Build overview
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To build Conversational Actions, you create and deploy the following components:
- Actions project - The logical container for all of your Conversational Actions, web services, and web apps. It also defines project settings and resources that describe how to deploy your project to Actions on Google.
- Invocation model - Defines how users discover and start the Actions inside your project. You build your invocation model with intents and types.
- Conversation model - Defines what users can say to your Actions and how your Actions respond to users. You build your conversational model with intents, types, scenes, and prompts.
- Webhooks - Actions can trigger webhooks to delegate additional logic to your fulfillment services, like generating prompts, validating data, and more.
- Interactive Canvas - Instead of sending simple text responses or rich cards and images, you can deliver a full-screen, interactive web app powered by HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
The following sections describe the tools that you'll use to build Actions.
Actions
The Actions API is a set of developer tools for building Actions for the Google Assistant. It consists of the following features:
An open, file-based representation of an Actions project - Build your invocation and conversation models with intents, types, scenes, and prompts. You can edit your Actions projects with your favorite text editor, check them into source control, build automated processes, and more.
A command-line interface (CLI) - The gactions tool provides a CLI to bootstrap and automate development of your Actions. It lets you initialize standard Action project files, push updates to the Actions console, deploy Action projects, and more. The tool lets you perform many common workflows, such as importing existing projects or starting work on a feature branch using your favorite source control system.
The Actions API - The Actions API is the same API used by the gactions tool. The Actions API provides a list of REST endpoints to manage your Actions, including for testing and building. The API lets you use JSON requests to perform many common workflows. When using the Actions API there are certain limits and best practices that you should consider.
Webhooks and a Node.js fulfillment library - Your Actions can delegate business logic to your web services with webhooks and a JSON based messaging format. We provide a Node.js fulfillment library that provides idiomatic interfaces for the Conversation Webhook. This library makes it easy to implement many common user flows. For example, some features include extracting parameters from a user query and generating a multimodal experience (voice only and voice and visuals) for Google Assistant.
Actions Builder
Actions Builder gives you a powerful and easy-to-use, web-based IDE that's integrated into the Actions console. Since Actions Builder is built on the same technologies as the Actions API, you can use it on its own or together with the Actions API depending on your needs.
The Actions Builder UI is split into the following areas:
- The top menu provides access to the different areas of the Actions console, and you can access Actions Builder on the Develop tab.
- The left menu lets you access all the components to build Actions, like intents and scenes.
- The build area lets you build the component you're working on.
- The details area lets you configure more details about the component you're working on.
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2024-09-18 UTC.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2024-09-18 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eConversational Actions are built using an Actions project, an invocation model, a conversation model, webhooks, and optionally Interactive Canvas.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eDevelopers can utilize the Actions API, which includes an open file-based project representation, a command-line interface, a REST API, and webhook support with a Node.js library.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eActions Builder provides a web-based IDE within the Actions console, offering a user-friendly interface for building and managing conversational actions, integrated with the Actions API.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["To build Conversational Actions, you create and deploy the following components:\n\n- **[Actions project](/assistant/conversational/build/projects)** - The logical container for all of your Conversational Actions, web services, and web apps. It also defines project settings and resources that describe how to deploy your project to Actions on Google.\n- **[Invocation model](/assistant/conversational/build/invocation)** - Defines how users discover and start the Actions inside your project. You build your invocation model with [intents](../intents) and [types](../types).\n- **[Conversation model](/assistant/conversational/build/conversation)** - Defines what users can say to your Actions and how your Actions respond to users. You build your conversational model with [intents](../intents), [types](../types), [scenes](../scenes), and [prompts](../prompts).\n- **[Webhooks](../webhooks)** - Actions can trigger webhooks to delegate additional logic to your fulfillment services, like generating prompts, validating data, and more.\n- **[Interactive Canvas](/assistant/interactivecanvas)** - Instead of sending simple text responses or rich cards and images, you can deliver a full-screen, interactive web app powered by HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.\n\nThe following sections describe the tools that you'll use to build Actions.\n\nActions \n\nThe Actions API is a set of developer tools for building Actions for the\nGoogle Assistant. It consists of the following features:\n\n- **An open, file-based representation of an Actions project** - Build your\n invocation and conversation models with\n [intents](/assistant/conversational/intents),\n [types](/assistant/conversational/types),\n [scenes](/assistant/conversational/scenes), and\n [prompts](/assistant/conversational/prompts). You can edit your Actions\n projects with your favorite text editor, check them into source control, build\n automated processes, and more.\n\n- **A command-line interface (CLI)** - The\n [`gactions` tool](/assistant/actionssdk/gactions) provides a CLI to bootstrap and\n automate development of your Actions. It lets you initialize standard Action\n project files, push updates to the Actions console, deploy Action projects,\n and more. The tool lets you perform many common workflows, such as importing\n existing projects or starting work on a feature branch using your favorite\n source control system.\n\n- **The Actions API** - The Actions API is the same API used by\n the `gactions` tool. The Actions API provides a list of REST endpoints to\n manage your Actions, including for testing and building. The API lets you use\n JSON requests to perform many common workflows. When\n [using the Actions API](/assistant/actions/api) there are\n certain limits and best practices that you should consider.\n\n- **Webhooks and a Node.js fulfillment library** - Your Actions can delegate\n business logic to your web services with webhooks and a JSON based messaging\n format. We provide a Node.js fulfillment library that provides idiomatic interfaces for the\n [Conversation Webhook](/assistant/conversational/webhooks). This library makes it\n easy to implement many common user flows. For example, some features include\n extracting parameters from a user query and generating a multimodal experience\n (voice only and voice and visuals) for Google Assistant.\n\nActions Builder \n\nActions Builder gives you a powerful and easy-to-use, web-based IDE that's\nintegrated into the Actions console. Since Actions Builder is built on the\nsame technologies as the Actions API, you can use it on its own or together with\nthe Actions API depending on your needs. \n\nThe Actions Builder UI is split into the following areas:\n\n1. The top menu provides access to the different areas of the Actions console, and you can access Actions Builder on the **Develop** tab.\n2. The left menu lets you access all the components to build Actions, like intents and scenes.\n3. The build area lets you build the component you're working on.\n4. The details area lets you configure more details about the component you're working on."]]
