Compare

Evaluate two values with operators like equals, contains, and starts with — supports automatic type detection and case sensitivity.

The Compare step evaluates two values and returns true or false. Use it to build conditional branches in your agent — route a conversation based on a classification result, check whether a score exceeds a threshold, or verify that a date falls within range.

Compare automatically detects whether the values are numbers, dates, booleans, or strings and applies the appropriate comparison logic. No manual type casting required.

Configuration

The first value to compare. Accepts plain text or an expression like {{Steps.Classifier.Value}}.

The comparison to perform. See the full operator table below.

The second value. Not required for Is Empty and Is Not Empty operators.

Toggle for string comparisons. Off by default — "hello" matches "Hello". Turn on when exact casing matters.

Operators

These work with all detected types — numbers, dates, booleans, and strings.

Operator	What it checks
Equals	Left is exactly equal to Right
Not Equals	Left differs from Right

Automatic type detection

Compare inspects both values and picks the best type in this order:

Priority	Detected as	Example values	Notes
1	Boolean	`true`, `false`	Only Equals / Not Equals are valid
2	Number	`42`, `3.14`, `-100`, `1e-5`	Parsed as decimal for precision
3	Date	`2026-03-26T14:30:00Z`	ISO 8601 with timezone required
4	String	Everything else	Fallback — all operators available

Type detection runs on the resolved values, not the raw expression text. If {{Steps.Score.Value}} resolves to "85", it will be detected as a number, not a string.

Output

The step returns a boolean: true if the comparison passes, false if it does not.

Use the output to drive conditional routing downstream:

{{Steps.Compare.Value}}  →  true / false

Use case: route by customer tier

An e-commerce agent receives an order and needs to apply different handling based on the customer's annual spend.

Agent flow:

Input → Fetch Customer (HTTP) → Compare → [Branch]
                                   ├─ true  → VIP Handler (AI Model)
                                   └─ false → Standard Handler (AI Model)

Compare configuration:

Field	Value
Left	`{{Steps.Fetch_Customer.Output.Body.annualSpend}}`
Operator	Greater Than or Equal
Right	`10000`
Case sensitive	— (not applicable for numbers)

When the customer's annual spend is 10,000 or more, the Compare step returns true and the agent routes to the VIP handler. Otherwise, it routes to the standard handler.

Tips

Combine Compare with a conditional {{ if }} block in a downstream prompt to act on the result:

{{ if Steps.Compare.Value == 'True' }}
This customer qualifies for priority support.
{{ else }}
Follow standard support procedures.
{{ end }}

String-only operators (Contains, Starts With, Ends With) will fail at runtime if the resolved values are detected as numbers or dates. If you need substring matching on a value that looks like a number (e.g., a product SKU like "12345"), ensure at least one value contains non-numeric characters so it falls through to string detection.