Creating Your Own Bot From Scratch

This document outlines the steps required to create your first bot with Rocket.Chat.

Steps to create a bot

1. Create a bot user

In order to talk to your chatbot, there must be a user account pre-configured on the Rocket.Chat server that the bot can use to log in.

To add user accounts, you need to have admin privileges:

• Navigate to Administration > Workspace > Users.

• Click +New to create a new user.

• Fill in the user information, verify the user, and assign it a bot role.

• Click Save

Once saved, the bot's credentials can be configured with the CHAT_USER and ROCKETCHAT_PASSWORD environmental variables of your bot.

To avoid creating multiple accounts for bot emails, you can use Gmail + address alias. For example: [email protected]. See this issue for further details.

2. Code your bot

To make the process of coding a bot easier and faster, you may want to check our existing guides below to deploy a basic bot instance quickly. As an advanced alternative, you can create your bot from scratch using your favorite framework.

Developing a Hubot can serve as a good entry point in learning chatbot principles.

Develop a Rocket.Chat SDK Bot

Develop a Botpress Bot

3. Talk to your bot

If the bot is configured to listen to direct messages RESPOND_TO_DM=true, and messages are prepended with BOT_NAME or a preconfigured BOT_ALIAS, the bot will usually respond to all messages addressed directly to the bot user (depending on the particular bot framework).