Flow as chat
Flow as chat turns any flow into a conversational runtime. When enabled, the flow exposes a chat interface instead of (or in addition to) the traditional input form — users send messages, the flow runs once per turn, and each run's output is rendered as an assistant reply in the thread.
This is different from AI Flow Chat (the editor-side assistant that helps you build flows). Flow as chat is a runtime feature: it turns the finished flow itself into a chatbot that end-users interact with.
Enabling chat on a flow
Open the flow in the editor and toggle Chat input on the flow's Input settings. Enabling chat sets chat_input_enabled: true on the flow definition (part of the OpenFlow spec).
When chat is enabled, a chat-input virtual node is rendered on the flow graph to make it clear that the flow's main input comes from the chat interface rather than a form. The runtime passes two extra fields to the flow on every turn:
- The user's latest chat message (as the flow's chat input argument)
- A
memory_ididentifying the current conversation
The flow is free to use the memory_id to load conversation history, persist state, or pass it to AI agent steps for multi-turn memory.
Conversations
Every chat session is a conversation. Conversations are persisted server-side (tables flow_conversation and flow_conversation_message), so users can reopen past chats, resume where they left off, and browse history from the conversations sidebar.
Each turn adds at least two messages to the conversation: the user's prompt and the assistant's reply. Tool usage steps, when shown, appear as additional messages threaded into the turn.
Running a flow as chat
When a chat-enabled flow is opened in the runner, the form is replaced (or augmented) by a chat interface with:
- A message list showing the conversation so far
- A text input at the bottom
- A sidebar listing past conversations, with the ability to create a new one, rename, or delete
Sending a message starts a new flow run with the message as input. The assistant's reply is the flow's output, streamed or polled as it arrives.
Cancel button
While a turn is in-flight, the Send button is replaced by a Stop button. Clicking Stop cancels the underlying queued job (via JobService.cancelQueuedJob) so a long-running flow doesn't block the conversation. Cancel works in both polling and streaming modes.
Image outputs
If the flow's output contains image data (data URLs, base64-encoded images, or S3 objects resolving to images), the chat renders them inline in the assistant's reply. This lets chat flows return generated charts, screenshots, or AI-generated images without any extra configuration.
Tool usage display
When a chat flow uses AI agent steps that call tools, each tool invocation is displayed inline in the conversation as a collapsible message. Tool messages show:
- The tool name (and flow step name)
- A success indicator (green check or red cross)
- The tool's arguments and result (expandable)
This makes it easy for end-users to see what the agent did on their behalf, and for developers to debug multi-step agent runs.