Permit variables in Chat Block

MindStudio IDE Feature Requests
1

Allow variables in the chat block in:

  • System Introduction
  • Conversation Starters

1) What problem does this feature request solve?

The text at the beginning of a chat can currently be set in two ways:

  • hard code it into System Introduction and Conversation Starters
  • “include in chat history” a previous display step.

That is quite limiting for kicking off conversations.

2) What is the use case for this feature?

Want to enable the chat to engage more intuitively with users to begin the conversation based on context it knows - eg what a user is interested in, the user’s language preference, etc.

3) Please describe the functionality of this feature request.

Below outlines current issues and proposed solutions.

If the text is in System Introduction, it can’t be changed - eg different language, difference need for kick of text based on prior step etc.

If it has to come from a prior step that is shown to users (eg a display block), they have to click next before they can engage in the conversation. So let’s say I ask them a question in a display block, they then have to select Next, before in the chat they could then answer that question as the beginning of the chat.

If I used a user input block instead, I could have them answer the question and the answer transfer to the chat, but this doesn’t trigger the chat to engage with them - they would then have to type something else for the chat to engage.

Options:

  • Allow variables to be passed into the chat block - I can then define exactly what I want it to say from previous steps whether or not these are displayed to the user.
  • Allow the chat block to have an option to initiate a conversation. I could then define ideally in an extra field on the chat block how that should start the conversation, or if I had to could define this in the system prompt.
  • Allow blocks that are “Save to Variable” to still be “Include in Chat History” as well as being passed to a variable. Ie - why is this unavailable for save to variable but available for display to user. Removing this restriction would also solve the problem.