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# Starting a Conversation

In the "Start" step, you can configure how your flow will be triggered. There are four primary methods for starting the flow:

- Automatically by LLM based on flow description
- Using predicted user intents
- Based on a certain condition
- With links or calls from other flows

# Flow description

The flow description serves as the default trigger mechanism. The system utilizes the flow description, ongoing conversation, and contextual cues to determine when to start a flow automatically by LLM. For this routing to work properly, it's crucial to write clear and distinct descriptions. Read more about [tips for writing good flow descriptions here](/content/docs/reference/config/components/llm-command-generators/#best-practices-for-descriptions/index.html).

# NLU triggers

NLU triggers allow you to use predicted user intents to start a flow. You can start the flow based on multiple user intents and configure a confidence threshold for each one. We recommend using a confidence threshold calculated by dividing 1 by the total number of intents in the model. However, it's essential to experiment with different confidence thresholds to find the optimal setting for your scenario.

# Links / Calls

This section displays all the flows where your current flow is [linked](/content/docs/studio/build/flow-building/linking-flows/#link-steps/index.html) or [called](/content/docs/studio/build/flow-building/linking-flows/#call-steps/index.html) from, so you can see the specific cases in which it will be started. You can go to each of these parent flows to remove those links if needed.

# Flow guards

Flow guards allow you to set certain conditions for starting a flow. By default, there are no flow guards, but you can set either of the following two types:

- When the "Start the flow exclusively via 'Link' or 'Call a flow and return'" setting is enabled, the flow can only be started through linking or calling from other flows.

- The "Start the flow only if specific conditions are met" allows you to set specific conditions under which a flow can be started. For example, the flow will only be initiated if the user is authenticated and their email is verified.

If the flow has active Links/Calls and NLU triggers, the flow guard can only be triggered after these have been executed. The order of execution for flow triggers and guards is as follows:

1. Direct links/calls to the flow are executed first.
2. NLU triggers go next: Specific intent trigger messages, such as `/initialize_conversation`, will "force start" a flow for a targeted intent right after links.
3. Flow guards follow.
4. Flow description is referenced last in the execution order.