Execute custom action to make an API call at server initialization without Widget

Hello guys, Pardon me for being a beginner with this post and to the rasa development. However, I am really aspiring to be a professional and contribute real soon. Well, I am really struggling to find a way to execute a custom action to make an API call as soon as the rasa server is started. So, I want the rasa server to simply run a custom action as soon as we start the rasa server and custom action server. The command I am using to start rasa server: rasa run --enable-api --cors “*” --debug --port 5005 The command I am using for custom action server: rasa run actions --port 5055 --debug

I have a custom action created. It is basically a function that would make an API call to a server and send data. Think of this as an outbound case where the first action is made by the bot without any intent from the user. I have tried to create a story and added the action at the start of story without intent and that did not work. The rasa server upon initialization does not execute that action. I have also tried to add in rules.

[ rule.yml ] rules:

  • rule: Make an API call conversation_start: true steps:
    • action: action_make_an_api_call

May be the format is incorrect or is it not possible to execute an action without an intent at all? I have already checked the other post that talks about execute custom action at initialization by making changes in the bot widget. The topic that I have is slightly different. Here there is no dependency with the widget.

Is there any way to trigger that specific action_make_an_api_call custom action using postman once rasa server is up? Even this would help. Really looking forward to getting an answer from some of you experts out there.

Thanks

It’s not designed to initiate the conversation with the user. I would do this via your user interface component (web or mobile front end widget).