---
title: Replies
---

Stealth replies can send one or more replies to a user. Reply types are dependent on the specific messaging service you're using. Each service integration will detail it's supported reply types in it's respective docs.

However, here is a generic reply using text, delays, and suggestions.

```yml
- reply_type: text
  text: "Hello. Welcome to our Bot."
- reply_type: delay
  duration: 2
- reply_type: text
  text: "We're here to help you learn more about something or another."
- reply_type: delay
  duration: 2
- reply_type: text
  text: 'By using the "Yes" and "No" buttons below, are you interested in do you want to continue?'
  suggestions:
    - text: "Yes"
    - text: "No"
```

## Format

Stealth reply templates are written in YAML. Stealth doesn't use advanced YAML features, but we do recommend you familiarize yourself with the syntax. In the above reply example, you should be able to see there are 5 replies included in the reply file.

**Caveat:** YAML interprets "yes", "no", "true", "false", "y", "n", etc (without quotes) as boolean values. So make sure you wrap them in quotes as we did above.

## ERB

Reply templates currently support ERB:

```erb
- reply_type: text
  text: "Hello, <%= current_user.first_name %>. Welcome to our Bot."
- reply_type: delay
  duration: 2
- reply_type: text
  text: "We're here to help you learn more about something or another."
- reply_type: delay
  duration: 2
<% if current_user.valid? %>
  - reply_type: text
    text: 'By using the "Yes" and "No" buttons below, are you interested in do you want to continue?'
    suggestions:
      - text: "Yes"
      - text: "No"
<% end %>
```

With ERB in your reply templates, you can access controller instance variables and helper methods in your replies.

## Delays

Delays are a common pattern of chatbot design. After a block of text, it's recommended to pause for a bit to give the user a chance to read the message. The duration of the delay depends on the length of the message sent.

Stealth will pause for the duration specified. For service integrations that support it (like Facebook), Stealth will send a typing indicator while it is paused.

## Naming Conventions

Replies are named after a flow's state (which is also the controller's action). So for a given controller:

```ruby
class QuotesController < BotController
  def say_price

  end
end
```

You would need to place your reply template in `replies/quotes/say_price.yml`. If your template contains ERB, you must add the `.erb` suffix to the template filename: `replies/quotes/say_price.yml.erb`.