> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.labs.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.labs.ai/agent-configuration/passing-context-information.md). # Passing Context Information ## Overview **Context** is external data that you pass from your application into EDDI conversations. It's how you inject real-world information—like user profiles, session data, or business state—into your agent's logic without hard-coding it. ### Why Context Matters Context enables your agents to: * **Personalize responses**: Use user names, preferences, account details * **Make business decisions**: Check user roles, subscription status, account balances * **Maintain session state**: Pass authentication tokens (marked [secret](#secret-context-values)), session IDs * **Adapt behavior**: Change agent responses based on time of day, location, language * **Integrate with your systems**: Bring data from your CRM, database, or services ### Context vs Conversation Memory | Aspect | Context | Conversation Memory | | ------------- | --------------------------- | ------------------------------ | | **Source** | Your application (external) | EDDI (internal) | | **Direction** | Input to EDDI | Managed by EDDI | | **Lifetime** | Per request | Persistent across conversation | | **Purpose** | Inject external data | Store conversation history | | **Usage** | `{context.userName}` | `{memory.current.input}` | ### Context Types EDDI supports four context types: 1. **`string`**: Simple text values ```json "userRole": {"type": "string", "value": "premium"} ``` 2. **`object`**: Structured JSON data ```json "userInfo": {"type": "object", "value": {"name": "John", "age": 30}} ``` 3. **`expressions`**: Parsed semantic expressions ```json "intent": {"type": "expressions", "value": "purchase(product)"} ``` 4. **`array`**: A list of values ```json "tags": {"type": "array", "value": ["a", "b"]} ``` > An `array` context is readable in output templates and HTTP call bodies, but it can never be matched by a `contextmatcher` — see [Behavior Rules → Limitations](/agent-configuration/behavior-rules.md#limitations). Send the data as an `object` (and match with `objectKeyPath`) if you need to match into it. ### Secret Context Values Context is stored with the conversation step it arrives with, and it is echoed in the conversation output. For a value that must never be stored or returned — typically the caller's credential for a downstream API — add `"secret": true`: ```json "userToken": {"type": "string", "value": "", "secret": true} ``` A secret value is usable for the turn it arrives with, exactly like any other context: in templates (`{context.userToken}`), HTTP call headers and behavior rules. Its lifetime really is per request: * It is **never echoed** in the conversation output, not even while the turn is still running. * When the turn ends — completed, stopped, paused or failed — its stored entry is replaced by ``, and every copy a template made of it is replaced too: other data of the step, the conversation output, the conversation properties (so a `longTerm` property never reaches the user memory store), a paused tool-call batch and the turn's audit ledger entries. * A later turn, or tasks that run after a HITL resume, see ``. Send the value again with every request that needs it. An HTTP call that would send the placeholder — in a header, query parameter, body or path — is refused with an error naming where it is, instead of reaching the API as a credential that authenticates nobody. Use it in an HTTP call **header**: ```json "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer {context.userToken}" } ``` Keep it out of anything that leaves EDDI while the turn runs: a prompt sends it to the model provider, a streamed reply reaches the user before the turn ends (the returned and stored reply is scrubbed), and a query parameter or body is written to the server log by the HTTP call task. Values shorter than 8 characters are only removed from their own entry, not searched for elsewhere. `"secret": true` is different from the `secretInput` flag: `secretInput` hides the **message the user typed** (see [Secrets Vault → Secret Input](/security-and-compliance/secrets-vault.md#secret-input-agent-conversations)), `secret` hides a **context value your application sends**. ### How Context is Used Once passed to EDDI, context can be: * **Matched in Behavior Rules**: Conditions check context values * **Used in Output Templates**: `{context.userName}` * **Included in HTTP Call Bodies**: Pass to external APIs * **Stored as Properties**: Save to conversation memory ### Example Flow ``` Your App → POST /agents/conv456 { "input": "What's my account balance?", "context": { "userId": {"type": "string", "value": "user-789"}, "accountType": {"type": "string", "value": "premium"} } } → EDDI Behavior Rule checks context: IF context.accountType = "premium" THEN httpcall(get-balance) → HTTP Call uses context: GET /api/accounts/{context.userId}/balance → Output Template uses context: "Hello! Your premium account balance is {memory.current.httpCalls.balance.amount}" → Response to Your App: "Hello! Your premium account balance is $1,250.00" ``` ## Sending Context to Conversations In this section we will explain how **EDDI** handles the context of a conversation and which data can be passed within the scope of a conversation. In order to talk to **EDDI** with context, send a **`POST`** request to `/agents/`**`{conversationId}`** (same way as interacting in a normal conversation in EDDI), but this time provide context parameters: ### Send message in a conversation with an Agent REST API Endpoint | Element | Tags | | -------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | HTTP Method | `POST` | | API endpoint | `/agents/{conversationId}` | | {conversationId} | (`Path` **parameter**): `String Id` of the **conversation** that you wish to **send** the message to. | | returnDetailed (Optional) | (`Query` **parameter**):`Boolean` - Default : `false` Will return all sub results of the entire `conversation steps`, otherwise only public ones such as `input, action, output & quickReplies`. | | returnCurrentStepOnly (Optional) | (`Query` **parameter**):`Boolean` - Default : `true` Will return only the latest `conversationStep` that has just been processed, otherwise returns all `conversationSteps` since the beginning of this `conversation`. | | Request Body | a `JSON` object sent in the request body consists of the usual input text (message to the agent) only this time we are going to provide `context` information through a `key value` data structure ; the Context value must have one of the following : `string, object, expressions or array.` | | | | ## Example Here is an example of a `JSON` object of the input data: ```javascript { "input": "", "context": { "onboardingOfUser": { "type": "string", "value": "true" }, "userInfo": { "type": "object", "value": { "username": "Barbara" } } } } ``` > You can also test context parameters in the **EDDI Manager** chat panel at `http://localhost:7070`.