rather than as a reply, because a customer pressing it does not send you anything. ### When the flow ends When the flow has nothing more to send, you will see: > The flow has nothing more to send. Send another message to start it again. Sending another message re-fires the trigger and runs the flow from the top — which is what happens in production once a flow has finished with a conversation. ### Starting fresh Nothing is saved. Closing the panel, clicking **↻ Start over**, or leaving the flow all throw the conversation away, and opening the simulator again starts from an empty screen. A session also expires on its own after 30 minutes of inactivity. ## What is played out, and what is not This is the part to understand before you trust what you see. ### Played out exactly | Block | Behaviour | | --- | --- | | **[Reply Message](./actions.md#reply-message)** — text | The message is composed the same way it would be live, with every `{{variable}}` filled in from the conversation. | | **[Reply Message](./actions.md#reply-message)** — interactive | Buttons, list rows and carousel buttons are shown and are pressable. | | **Wait for client response** | The flow stops and waits for you to type, exactly as it waits for a customer. | | **[Conditions](./conditions.md)** | Evaluated with the real rule engine — the same operators, the same matching — whenever the values they test are known. | ### Announced and skipped Everything that reaches outside the conversation is skipped, and the simulator says so in the transcript. You never have to wonder whether something silently happened. | Block | What the simulator says | | --- | --- | | **[HTTP Request](./actions.md#http-request)** | *would call an external system. Skipped — a simulation never reaches outside.* | | **[Send Email](./actions.md#send-email)** | *would send an email. Skipped.* | | **Send SMS** | *would send an SMS. Skipped.* | | **Send WhatsApp Template** | *would send a WhatsApp template. Skipped.* | | **[Customer Record](./actions.md#customer-record)** | *would create or update a CRM record. Skipped.* | | **[Contact Update](./actions.md#contact-update)** | *would update the contact. Skipped.* | | **[Change Conversation](./actions.md#change-conversation)** | *would change the conversation — labels, priority, status. Skipped.* | | **[Save as Variable](./actions.md#save-as-variable)** | *would save a variable. Skipped, so a later branch reading it will ask you which way to go.* | | **[Send Teloring Notification](./actions.md#send-teloring-notification)** | *would notify agents. Skipped.* | | **[Code](./actions.md#code)** | *would run custom code. Skipped, so a later branch reading its output will ask you which way to go.* | | **[Private Note](./actions.md#private-note)** | *would add a private note to the conversation. Skipped.* | | **[Wait](./actions.md#wait)** | *would pause the flow. The simulation continues straight away instead of waiting.* | | Anything else | *is not a message, so the simulation skips it.* | ### Where the conversation stops Two blocks end the transcript, because they are where the bot stops answering in production too: | Block | What the simulator says | | --- | --- | | **[End Session](./actions.md#end-session)** | *ends the flow here. In a real conversation the bot stops answering at this point.* | | **[Change Conversation](./actions.md#change-conversation)** with **Assign AI / human agent** on | *hands the conversation to a person. The bot stops answering here — in production the customer's next message goes to an agent.* | ## When the simulator asks you a question This is the clever part, and the one worth reading twice. Suppose your flow calls a webhook to look up which department a customer belongs to, then branches on the answer. The simulator skipped the webhook — so it genuinely does not know what came back, and guessing would make the whole rehearsal a lie. Instead it stops and asks you, offering **the branches you actually built** as buttons.  > **"Route by department" — which branch?** > The value would have come from: Classify via CRM > > `Sales` `Support` `None of the above` Pressing **Sales** means *"assume the outside system answered so that this branch matches"*, and the conversation carries on down it. | Detail | Why | | --- | --- | | The buttons are your own branches | Including the **ELSE** branch you built, shown as **None of the above**. Nothing is invented. | | There is no free-text box here | The set of branches is known, so an open box could only produce an answer your flow has no path for. | | A branch with nothing wired to it still appears | Marked **nothing connected**. Finding that dead end is exactly what a rehearsal is for. | | The blocks the value came from are named | *"The value would have come from: Classify via CRM"* points straight at the skipped block. | ### What the simulator knows, and what it has to ask about | It evaluates for real | It asks you | | --- | --- | | `{{message.content}}` — what you typed | `{{http.…}}` — an HTTP Request's response | | `{{conversation.…}}` | `{{var.…}}` — a saved variable | | `{{contact.…}}` | `{{code.…}}` — a Code block's output | | `{{channel.…}}` | `{{customer.…}}` — a CRM lookup | | `{{client_reply.…}}` | Anything else produced by a skipped block | A value the simulator *does* know but which happens to be empty — a contact with no email on file, say — is treated as a real, empty value and the condition is evaluated against it. That is a genuine case worth testing, not a gap. Two conditions are **always** asked about, because they read live system state a rehearsal has no business consulting: | Condition | Choices offered | | --- | --- | | **[Business Hours](./conditions.md#business-hours)** | `Open` / `Closed` | | **[Agent Availability](./conditions.md#agent-availability)** | `An agent is online` / `No agent is online` | That is a feature, not a limitation: it lets you rehearse your after-hours behaviour at eleven in the morning. ## Other things the simulator tells you | Message | What it means | | --- | --- | | *"…" matched "Sales".* | The condition ran for real and chose that branch. | | *"…" matched no branch, so this path stops here.* | No rule matched and there is no ELSE. In production the flow would stop too. | | *"…" matched no branch and has no ELSE, so the flow waits for another message.* | The flow is sitting on the condition, waiting for a reply that does match. Type something else. | | *"…" took the "Sales" branch, but nothing is connected to it — in production the flow would stop here.* | A dead-end branch. Wire it up. | | *"…" has no message text once its variables are filled in, so nothing would be sent.* | A Reply Message whose text is empty after variables resolve — usually a variable that does not exist at that point. | | *A typing indicator would show here.* | A Reply Message set to the "typing…" interactive type. | | *A location message would be sent here. It is not something the customer replies to, so the simulation moves on.* | Location, request-location and contact cards are shown as notes rather than as chat bubbles. | | *The simulation stopped after a great many steps — check the flow for a loop.* | The flow ran an unusual number of blocks in one turn. Look for a loop. | ## Limits | Limit | Value | | --- | --- | | Messages per simulation | 120 | | Blocks per turn | 120, then the run stops with a loop warning | | Message length | 2,000 characters | | Session lifetime | 30 minutes of inactivity | | Trigger types supported | **Incoming Message** only | If a session expires mid-test you will see *"This simulation has expired. Start a new one."* Nothing was lost, because nothing was being saved. ## Permissions | To do this | You need | | --- | --- | | Open the simulator and hold a conversation | **Studio → Update** | **Update** rather than **Read** because the simulator saves your draft before it starts. See [System permissions](../roles/system-permissions.md). A simulation is bound to the agent who opened it. Two people can each run their own on the same flow at the same time without interfering. ## Simulator, Test Run, or the real thing? | Tool | What it proves | What it costs | | --- | --- | --- | | **Simulator** | The conversation — wording, branching, buttons, what the bot says when the customer says X. | Nothing. No message, no run recorded, no credits. | | **[Test Run](./publishing.md#test-run)** | The flow's shape — every block wired, configured and reachable — in one pass with sample data. | Records an [execution](./executions.md), marked as a test. | | **Publishing to a test inbox** | Everything, including real delivery, real timing and real external calls. | Real messages, real credits, real webhook calls. | A good order: **simulator** while you are writing the conversation, **Test Run** before you publish, **a test inbox** for the final check. :::caution What the simulator cannot prove It cannot prove that your webhook returns what you think, that an email actually arrives, that a WhatsApp template is approved, or that a message is delivered inside the 24-hour window. Those need a real send. The simulator proves the *conversation*; a test inbox proves the *plumbing*. ::: ## Next - [Executions](./executions.md) — read back what real runs actually did. - [Conditions](./conditions.md) — the branching the simulator walks with you. - [Testing & publishing](./publishing.md) — the safe release routine. - [Flow recipes](./examples.md) — complete chatbots to rehearse against.