Debugging your rules

When a rule isn't firing, work through this checklist.

1. Did you save?

Sounds obvious. Open Dashboard → Rules, scroll to the bottom, and confirm there's a green "Saved" indicator. The bot doesn't pick up unsaved changes.

2. Test from a clean session

If you're testing in Test bots or the live widget, the bot may be answering from session context. Open an incognito window and start a brand new conversation.

3. Check the order

Rules run top-to-bottom. The first return wins. If two rules could match the same message, only the upper one fires.

4. Print to debug

You can use print() inside respond() — output goes to the bot's log. View it in Dashboard → Bot status → View logs.

def respond(message, context):
    msg = message.lower()
    print(f"[rule] received: {msg!r}")

    if "hours" in msg:
        print("[rule] hours rule matched")
        return "Mon-Fri 9-6."

    print("[rule] no rule matched, falling through to LLM")
    return None

5. Watch out for case sensitivity

"Hours" won't match if "hours" in msg. Always lowercase the input first:

msg = message.lower().strip()

6. Watch out for whitespace and punctuation

"hours?" includes a ?. "hours " has a trailing space. Strip and normalise:

import string
msg = message.lower().strip()
clean = msg.translate(str.maketrans("", "", string.punctuation))

7. Common syntax errors

• Missing colon after def respond(...) — Python won't parse it.
• Mismatched indentation — use 4 spaces, not tabs, and don't mix.
• Quotes — don't use curly quotes (" "). Use straight ASCII quotes (").
• Always return something — even if it's None. Falling off the end without a return raises an error.

8. Test in isolation

Want to be sure your regex or condition is correct? Strip the rule down to one test case:

def respond(message, context):
    return f"DEBUG echo: you said {message!r}"

Save, send messages — every reply will be that debug string. You know rules are running. Then build back up.

9. Still stuck?

Open a support ticket from Dashboard → Support and paste your rules.py. We'll look at it.