Trait detection broken

[zyinshi]

Summary

Built-in traits (wit/sentiment, wit/greetings, wit/bye, wit/thanks) stopped being returned in API responses around February 5, 2025. The traits are still configured and visible in the app dashboard, but the /message API endpoint returns an empty traits object.

Reproduction

API version tested: 20240304 (also broken on deprecated 20180825 which returns "WARNING": "DEPRECATED")

Request:

GET https://api.wit.ai/message?v=20240304&q=Hi+i'm+very+happy+about+the+service
Authorization: Bearer <token>

Expected response (traits populated):

{
  "text": "Hi i'm very happy about the service",
  "intents": [{"name": "positive-follow-up", "confidence": 0.97}],
  "entities": {},
  "traits": {
    "sentiment": [{"value": "positive", "confidence": 0.85}]
  }
}

Actual response (traits empty):

{
  "text": "Hi i'm very happy about the service",
  "intents": [{"name": "positive-follow-up", "confidence": 0.97}],
  "entities": {},
  "traits": {}
}

Evidence

• The app dashboard shows wit/sentiment, wit/greetings, wit/bye, and wit/thanks are all configured as traits.
• The app's Trait confidence chart in the dashboard shows all trait confidence scores dropping to zero around February 5, 2025 (see below).
• Intent detection continues to work correctly — only traits are affected.
• The "Add built-in traits" dropdown in the dashboard is now empty, making it impossible to re-add them.

Impact

• Sentiment analysis is completely broken for all apps relying on wit/sentiment.
• Behavior detection traits (wit/greetings, wit/bye, wit/thanks) are also broken.
• This appears to be a platform-wide regression, not app-specific.

Environment

• API versions tested: 20180825, 20240304
• Traits configured: wit/sentiment (positive, neutral, negative), wit/greetings, wit/bye, wit/thanks
• Date issue started: ~February 5, 2025