Character actions quick start

Add a ready-made action to a Convai character from the Actions Editor's starter catalog, with no scripting, and confirm it runs in Play mode.

Open the Actions Editor and add one of its four ready-made starter actions to a Convai character, with no scripting required. By the end, the character responds to a natural-language request — such as "look at the chair" — by physically performing the behavior in your scene.

Prerequisites

• A ConvaiCharacter component already on your NPC's GameObject, connecting and responding to conversation.
• At least one scene object the character should be able to act on.

The four starter actions

The Actions Editor offers the same four starters to every character that has no actions yet, ranked in this order:

Starter	Adds	Needs on the character	What it does
Walk To Target	ConvaiWalkToActionExecutor	ConvaiNavMeshLocomotion and a baked NavMesh	Walks to the named object, person, or place and stops nearby
Follow The Player	ConvaiFollowPlayerActionExecutor	ConvaiNavMeshLocomotion and a baked NavMesh	Follows the player at a comfortable distance until told to stop
Look At Target	ConvaiLookAtActionExecutor	ConvaiGazeController (Gaze module)	Turns the character's eyes, head, and body toward a named target
Play Gesture	ConvaiPlayGestureActionExecutor	ConvaiBodyAnimationController (Body Animation module)	Plays a named gesture from the character's Animation Set

This page uses Look At Target: it needs no NavMesh bake, and the result — the character turning to look at something — is immediately obvious in Play mode. Walk To Target and Follow The Player need a NavMesh baked in the scene (Window > AI > Navigation) before the character can actually reach anywhere; pick one of those instead once your scene has one.

Add the Look At Target starter

1

Mark a target object

Select the object the character should look at — for example a chair. Click Add Component, search for Convai Action Target (Convai/Actions/Convai Action Target), leave Kind as Object, and give it a clear Name, for example chair.

2

Open the Actions Editor

Select Convai > Actions Editor. The window opens with the scene's only ConvaiCharacter picked automatically — pick a different one from the Character field in the toolbar if your scene has more than one.

3

Enable actions on the character

If this is the character's first action, the window shows a one-step prompt: click Enable Actions. This adds ConvaiActionConfigSource (labeled Convai Actions in the Inspector) to the character — one click, fully undoable.

4

Add the Look At Target starter

With no actions yet, the window shows four starter cards: Walk To Target, Follow The Player, Look At Target, and Play Gesture. Select Look At Target.

Convai creates a Look At action pre-filled from the starter, adds ConvaiLookAtActionExecutor to the character, and — since the character has no ConvaiGazeController yet — adds that too, in the same undoable step.

5

Add a Convai Action Runner

Switch the mode selector under the character picker from Actions to Character Settings. If no dispatcher is listed, click Add Action Runner to add ConvaiActionDispatcher (labeled Convai Action Runner in the Inspector) to the character.

Verify the setup

Switch back to the Actions mode and select the Look At action in the left pane. Its Try It box lets you run the action without starting a conversation:

• In Edit mode, this is a Preview: type chair into the dry-run field and confirm it resolves to the target you marked.
• In Play mode, this is a Test Run: pick chair from Valid Targets and click Run Now. The character should turn toward the chair immediately, with no conversation and no backend call involved.

Expected result: enter Play mode and say "look at the chair." The character's eyes, head, and body turn toward it, and the action reports success as soon as the gaze settles.

If the character does not turn, open Troubleshoot character actions for the diagnostic checklist, or select Convai > Troubleshooter for a one-click, checklist-style diagnosis of the whole character.

Next steps

Actions EditorAction executorsWrite a custom action executor