Custom entities

You can create custom entities for matching data specific to your agent. For example, you could define a vegetable entity type that can match the types of vegetables available for purchase with a grocery store agent.

Note: When building your agent, it's best to define your entities prior to adding training phrases to your intents. The console will automatically annotate your training phrases with existing entities. However, if you create entities after training phrases, you can manually annotate the phrases.

Where to find this data

When building an agent, it is most common to use the Dialogflow ES console (visit documentation, open console). The instructions below focus on using the console. To access custom entity data:

1. Go to the Dialogflow ES console.
2. Select an agent.
3. Select Entities in the left sidebar menu.
4. Select the Custom tab for custom entities.

If you are building an agent using the API instead of the console, see the EntityTypes reference. The API field names are similar to the console field names. The instructions below highlight any important differences between the console and the API.

Create custom entities

To create a custom map entity:

1. Click Create entity.
2. Enter a name for the entity.
3. Note that Define synonyms is already checked.
4. Click the first row and provide a reference value in the left column.
5. Click the next column or press Enter and provide synonyms.
6. Continue adding rows for other entity entries.
7. Click Save.

Batch operations

You can move, copy, or delete multiple entities using batch operations:

• Copy: Copies selected entities to the target agent.
• Move: Moves selected entities to the target agent.
• Delete: Permanently deletes the selected entities. This cannot be undone.

The following additional options are prompted for copy and move operations:

• Copy related entities: Moves or copies entities used in composite entities.
• Overwrite entities: Overwrites entities with the same name.

To copy, move, or delete multiple entities:

1. Hover you mouse over the list and select one or more entities. This reveals the batch options.
2. Choose the desired action.
3. Select the desired options in the dialog.
4. Click Start.

Limitations

The following limitations apply:

• Custom entity type names are unique for each agent. Entity type names should start with a letter and can contain the following: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _ (underscore), - (dash). Entity reference and synonym values have no such limitation.