Create and run a Bot
This document outlines the steps required to create your first bot with Rocket.Chat.
User with admin privileges
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:
In the topbar, click the three dots (Options) and then click Administration
Select Users from the left sidebar
Click
+(Add User) button in the right sidebarIn the profile window that appears, fill in Name, Username, Email and Password fields
Enable Verified toggle under the Email field
Disable Require password change toggle under the Password field
Select
botfrom theAdd Roledropdown menu and click Add Role button to the rightDisable Join default channels and Send welcome email checkboxes
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: youremail+botnam@gmail.com. See this issue for more.
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​
​Running a bBot 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.
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).
