Chapter 01: Run and Talk
⚡ In a hurry? Jump straight to Quick Start — you’ll be chatting with your bot in 5 minutes.
Get General Bots running and have your first conversation.
What You’ll Achieve
By the end of this chapter, you will:
- Have General Bots running on your machine
- Understand what happens during bootstrap
- Complete your first conversation with a bot
- Know how sessions and channels work
Choose Your Path
| If You Want To… | Go To |
|---|---|
| Get running immediately | Quick Start |
| Understand the architecture first | Overview |
| See all installation options | Installation |
| Learn about conversations | First Conversation |
| Understand session management | Sessions and Channels |
The 30-Second Version
./botserver
Open http://localhost:8080. Start chatting. That’s it.
Everything installs automatically on first run—PostgreSQL, storage, cache, and your first bot.
How It Works
Topics in This Chapter
Overview
What General Bots does and how it fits together.
Quick Start
The fastest path from zero to running bot.
Installation
Detailed setup options including LXC containers and production deployment.
First Conversation
Understanding how the bot responds and learns.
Sessions and Channels
How conversations are managed across WhatsApp, Web, Telegram, and more.
Coming From Executive Vision?
If you just read the Executive Vision, here’s what to know:
- Everything in that feature table? It’s all included in the single
botserverbinary - No configuration needed — Bootstrap detects your system and sets everything up
- Start simple — Run it, chat with it, then customize
The philosophy is: get running first, understand later.
Prerequisites
- Operating System: Linux, macOS, or Windows (WSL2 recommended)
- Disk Space: ~2GB for botserver-stack
- RAM: 4GB minimum, 8GB recommended
- Ports: 8080 (web), 5432 (database), 9000 (storage)
No Docker required. No cloud accounts. No API keys to start.
Next Step
