Setting Up Your First Bot

Create a new bot

1. In Onboard, click Bots in the left sidebar, then click Bots again to open the overview page.
2. Click Create New Bot. A side panel opens with your bot's configuration options.
3. Fill in the fields:
- Bot Name (required): a descriptive name, e.g. "Support Bot" or "Product FAQ Bot".
- Description (optional): a short note on what this bot is for.
- Bot Type: General Bot (works across your entire site) or Project Bot (scoped to specific domains or URLs).
- Behavior Mode: 'Button Only' (visitor clicks to open the chat), 'Auto Show' (chat opens automatically), or 'Hidden' (bot runs, widget stays invisible — handy for testing).
4. (Optional) Set 'Visibility Dates' if the bot should only be active for a specific window of time.
5. (Optional) Turn on 'Once Per Session' if you only want the widget to appear once per visitor session.
6. Click Save. Your new bot appears in the Bots overview list.

If you chose Project Bot

Project Bots include a few extra fields:

- Parent Bot: link this bot to a parent bot to keep a family of related bots organized.
- Domains: the domain(s) this bot should run on.
- Target URLs (optional): limit the bot to specific pages or URL patterns.

💡 **Pro tip:** Use Project Bots when you want different bots — with different knowledge bases and tones — for different parts of your site (for example, a docs subdomain versus your marketing site).

What's next

Once your bot exists, it doesn't have anything to say yet. Before it goes live:

1. Add a knowledge base — see Building Your Bot's Knowledge Base.
2. Customize the widget — see Customizing Your Chat Widget.
3. Fine-tune AI behavior — see Fine-Tuning AI Behavior with Chat Settings.

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Related: Onboard Chatbot Overview

Setting Up Your First Bot

Create and configure a new Onboard Chatbot in a few minutes. This guide walks you through creating your first bot and choosing the settings that control where and how it appears.