empty_user_turn

Configuration for recovering from user turns that end without a transcript.

class pipecat.turns.empty_user_turn.EmptyUserTurnConfig(interrupted_prompt: str | None = 'The user may have said something while you were responding, but it was not recognized. Your response was cut off there, and the conversation only includes the part they heard, which may be none of it. Briefly ask them to repeat what they said, and repeat any question of yours they may have missed.', idle_prompt: str | None = None, max_consecutive_recoveries: int = 1)[source]

Bases: object

How the user aggregator responds to a user turn with no transcript.

A user turn can start on voice activity alone and then end with no transcript: a cough, background noise, or speech the STT could not recognize. Nothing is written to the context and the LLM does not run. With this config, the aggregator can append a developer message for such a turn and run the LLM once.

Either case may be noise. They differ in what happens if the turn goes unanswered, so each has its own prompt:

  • Interrupted: the turn started while the bot was thinking, speaking or running a function call, and cut it off. Unanswered, the bot stays silent mid-response, so by default the LLM runs and the bot asks the user to repeat or picks up where it left off. A turn before the bot has first finished speaking counts as interrupted too.

  • Idle: the bot had finished and was waiting for the user. The conversation isn’t stuck, and answering what may be noise would be intrusive, so by default the turn gets no answer.

Parameters:

  • interrupted_prompt – Developer message for an empty turn that interrupted the bot. None leaves such turns unanswered.

  • idle_prompt – Developer message for an empty turn while the bot was idle. None (the default) leaves such turns unanswered.

  • max_consecutive_recoveries – How many empty turns in a row are answered. Further ones are left unanswered until the user says something that is transcribed.

interrupted_prompt: str | None = 'The user may have said something while you were responding, but it was not recognized. Your response was cut off there, and the conversation only includes the part they heard, which may be none of it. Briefly ask them to repeat what they said, and repeat any question of yours they may have missed.'
idle_prompt: str | None = None
max_consecutive_recoveries: int = 1