Each of the three scopes which can be written to at runtime have an associated component for storing data on it:

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These aren’t the actual names of the components, rather they are the signature property of their respective components. Signature properties give developers a shorthand way to refer to a component.

To store data in a scope, use the appropriate *_set component. They accept either the name of a variable, or a dictionary of variable names and values. Both methods are described below.

Using a string

Many triggers and components will output data to flow.result. Often you’ll want to move that value to another location, otherwise it will be overwritten the next time a trigger or component runs. This is such a common pattern that we’ve added some syntactic sugar to the *_set components to make this even easier.

So this:

- SCOPE_set: VARIABLE

is equivalent to this:

- SCOPE_set:
      VARIABLE: (@ flow.result )

Example 1

In this example, we ask the user for their name. Their response is stored at flow.result, which we then save to user.name using the user_set component.

steps:
  - ask: What is your name?     # The user's input is saved to flow.result
  - user_set: name              # Set user.name to flow.result
  - say: Hello, (@ user.name )!

Example 2

In this example, the Dialogflow trigger stores the matched intent at flow.result, which we then move to flow.intent.

triggers:
  - integration: integration.dialogflow
    expect: dialogflow

steps:
  - flow_set: intent
  - say: The intent is (@ flow.intent )

Using a dictionary

Sometimes the value you want to store is not located at flow.result. Or you may want to set multiple variables at the same time. To do this, provide the *_set component with a dictionary:

steps:
  - flow_set:
      foo: bar
      count: 1