Agent Chat Service

Description

The per-character dialogue agent. AgentChatService is the MonoBehaviour you place on an NPC; it resolves the agent's chat tree, owns the agent's mood and non-verbal eventing, and either owns or delegates the agent's identity, blackboard, and pause state.

For setup and authoring guidance, see Dialogue Agents.

Interface

Type
IListenerAwareDialogueAgentService
IBlackboardValueOwner

IListenerAwareDialogueAgentService extends IDialogueAgentService, which extends the shared IAgentService.

Inherits

Type
MonoBehaviour

Inspector Fields

Name	Type	Description
chatTree	ChatTreeData	Tree used for player conversations.
headlessChatTree	ChatTreeData	Tree used for agent-to-agent conversations.
localTreeSelectionOverrides	DialogueTreeSelectionRule[]	Per-agent conditional tree rules, checked first.
sharedTreeSelection	DialogueTreeSelectionRepository	Shared rule set, checked after the local overrides.
portrait	Sprite	Portrait shown while this agent speaks.
moodRepository	MoodRepository	The moods available to this agent.
blackboardValueTemplates	BlackboardValueTemplate[]	Shared blackboard seed values, applied first.
blackboardValues	BlackboardValue[]	Agent-specific blackboard seed values, applied second.

Public Methods

Name	Parameters	Return Type	Description
Initialize	N/A	void	Prepares the agent for use. Called automatically on start; safe to call again.
FetchChatTree	N/A	ChatTreeData	Returns the plain chat tree field.
FetchChatTree	DialogueParticipants participants	ChatTreeData	Runs tree selection: local overrides, then shared rules, then repository fallback, then the plain field.
FetchHeadlessChatTree	N/A	ChatTreeData	Returns the headless tree field. Not rule-selected.
GetLocalTreeSelectionOverrides	N/A	IReadOnlyList<DialogueTreeSelectionRule>	Every local rule, including ones that did not win selection.
GetSharedTreeSelection	N/A	DialogueTreeSelectionRepository	The shared rule repository, if one is assigned.
GetMoodService	N/A	IDialogueMoodService	This agent's mood service, initializing first if needed.
GetNonVerbalEventingService	N/A	NonVerbalEventingService	This agent's non-verbal eventing, initializing first if needed.
GetPauseService	N/A	IPauseService	The shared agent's pause service, or its own.
GetBlackboardService	N/A	IBlackboardService	The shared agent's blackboard, or its own.
GetBlackboardValues	N/A	BlackboardValue[]	The agent-specific seed values.
GetBlackboardValueTemplates	N/A	BlackboardValueTemplate[]	The template assets assigned to this agent.
SetBlackboardValues	BlackboardValue[] values	void	Replaces the agent-specific values and re-applies them.
SetBlackboardValueTemplates	BlackboardValueTemplate[] templates	void	Replaces the templates and re-applies them.
GetResolvedBlackboardValues	N/A	BlackboardValue[]	Template values followed by agent values, in application order.
GetPortrait	N/A	Sprite	The agent's portrait.
GetID	N/A	string	The shared agent's ID, or a GUID generated on first use.
GetDisplayName	N/A	string	The shared agent's display name, or null when standalone.

IDialogueAgentService

The interface the conversation runtime actually depends on. Implement it to supply a dialogue agent that is not an AgentChatService.

Member	Return Type
FetchChatTree()	ChatTreeData
FetchHeadlessChatTree()	ChatTreeData
GetMoodService()	IDialogueMoodService
GetNonVerbalEventingService()	NonVerbalEventingService
GetPortrait()	Sprite

Plus the shared IAgentService members: GetPauseService(), GetBlackboardService(), GetID(), GetDisplayName().

IListenerAwareDialogueAgentService

Adds the one method that lets tree choice depend on who is listening.

Member	Return Type
FetchChatTree(DialogueParticipants participants)	ChatTreeData

The runtime checks for this interface and falls back to FetchChatTree() when an agent does not implement it.

IDialogueTreeSelector

Decides which rule wins. Register an implementation to replace the default.

Member	Return Type
SelectTree(IReadOnlyList<DialogueTreeSelectionRule> rules, DialogueParticipants participants)	ChatTreeData

RequirementGatedDialogueTreeSelector is the built-in default: first matching rule wins, a rule with no tree is skipped, and a rule with no requirement collection always matches.

DialogueAgentResolver

Static helper used to find the agent behind a GameObject.

Name	Parameters	Return Type	Description
ResolveSharedAgent	GameObject target	IAgentService	Returns a non-dialogue IAgentService on the object if there is one, otherwise a dialogue agent.
ResolveSharedAgentInParents	Transform target	IAgentService	Walks up the hierarchy applying the same rule.

When a CivilAI agent and an AgentChatService share a GameObject, the CivilAI agent is returned -- it is the identity for that character.

---