Flow not triggering
If a customer sends your keyword and the bot doesn't reply, go through this list. Most problems are one of the first five.
Checklist
1. Is the flow turned on?
On Automation → Flows, the flow's card must say Active. If it says Inactive, open it and click Save and turn on.
2. Does the keyword really match?
Open the flow and click the Start card.
- With The message is exactly the keyword, the whole message must be the keyword. "menu" works; "menu please" or "Hi, menu" doesn't. Try The message contains the keyword instead.
- Check the spelling, and add other spellings customers use.
- Capitals don't matter, and spaces at the start and end are ignored.
See Start a flow.
3. Did another flow answer instead?
If two active flows match the same message, the one created first runs. Check your other flows for the same or overlapping keywords (especially "contains" keywords).
4. Is the customer already in another flow?
- If a flow is waiting for their answer (after buttons, a list or a question), their message is treated as the answer. If it isn't a valid answer, they're asked again; after 3 wrong answers the bot stops.
- If a flow is on a Wait step for them, nothing new starts until the wait ends.
The inbox shows a purple banner "The bot is handling this chat with "…"" while a flow is running for that customer. To clear it, reply to the customer from the inbox.
5. Has the customer opted out?
Bots don't talk to opted-out contacts. Check the contact in the inbox's contact panel or on the Contacts page. They can send START to subscribe again.
6. Is it a "first message" flow?
A flow set to A new contact messages for the first time only runs for someone who has never messaged this number before. If you're testing with a number that has chatted before, it won't run. Test with a new number. See Test and turn on a flow.
7. Is the contact blocked?
Messages from blocked contacts are ignored completely.
8. Is the message reaching KiliChat at all?
If the customer's message doesn't appear in the inbox, the problem isn't the flow. See Number not receiving messages.
The flow started but stopped halfway
| What happened | Likely reason |
|---|---|
| Stopped after buttons, a list or a question | The path for that answer isn't connected to anything, so the flow ended. Connect it on the canvas. |
| Stopped after your team replied | A reply from your team always stops the bot. This is on purpose. |
| Stopped after several wrong answers | After 3 wrong answers the bot hands the chat to your team. |
| Stopped after a long Wait | More than 24 hours passed since the customer last wrote, so a normal message couldn't be sent. Use a Template step after long waits. |
| Stopped at a Template step | The template isn't approved any more, or it has a media header, link, coupon or carousel, which flows can't fill in yet. Use a simple template. |
| Didn't continue after the customer replied the next day | If a customer doesn't answer for 24 hours, the flow is dropped. |
| An API call always goes down "Failed" | The other system didn't answer with 2xx within 10 seconds, redirected, or returned something that isn't JSON. Ask your developer to check the URL and headers. |
| Stopped with a loop | A flow can run 100 steps in a row without waiting for the customer. A loop with no question or wait in it hits this limit. |
| Customers in the middle got stuck after you edited the flow | You deleted the step they were waiting at. They can start again with the keyword. |
The card shows "Failed" runs
The Failed number on a flow's card counts runs that stopped with an error (like the template or 24-hour cases above). KiliChat doesn't show the error for each run on screen yet. Test the flow yourself to see where it stops, or ask us and we'll look up the exact reason.
The bot replied twice, or a different bot replied
- KiliChat itself sends at most one automatic answer per customer message: either a flow, or the welcome or off-hours reply from Settings → Automation, never both. A message from a flow followed later by a sequence message is normal, though; check Automation → Sequences.
- Another tool: if your WhatsApp account is also connected to another chatbot service, both may reply. In Settings → WhatsApp connection, the checklist warns "More than one app receives these messages". Ask us to help remove the old one.
Still stuck?
Send us the flow name, the customer's number (or your test number) and roughly when it happened on WhatsApp. See Contact support.