Service sequence: steps with an exit criterion the system checks

Overview

Until now, a service script could only be written as text in the bot's persona or instructions: "qualify first, then present the proposal, only then close". Text is guidance — a model may follow it or ignore it, and the cheaper, faster models usually ignore it by the third turn. Worse: there was no state saying "this conversation is at the qualification step", so nothing could even notice the drift, let alone correct it.

The Service sequence replaces that text with structure:

• the service becomes an ordered list of steps;
• each step has a goal, the tools it allows and an exit criterion;
• the criterion is checked by the platform, in code, against what the turn actually executed — never by asking the bot whether it is done.

That inversion is the entire feature. A bot that says "I've already saved your details" without the tool having run advances nothing.

It is optional and ships off. A bot that never opens this section behaves exactly as before — same instructions, same tools, same cost. Nothing is added to the conversation.

Prerequisites

• Maestro enabled and a configured bot.
• Administrator permission to edit the bot's configuration.
• The tools you want to use in the steps must already be enabled on the bot. A step can only narrow down the tools the bot has — never add to them.
• For the Contact fields filled in criterion: the fields you will require must exist on the contact record and be fillable (by a bot tool, by an automation or by the team).

Step by step

1. Open the bot's configuration and go to Service sequence.
2. Turn on Follow a sequence of steps.
3. Click Add step and fill in:
   • Step name — in your own words. The system never translates or rewrites it; the identifier below the name is generated from it.
   • Goal — goes to the top of the instructions while the step is active.
   • Tools allowed in this step — pick from the ones the bot already has.
   • Exit criterion — see the table below.
   • Turn limit for this step — the safety net (default 8, minimum 1).
4. Repeat for the remaining steps. The order of the list is the order of the service: use move up and move down. Each step leads into the next automatically — you never type the link.
5. Choose After the last step: hand over to a human, mark as resolved, or keep talking with no step.
6. Decide whether to Restrict to the step's tools.
7. Save.

On with no steps does not count. The form warns you and asks for at least one step, or for the option to be turned off. Even if it is forced through, a sequence with no steps is inert: the bot works as it always has.

Settings & options

The four exit criteria

Details that change the outcome:

• Tools executed with an explicit list (the Tools that prove the exit field) requires all the listed tools.
• Tools executed without an explicit list accepts any one of the tools allowed in the step — so you do not have to restate the list twice.
• A step with no tools and no list is a pacing step: it ends as soon as the turn completes.
• Contact fields filled in: if the contact lookup does not happen or fails, the step waits instead of advancing. Advancing on absent evidence is exactly what this feature exists to prevent — and the turn limit still bounds the wait.

The turn limit: always present, and always an escalation

The limit counts turns (contact messages served), not the model's internal attempts. It exists because "the bot asked me the same thing eight times" is the real problem.

When the limit runs out without the criterion being met, the sequence ends there and applies the After the last step policy — as an escalation, not as a completion. The step is not recorded as done, and the next step is not started.

After the last step

Restrict to the step's tools

• On (default): the bot never even receives the other tools. Leaving the step becomes impossible, not merely discouraged.
• Off: the step guides through its goal, but does not stop the bot from using any tool it has.

Even with the restriction on, a minimum set is never removed: reading the contact and the conversation, and handing over to a human. A step whose author forgot the handoff would produce a conversation that cannot reach a person — worse than the problem the restriction solves. And withholding the contact record makes the model guess facts it could have looked up.

What the bot sees of the sequence

Only the current step reaches the instructions — never the whole roadmap. A model handed the full map starts narrating it to the contact ("now we move on to the proposal step") or skipping to a step it read about, which is the opposite of following it.

The name and the goal reach the bot exactly as you wrote them, in your language, with no translation and no rewriting.

Use cases

• Sales: Qualification (contact fields) → Proposal (quote tool executed) → Closing (charge created) → hand over to a human.
• Triage before a human: a single step, goal "find out the topic and the urgency", exit on contact fields, a 5-turn limit and hand over as the exit policy.
• Onboarding: several collection steps, each requiring different contact fields, and mark as resolved at the end.
• Human check mid-service: a step with a manual exit and a short turn limit, so the conversation escalates to the team when it gets there (read the limits below before using it).
• Support with a fixed procedure: tool restriction on, so the bot cannot create a charge during the diagnosis step.

Tips, limits & best practices

"Only when a human moves it on" has no advance button. Today nothing advances a manual step automatically, and there is no command in the panel to push it to the next one. In practice it ends in one of two ways: the turn limit runs out and the sequence closes through the exit policy (an escalation), or a person takes over the conversation — at which point the bot has stopped replying anyway. Use this criterion as "stop here and call someone", with a short turn limit and Hand over to a human as the exit policy. Do not use it expecting the conversation to carry on to the next step afterwards.

Other limits, equally honest:

• A criterion with nothing to check becomes an escalation. If you pick Tools executed with no tools, or Contact fields with no fields, the form warns you: that step would only ever exit on the turn limit — which is an escalation, not a completion.
• Only tools already enabled on the bot can enter a step. If the list comes up empty, enable the tools in the Tools section first.
• Turning it off does not delete anything. The steps stay saved; the form tells you how many.
• The step is durable. It survives a pause, a handoff, a restart and a contact who answers six hours later. A returning contact does not start over.
• Editing the sequence while conversations are live has a consequence. If you delete or rename the step a conversation is sitting on, that conversation is released — it finishes unconstrained, as it did before the sequence existed. It is not restarted at step 1, so the contact does not pay for your edit by answering everything again.
• The form refuses a sequence that cannot be walked: a step with no name, two steps sharing an identifier, a link pointing at a step that does not exist, or a cycle.
• This does not replace reply verification. One stops the bot from advancing without proof; the other stops it from telling the contact something that did not happen. They add up.

Best practices:

• Start with two or three steps. An eight-step script is easier to get wrong than to follow.
• Prefer Tools executed whenever there is a concrete action: it is the hardest criterion to fake.
• Write the goal as a task sentence ("find out the segment and the company size"), not as a persona.
• Keep the turn limit short on the opening steps and roomier on the ones that depend on the contact answering something slow.
• For sensitive actions (money, cancellation, personal data), combine the sequence with human approval.

Troubleshooting

• "I can't save": the sequence is on with no steps, or there is a step with no name, two sharing an identifier, a broken link or a cycle. The form's message says which one it is.
• "The step's tool list is empty": the bot has no tools enabled yet. Enable them in the Tools section and come back.
• "The bot won't leave the first step": the criterion is not genuinely being met. Check that the required tool ran (and was not merely mentioned in the reply) and that the required fields are actually filled in on the contact. A disabled tool never runs.
• "The conversation was handed over mid-script": some step ran out of turns. That is the escalation working — raise that step's limit or make the criterion easier to meet.
• "The bot told the customer the script": it never receives the script, only the current step. If the script text is showing up, it was most likely also written into the instructions or the persona — remove it from there.
• "I reordered the steps and an old conversation went odd": live conversations keep the state they already had. If the step they were on is gone, they were released and finish unconstrained.
• "I turned the sequence off and the steps disappeared from the screen": they are still saved — the notice tells you how many steps are being kept.

See also

• Maestro tools by module
• Bot autonomy modes and human approval (HITL)
• Verifying what the bot claims before sending
• Turn verification and holding the reply
• Advanced model settings per bot
• What Maestro AI and the Account Brain are