Use when adding inline/reply keyboards or handling button presses in a yaebal bot — @yaebal/keyboard builders and @yaebal/callback-data typed payloads.

2026-07-178

name	yaebal-flows
description	Use when building multi-step dialogs in a yaebal bot — choosing between scenes, conversation, and prompt, and wiring their persistence.

multi-step dialogs: scenes vs conversation vs prompt vs morda

four first-party options, by shape of the flow:

@yaebal/prompt — one-off question: "ask, handle the next message". in-memory, lost on restart. reach for it first; escalate only when the flow grows.
@yaebal/conversation — linear async flows written as a straight line of await cv.waitFor(...). most natural to read; durable only if you opt in.
@yaebal/scenes — declarative step machines. each step re-asks on its own, so wizards navigate (next/previous/go), nest, validate per step, and resume mid-flow after a restart. best for long registration/checkout wizards that must survive deploys.
@yaebal/morda — keyboard-first dialogs: declarative windows rendered into ONE editable message, callback routing by button id, a persisted navigation stack. best for menus/settings/cockpits where the user taps buttons instead of typing.

prompt — one question

import { prompt } from "@yaebal/prompt";

bot.install(prompt());

bot.command("name", (ctx) =>
	ctx.prompt("what's your name?", (answer) => answer.send(`hi ${answer.text}!`)),
);

the answering message is consumed — check for /-escapes inside the handler if users may type a command instead of an answer.

conversation — linear flow

import { conversation, createConversation } from "@yaebal/conversation";

const greet = createConversation(async (cv, ctx) => {
	await ctx.send("what's your name?");
	const answer = await cv.waitFor("message:text"); // narrowed: answer.text is string
	await answer.send(`hi ${answer.text}!`);
});

const bot = createBot(token).install(conversation({ greet }));
bot.command("greet", (ctx) => ctx.conversation.enter("greet"));
bot.command("cancel", (ctx) => ctx.conversation.active && ctx.conversation.leave());

cv.form.text/int/choice/confirm are ready-made ask-validate-reask loops; every wait accepts a timeout. pass options.storage (a @yaebal/sklad StorageAdapter) to switch to the durable replay engine — then the builder must be deterministic: route every side effect through ctx or cv.external().

scenes — durable wizard

import { ask, defineScene, scenes } from "@yaebal/scenes";

const register = defineScene<Context, { name: string; age: number }>({
	steps: [
		ask("name", { question: "what's your name?" }),
		ask("age", {
			question: (ctx) => `nice, ${ctx.scene.state.name}! how old are you?`,
			parse: (text) => (/^\d+$/.test(text) ? Number(text) : undefined),
			invalid: "age is a number — try again",
		}),
	],
	onLeave: (ctx, info) => info.reason === "finish" && ctx.send(`saved ${ctx.scene.state.name}`),
});

const bot = createBot(token).install(scenes({ register }, { storage }));
bot.command("register", (ctx) => ctx.scene.enter("register"));
bot.command("cancel", (ctx) => ctx.scene.leave({ cancelled: true }));

morda — keyboard-driven windows

import { back, button, defineDialog, dialogs, switchTo } from "@yaebal/morda";

type BotContext = Context & { session: { dark: boolean } };

// declare the ambient context with defineDialog (curried — window ids stay literal):
// window callbacks then see plugin fields typed, and install order is compiler-checked.
// NEVER take ctx as `unknown` and cast inside a window — declare the context here instead.
const def = defineDialog<BotContext>()({
	main: () => ({ text: "cockpit", keyboard: [[switchTo("settings →", "settings")]] }),
	settings: {
		render: (ctx) => ({
			text: `dark: ${ctx.session.dark ? "on" : "off"}`,
			keyboard: [[button<BotContext>("toggle", {
				id: "t",
				onClick: async (c) => {
					c.session.dark = !c.session.dark; // typed — session comes from BotContext
					await c.dialog.rerender();
				},
			})], [back()]],
		}),
	},
});

const bot = createBot(token)
	.install(session({ initial: () => ({ dark: false }) }))
	.install(dialogs(def, { storage }));
bot.command("start", (ctx) => ctx.dialog.start("main"));

on a createBot() bot the runtime context inside windows is the rich per-update class — include it in the declared context (MessageContext & { session: … }) and shortcuts like ctx.delete() type-check inside onText too.

rules

none of the three require @yaebal/session — persistence goes through a @yaebal/sklad StorageAdapter passed to the plugin itself. the default is in-memory (lost on restart): fine for prompt and dev, pass real storage (redis/sqlite/file) for production wizards.
/commands bypass an active scene/conversation by default (passCommands), and unclaimed updates fall through to normal handlers (passthrough) — so a global /cancel keeps working. don't re-implement command escapes per step.
scenes key state per chat.id:from.id by default — safe in groups.
conversation.enter() resolves when the flow starts, not when it finishes — read results in onLeave(ctx, info) via info.result.
steps claim fresh messages only unless they declare on filter queries — for inline-keyboard wizards give the step on: "callback_query:data".

yaebal-flows

multi-step dialogs: scenes vs conversation vs prompt vs morda

prompt — one question

conversation — linear flow

scenes — durable wizard

morda — keyboard-driven windows

rules

learn more

multi-step dialogs: scenes vs conversation vs prompt vs morda

prompt — one question

conversation — linear flow

scenes — durable wizard

morda — keyboard-driven windows

rules

learn more