Bot configuration

The bot.yml file is used to configure the name of the bot, how and where the extensions will be consumed, how will the FSMs be stored, and when to reply with defaults.

bot_name: "my_bot"

extensions:
  my_server:
    type: REST
    url: http://localhost:8770

store:
  type: REDIS
  host: localhost
  password: pass

Extensions

You can have multiple extension servers, each with its own type (REST or RPC). An alias is used to identify each extension server, and to reference it in the fsm.yml file (see extensions).

For example:

# bot.yml
extensions:
  my_rest_server:                 # this server will be referenced as
    type: REST                    # "my_rest_server" in the fsm.yml file
    url: http://localhost:8770

  my_rpc_server:                  # this server will be referenced as
    type: RPC                     # "my_rpc_server" in the fsm.yml file
    host: localhost
    port: 8770

# fsm.yml
transitions:
  - from:
      - initial
    into: another_state
    command: foo
    extension:                    # this transition will execute the
      server: my_rest_server      # extension "foo_extension" from the
      name: foo_extension         # "my_rest_server" extension server

  - from:
      - initial
    into: another_state
    command: bar
    extension:                    # this transition will execute the
      server: my_rpc_server       # extension "bar_extension" from the
      name: bar_extension         # "my_bar_server" extension server

To configure the extensions, the following parameters are required for RPC and REST types respectively:

For type RPC:
- Host
- Port
```
type: RPC
host: localhost
port: 8770
```
For type REST:
- URL
```
type: REST
url: http://localhost:8770
```

Store

The FSMs for the bot can be stored locally (default) or in Redis. You can set a time to live (in seconds) for the Finite State Machines in either type of storage.

Cache

By default, Chatto uses the cache storage. You can set a TTL for the FSMs with the ttl parameter. If a TTL is not specified, the FSMs will be stored forever.

Also, a purge time can be set, which is the time interval to delete the expired FSMs.

store:
  type: CACHE
  ttl: 30m
  purge: 1h

Redis

If configured, Chatto will check for a Redis connection with the specified values. If the connection fails, it will default to cache store.

In order to use Redis, provide the following values:

Host
Password
Port (defaults to 6379)
TTL (defaults to -1s)
TLS (defaults to false)

store:
  type: REDIS
  host: localhost
  password: pass
  ttl: 30m
  tls: false

SQL

The SQL Store allows you to save FSM objects in an SQL database. You must provide the corresponding values depending on the RDBMS that you will use. The supported RDBMS are mysql, postgresql and sqlite.

store:
  type: SQL
  ttl: 30m            # "ttl" and "purge" have the same function as in the CACHE type store
  purge: 1h
  host: localhost
  port: 3306          # will default to 3306 for mysql and 5432 for postgresql
  user: user
  password: password
  database: chattodb  # for sqlite, this is the database file name
  rdbms: mysql

You can leave the values empty and set them with environment variables (with the CHATTO_BOT prefix), for example:

extensions:
  my_server:
    type: RPC
    host:         # CHATTO_BOT_EXTENSIONS_MY_SERVER_HOST=localhost
    port:         # CHATTO_BOT_EXTENSIONS_MY_SERVER_PORT=8770

store:
  type: REDIS
  host:           # CHATTO_BOT_STORE_HOST=localhost
  password:       # CHATTO_BOT_STORE_PASSWORD=pass

Default messages per conversation

You can control whether or not to use certain default messages in new or existing conversations using the conversations object in this file. If nothing is specified, the bot will always use the default messages.

For example:

conversation:
  new:
    reply_unsure: false      # the bot will not use any default messages if the conversation is new
    reply_unknown: false
    reply_error: false
  existing:
    reply_unsure: true
    reply_unknown: false     # the bot will not use the `unknown` default even in existing conversations
                             # reply_error is true by default

Tip

These values can be determined via environment variables as well, also with the CHATTO_BOT prefix:

CHATTO_BOT_CONVERSATION_NEW_REPLY_UNSURE=true
CHATTO_BOT_CONVERSATION_NEW_REPLY_UNKNOWN=true
CHATTO_BOT_CONVERSATION_NEW_REPLY_ERROR=true
CHATTO_BOT_CONVERSATION_EXISTING_REPLY_UNSURE=true
CHATTO_BOT_CONVERSATION_EXISTING_REPLY_UNKNOWN=true
CHATTO_BOT_CONVERSATION_EXISTING_REPLY_ERROR=true

REST CORS

For browser-based chatbot integrations you might need to add CORS to the REST endpoint. Enable CORS on the REST endpoint by adding the following to the bot.yml file:

enable_rest_cors: true