There are a number of places a bot can run into trouble, and it's not always obvious why a bot was unable to join a call or failed to record.

Since each meeting platform has its own settings, constraints, and limitations, Recall provides tools to help you figure out where a bot went wrong so that you can take action to fix it.

Explorer dashboard

To get more visibility into a bot without having to make API requests and inspect them, you can search the bot ID using the explorer dashboard.

In the dashboard, you can search a specific bot ID to view the bot's information, including the status changes, recording, transcript, debug screenshots, and bot logs.

For a URL-based search, you can jump to a bot in the explorer by adding the bot as a path parameter:

https://us-east-1.recall.ai/dashboard/explorer/bot/{BOT_ID}

Status change events

📘

Bot Status Changes capture the lifecycle of a bot and expose it via the API and webhook events.

Besides the typical, default behavior of a bot joining a call, starting recording, and so on, bots can also contain status changes that provide insight into the errors when a bot fails to record or is unable to join a call.

Status changes with a fatal code will have a sub_code explaining the reason that the error occurred. A list of all possible sub codes can be found at Bot Sub Codes.

To see a bot's status changes, call the Retrieve Bot endpoint and view the status_changes array in the bot object:

{
  "bot_id": "...",
  "status_changes": [
    ...
    {
      "code": "joining_call",
      "message": null,
      "created_at": "2024-02-17T16:44:00.505440Z",
      "sub_code": null
    },
    {
      "code": "in_waiting_room",
      "message": null,
      "created_at": "2024-02-17T16:44:17.692342Z",
      "sub_code": null
    },
    {
      "code": "in_call_not_recording",
      "message": null,
      "created_at": "2024-02-17T16:44:23.288984Z",
      "sub_code": null
    },
    {
      "code": "in_call_recording",
      "message": null,
      "created_at": "2024-02-17T16:44:23.295099Z",
      "sub_code": null
    },
    ...
  ],
  ...
}

Bot Screenshots

Bot screenshots give you the bot's point-of-view throughout the duration of a the call.

Screenshots do not include participant video and are meant for debugging.

They're particularly useful for:

• Seeing why a bot was unable to join a call if it's unclear from its status_changes
• Checking on a bot that appears to be in a weird or unknown state

To get a list of screenshots associated with a bot, you can call List Bot Screenshots.

Note: Zoom Native bots do not provide debug screenshots.