Creating a Bot

A comprehensive guide to creating and configuring your AI assistant.

Overview

Creating a bot in AskIA involves several steps: basic setup, content addition, customization, and activation. This guide covers each step in detail.

Step 1: Basic Information

When creating a new bot, you'll need to provide:

• Name: A descriptive name for your bot (e.g., "Customer Support Assistant")
• Description: What your bot does and its purpose
• Category: Choose from Support, Sales, Technical, Information, or General
• Avatar: An emoji or icon to represent your bot

Step 2: Add Content to Knowledge Base

Your bot needs content to answer questions. You can add content in two ways:

Upload Documents

Supported formats:

• PDF (.pdf)
• Word documents (.docx)
• Text files (.txt)
• Markdown (.md)

Steps:

1. Navigate to your bot's Knowledge Base tab
2. Click "Upload Document"
3. Select your files
4. Wait for processing (usually takes 1-2 minutes)
5. Documents are automatically indexed and searchable

Create Articles

For structured content, create articles directly in the dashboard:

1. Go to Knowledge Base tab
2. Click "New Article"
3. Use the rich text editor to write your content
4. Add formatting, links, and images as needed
5. Click "Publish" when ready

Step 3: Configure System Prompt

The system prompt defines your bot's personality and behavior. It tells the AI how to respond to users.

Default Prompt

By default, bots use a general helpful assistant prompt. You can customize it to match your needs.

Custom Prompt Examples

Customer Support Bot

You are a friendly and professional customer support assistant. 
Your goal is to help users resolve their issues quickly and efficiently. 
Always be polite, patient, and solution-oriented. If you don't know the 
answer, guide users to contact support.

Sales Assistant

You are an enthusiastic sales assistant. Your role is to help 
potential customers understand our products and services, answer pricing 
questions, and guide them toward making a purchase. Be helpful but not pushy.

Technical Documentation Bot

You are a technical documentation assistant. Provide accurate, 
detailed technical information based on the documentation. Use code examples 
when relevant. Be precise and thorough in your explanations.

Step 4: Customize Appearance

Make your bot match your brand by customizing its appearance in the Branding tab:

• Primary Color: Main color for buttons and accents
• Welcome Message: First message users see when opening the chat
• Position: Where the widget appears (bottom-right, bottom-left, top-right, top-left)
• Bubble Icon: Icon shown in the chat bubble

Step 5: Configure Domain Whitelist

For security, you must specify which domains can embed your bot widget.

Adding Allowed Domains

1. Go to your bot's Settings tab
2. Scroll to "Allowed Domains" section
3. Enter your domain (e.g., "example.com")
4. Click "Add"
5. Click "Save Allowed Domains"

Domain Format

• Enter domains without protocol: example.com
• Subdomains are automatically allowed: app.example.com works if example.com is whitelisted
• WWW variants are handled automatically
• Domains are case-insensitive

Step 6: Activate Your Bot

Once your bot is configured:

1. Ensure you have at least one allowed domain configured
2. Go to the bot's main page or Snippet page
3. Click "Activate Bot"
4. Your bot is now live and ready to use!

Step 7: Get Embed Code

Once activated, get your embed code from the Snippet page:

1. Navigate to your bot's Snippet tab
2. Copy the HTML snippet
3. Paste it before the closing </body> tag of your website

<script src="askiabot.com/api/widget/embed.js?botId=YOUR_BOT_ID"></script>

Best Practices

• Content Quality: Add comprehensive, accurate content to your knowledge base
• Test Thoroughly: Use the preview page to test your bot before going live
• Monitor Performance: Check analytics regularly to see how your bot is performing
• Iterate: Update content and prompts based on user feedback
• Security: Always configure domain whitelist for production use

Next Steps