Creating a Chatbot

Learn how to create and configure your first chatbot in Syllabi.

Overview

A chatbot in Syllabi is an AI assistant that can:

• Answer questions based on your uploaded documents
• Use custom skills and actions
• Integrate with Discord, Slack, and other platforms
• Be customized with your own branding and theme

Step 1: Sign Up and Login

Create Account

1. Go to your Syllabi instance (e.g., https://app.yourdomain.com)
2. Click Sign Up
3. Enter your email and password
4. Verify your email (check inbox for verification link)
5. Log in with your credentials

Dashboard Overview

After logging in, you'll see:

• Chatbots list - All your chatbots
• Create New Chatbot button
• Settings - Account settings
• Usage - API usage and analytics

Step 2: Create Your First Chatbot

Basic Configuration

1. Click Create New Chatbot button
2. Fill in basic information:

Name:

Customer Support Bot

• Choose a descriptive name for your chatbot
• This is shown to users in the chat interface

Description (optional):

AI assistant that helps customers with product questions and support issues

• Internal description for your reference
• Not shown to end users

Shareable URL Slug:

customer-support

• Creates public URL: yourdomain.com/chat/customer-support
• Must be unique across your account
• Use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only

3. Click Create Chatbot

Step 3: Configure AI Model

Model Selection

Choose the AI model for your chatbot:

Recommended models:

How to select:

1. Go to Settings tab in chatbot page
2. AI Model dropdown
3. Select your preferred model
4. Click Save Changes

Temperature Setting

Controls response creativity:

0.0 - 2.0

• 0.0 - 0.3: Precise, factual, deterministic (good for support bots)
• 0.4 - 0.7: Balanced (default, recommended)
• 0.8 - 1.0: Creative, varied responses
• 1.1 - 2.0: Very creative, unpredictable

Example settings:

• Customer support: 0.3
• General chat: 0.7
• Creative writing: 1.2

System Prompt

Define your chatbot's personality and behavior:

Example prompts:

Customer Support Bot:

You are a helpful customer support assistant for Acme Corp.

Your role:
- Answer questions about our products and services
- Help troubleshoot common issues
- Be friendly, professional, and patient
- If you don't know the answer, recommend contacting support@acme.com

Guidelines:
- Keep responses concise and clear
- Use the uploaded documentation to answer questions
- Always verify information before responding
- Escalate complex issues to human support

Educational Tutor:

You are an experienced teacher helping students learn mathematics.

Your teaching style:
- Break down complex concepts into simple steps
- Use examples and analogies
- Encourage students with positive reinforcement
- Ask follow-up questions to check understanding

When students ask questions:
1. First, ask what they already understand
2. Explain the concept clearly
3. Provide an example
4. Ask if they have questions

Sales Assistant:

You are a knowledgeable sales consultant for TechCo products.

Your approach:
- Understand customer needs through questions
- Recommend relevant products from our catalog
- Highlight key features and benefits
- Compare products if asked
- Provide pricing information

Remember:
- Be helpful, not pushy
- Focus on customer value
- Use information from product documentation
- Suggest alternatives if needed

Step 4: Upload Initial Content

Upload documents that your chatbot will reference:

1. Go to Content tab

2. Click Upload Document

3. Select file types:

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

4. Wait for processing to complete

5. Verify chunks in Document Chunks view

Best practices:

• Start with 3-5 key documents
• Ensure documents are well-formatted
• Remove sensitive information
• Test with sample questions

See Uploading Documents for detailed guide.

Step 5: Configure Suggested Prompts

Help users get started with pre-written questions:

1. Go to Settings tab
2. Suggested Prompts section
3. Add 3-5 example questions

Examples:

For Customer Support:

- How do I reset my password?
- What are your shipping options?
- How can I track my order?
- What is your return policy?

For Product Documentation:

- How do I install the SDK?
- What are the API rate limits?
- How do I authenticate requests?
- Where can I find code examples?

For Educational Tutor:

- Explain quadratic equations
- How do I solve for x?
- What is the Pythagorean theorem?
- Can you help me with fractions?

Step 6: Test Your Chatbot

Internal Testing

1. Click Test Chat button
2. Try sample questions:
   • Ask about uploaded documents
   • Test suggested prompts
   • Verify response quality
   • Check response time

Things to Test

Accuracy:

• ✅ Answers are correct and based on documents
• ✅ Citations are provided when relevant
• ✅ "I don't know" when information isn't available

Tone and Style:

• ✅ Follows system prompt guidelines
• ✅ Appropriate personality
• ✅ Consistent responses

Performance:

• ✅ Responses stream smoothly
• ✅ Response time is acceptable (2-5 seconds)
• ✅ No errors or timeouts

Edge Cases:

• ✅ Handles unclear questions
• ✅ Gracefully handles off-topic questions
• ✅ Doesn't make up information

Step 7: Customize Appearance (Optional)

Make your chatbot match your brand:

1. Go to Theme tab
2. Customize colors:

Primary Color: #007bff

• Main brand color
• Used for buttons, links, accents

Background Color: #ffffff

• Chat interface background

User Message Bubble:

• Background: #007bff
• Text: #ffffff

Bot Message Bubble:

• Background: #f0f0f0
• Text: #000000

3. Logo: Upload your logo (PNG, JPG, max 2MB)
4. Font Family: Choose from available fonts
5. Click Save Theme

See Customizing Theme for advanced options.

Step 8: Share Your Chatbot

Public URL

Share via public URL:

https://yourdomain.com/chat/customer-support

Access options:

• Public: Anyone with link can access
• Login Required: Users must create account
• Domain Whitelist: Restrict to specific domains

Embed on Website

Get embed code:

1. Go to Share tab
2. Click Get Embed Code
3. Copy snippet:

<iframe
  src="https://yourdomain.com/embed/customer-support"
  width="100%"
  height="600px"
  frameborder="0"
></iframe>

4. Add to your website HTML

See Embedding Widget for advanced embedding.

Integrate with Platforms

Connect to Discord, Slack, etc.:

1. Go to Integrations tab
2. Click Add Integration
3. Select platform (Discord, Slack, etc.)
4. Follow authentication flow
5. Configure channel settings

See Integrations for detailed guides.

Managing Multiple Chatbots

When to Create Multiple Chatbots

Create separate chatbots for:

• Different purposes: Sales vs Support
• Different products: Product A docs vs Product B docs
• Different audiences: Internal vs External
• Different languages: English bot vs Spanish bot
• Different integrations: Discord bot vs Slack bot

Organizing Chatbots

Naming convention:

[Purpose] - [Audience] - [Platform]

Examples:
- Support - Public - Web
- Sales - Internal - Slack
- Docs - Developers - Discord

Use folders (if available):

Customer Facing/
├── Support Bot
├── Sales Bot
└── Onboarding Bot

Internal/
├── HR Bot
└── IT Support Bot

Best Practices

Content

• ✅ Upload high-quality, relevant documents
• ✅ Keep documents up to date
• ✅ Remove outdated information
• ✅ Organize content into folders
• ✅ Test after adding new content

Configuration

• ✅ Write clear, specific system prompts
• ✅ Choose appropriate temperature setting
• ✅ Use suggested prompts to guide users
• ✅ Set reasonable context window
• ✅ Enable relevant skills/actions

Monitoring

• ✅ Review conversations regularly
• ✅ Check analytics for usage patterns
• ✅ Identify common questions
• ✅ Monitor response quality
• ✅ Gather user feedback

Maintenance

• ✅ Update content regularly
• ✅ Refine system prompt based on feedback
• ✅ Add new suggested prompts
• ✅ Archive old conversations
• ✅ Rotate API keys periodically

Common Issues

Chatbot Gives Wrong Answers

Causes:

• Outdated or incorrect documents
• Temperature too high (hallucinations)
• System prompt not specific enough

Solutions:

1. Review and update uploaded documents
2. Lower temperature to 0.3-0.5
3. Make system prompt more specific about using documents
4. Add explicit instructions to cite sources

Responses Are Too Slow

Causes:

• Too many documents
• Large documents not chunked properly
• Model is overloaded

Solutions:

1. Remove unnecessary documents
2. Use smaller, focused documents
3. Switch to faster model (gpt-4o-mini)
4. Reduce max tokens in response

Chatbot Ignores Documents

Causes:

• Documents not processed correctly
• Retrieval not working
• System prompt doesn't mention documents

Solutions:

1. Check document processing status
2. Verify embeddings were created
3. Update system prompt to explicitly use uploaded documents:

   Always search the uploaded documents before answering.
   Cite specific sections when providing information.

Users Don't Know What to Ask

Solutions:

1. Add more suggested prompts
2. Add welcome message explaining capabilities
3. Provide examples in system prompt
4. Create FAQ document to upload

Next Steps

• Upload Documents - Add knowledge to your chatbot
• Customize Theme - Match your branding
• Add Skills - Extend functionality
• Analytics - Monitor usage and performance
• Integrations - Connect to Discord, Slack, etc.

Advanced Configuration

Tool Selection Method

Control how chatbot uses tools:

Auto (Recommended):

• AI decides when to use tools
• More intelligent responses
• May use multiple tools per query

Required:

• Always uses tools for every query
• Good for data lookup bots
• Slower but more thorough

None:

• Never uses tools
• Pure conversation mode
• Fastest, but no document access

Context Window

Maximum conversation history:

2048 - 128000 tokens

• 4096: Short conversations, fast
• 16384: Standard conversations (default)
• 32768: Long context, detailed discussions
• 128000: Maximum context (Claude 3, expensive)

Recommendation: Start with 16384 and adjust based on needs.

Response Settings

Max Tokens: Limit response length

256 - 4096 tokens

• 256: Short, concise answers
• 1024: Standard (default)
• 2048+: Detailed, long-form responses

Stop Sequences: End generation at specific tokens

["\n\nHuman:", "###"]

• Use to prevent chatbot from continuing conversation as user

Chatbot Settings Reference

You've successfully created your first chatbot! Continue to the next guides to enhance it with documents, custom themes, and integrations.