About bots
Bots allow you to
- Send content into and out of uKnowva Messenger.
- Send content to and from another product.
- Automate tasks a human user could do.
A bot that sends content to or from another product is often called an
integration.
Pre-made bots
uKnowva Messenger natively supports integrations with over 90 products, and with
hundreds more through Zapier and IFTTT. If you're looking to add an
integration with an existing product, see our
list of integrations, along with those of
Zapier and IFTTT.
Anatomy of a bot
You can think of a bot as a special kind of user, with limited permissions.
Each bot has a name, avatar, email, bot type and API key.
-
The name and avatar play the same role they do for human users. They
are the most visible attributes of a bot.
-
The email is not used for anything, and will likely be removed in a
future version of uKnowva Messenger.
-
The bot type determines what the bot can and can't do (see below).
-
The API key is how the bot identifies itself to uKnowva Messenger. Anyone with the
bot's API key can impersonate the bot.
Bot type
The bot type determines what the bot can do.
Bot type |
Permissions |
Common uses |
Incoming webhook |
Send messages into uKnowva Messenger |
Third party integrations |
Outgoing webhook |
Send messages into uKnowva Messenger, read messages where the bot is addressed |
Third party integrations, most custom bots |
Generic |
Anything the bot creator can do |
Automating tasks, bots that listen to all messages on a stream |
API super bot (self-hosted only) |
Anything any user can do |
Mirroring |
It's generally best to pick the most restricted bot type that is sufficient
to do the task at hand. Anyone with the bot's API key can do anything the
bot can.
A few more details:
-
Outgoing webhook: The bot can read private messages where the bot is a
participant, and stream messages where the bot is mentioned. When the
bot is PM'd or mentioned, it POSTs the message content to a URL of your
choice. The POST request format can be in a uKnowva Messenger format or a
Slack-compatible format.
This is the preferred bot type for interactive bots built on top of uKnowva Messenger
botserver.
-
Generic: Note that if you truly want to impersonate yourself
(e.g. write messages that come from you, rather than from a look-a-like),
you'll need to use your personal API key.
-
API super bot: You cannot create this from the web interface. Contact
support@zulipchat.com
if you'd like information on how to set this up.
Adding bots
By default, anyone other than guests can add a bot to a
uKnowva Messenger organization, but administrators can
restrict bot creation. Any bot that is added
is visible and available for anyone to use.