# Start if conversation

**URL:** <https://forum.rasa.com/t/start-if-conversation/40684>\
**Category:** Rasa Open Source\
**Created:** [February 27, 2021, 11:41am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/start-if-conversation/40684 "2021-02-27T11:41:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lmb](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.rasa.com/lmb/32/13622_2.png) [@lmb](https://forum.rasa.com/u/lmb)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2021, 11:41am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/start-if-conversation/40684/1 "2021-02-27T11:41:49Z")

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Hi,

I have few intents.

But what I want is, at the start of conversation not matter what is being asked I want to always give welcome message.

I tried few things to achieve this but didn’t work.

> - rule: rule-3 conversation\_start: true steps:
> - intent: product\_price
> - action: utter\_greet

For example in my story if at any other places for same intent I want different action. But then it says contradicting rule and story.

Please note - user can start conversation literally by anything and I always want to greet with welcome message.

How do I do this?

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**Author:** ![snek](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.rasa.com/snek/32/13510_2.png) [@snek](https://forum.rasa.com/u/snek)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2021, 9:59am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/start-if-conversation/40684/2 "2021-03-01T09:59:04Z")

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Have you considered greeting the user before they even start talking to the bot?

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**Author:** ![lmb](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.rasa.com/lmb/32/13622_2.png) [@lmb](https://forum.rasa.com/u/lmb)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2021, 10:46am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/start-if-conversation/40684/3 "2021-03-01T10:46:58Z")

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I have resolved this using slots.

For every intent I have these story:

> - story: -story-1 steps:
> 
> - story: -story-2 steps:
> 
> - story: -story-3 steps:

Now every real story always starts with this:

> - story: onroad\_price greet1 steps:
> 
> - story: onroad\_price greet2 steps:

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![snek](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.rasa.com/snek/32/13510_2.png) [@snek](https://forum.rasa.com/u/snek)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2021, 10:49am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/start-if-conversation/40684/4 "2021-03-01T10:49:35Z")

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> [@lmb](#):
>
> I have resolved this using slots.

Cool, I think that’s a good way to do it when you have a small number of intents. I think rasa has something similar in rules… for rules that only apply at the beginning of conversations, you can use `conversation_start: true`

> **[Rules](https://rasa.com/docs/rasa/rules/)**
>
> Use Rasa rules to respond to FAQs, fill forms, or handle fallbacks gracefully.