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

Steps

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 log in to.

To create the account you need to have admin privileges:

1. In the topbar, click the three dots (Options) and then click Administration

2. Select Users from the left sidebar

3. Click + (Add User) button in the right sidebar

4. In the profile window that appears, fill in Name, Username, Email and Password fields

5. Enable Verified toggle under the Email field

6. Disable Require password change toggle under the Password field

7. Select bot from the Add Role dropdown menu and click Add Role button to the right

8. Disable Join default channels and Send welcome email checkboxes

9. Click Save

Once saved, the bot will be configured with the username and password set on step 4. You can use ROCKETCHAT_USER and ROCKETCHAT_PASSWORD environmental variables to log in to Rocket.Chat server with this username and password pair.

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

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 quickly deploy a basic bot instance. As an advanced alternative, you can create your bot from the scratch using your favorite framework.

• ​Running a Botkit Bot​

• ​Running a Hubot Bot​

• ​Running a Botpress Bot​

• ​Running a Rasa Bot​

Regardless of the option you choose, to make your bot work you will need credentials of the bot user you created in the previous step.

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).