---
name: watson-assistant-activate-dialog
title: Activating dialog and migrating skills
description: To use an existing dialog skill, you need to activate the dialog feature in your assistant. Then you can upload your existing skill.
last-updated: 2024-12-03
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Activating dialog and migrating skills
{: #activate-dialog}

To use an existing dialog skill, you need to activate the dialog feature in your assistant. Then you can upload your existing skill.

## Activating dialog
{: #activate-dialog-activating}

To activate the dialog feature:

1.  Create or open an assistant where you want to use a dialog as the primary conversation with users.

1.  Open **Assistant settings** ![Gear icon](../../icons/settings.svg).

1.  Click **Activate dialog**.

    ![Activate dialog](images/activate-dialog.png){: caption="Activate dialog" caption-side="bottom"}

1.  In the confirmation that displays, click **Activate dialog** again.

    ![Activate dialog](images/activate-dialog-modal.png){: caption="Activate dialog" caption-side="bottom"}

Once you activate the dialog feature, it takes precedence over actions. You can use actions to supplement a dialog-based conversation, but the dialog drives the conversation with users to match their requests. For more information, see [Calling actions from a dialog](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-dialog-call-action&format=markdown).

## Migrating existing skills
{: #activate-dialog-upload}

Once the dialog feature is activated, you can start a new dialog conversation from scratch if you want. But, you probably have an existing dialog skill that you want to migrate into watsonx Assistant.

To migrate an existing dialog skill:

1.  Use the classic experience to [download your dialog skill](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?topic=watson-assistant-admin-backup-restore&format=markdown#backup-restore-classic) in JSON format. 

1.  In watsonx Assistant, open the **Dialog** page.

1.  In **Options**, choose **Upload / Download**.

    ![Upload dialog](images/dialog-upload.png){: caption="Upload dialog" caption-side="bottom"}

1.  On the **Upload** tab, upload the JSON file for your dialog skill.