# Build your first AI Chatbot

Create a chatbot, add trusted knowledge, test its answers, and make it available to customers.

This guide takes you from an empty account to a working chatbot that answers from your own content.

## Before you begin

You need:

- An Orkata account
- A small amount of accurate business information
- A few realistic questions for testing
- A public HTTPS URL if you plan to use a Website source

For the fastest first test, prepare one Q&A entry such as your business hours, delivery estimate, or return window.

## 1. Create a chatbot

Open the dashboard and select **Create chatbot**.

Give it a name that helps your team recognize its purpose, such as `Store Support`, `Product Assistant`, or `Internal Policy Helper`. The name can be changed later.

After creation, Orkata opens the chatbot's Knowledge Base.

## 2. Add the first knowledge source

Choose the source type that best represents the information:

- **Files** for text-selectable PDF, Markdown (`.md`), or text (`.txt`) documents
- **Q&A** for one approved answer with one or more ways customers may ask the question
- **Text** for focused policies, product details, or reference notes
- **Website** for public HTTPS pages serving HTML or Markdown content

Use one source with an answer you already know. Avoid uploading a large collection of documents for the first test.

> For PDF files, confirm that you can select or highlight the text. Scanned or image-only PDFs cannot be read reliably.

## 3. Wait for training to finish

After adding a source, Orkata prepares it for retrieval. Wait until the source status shows **Trained**.

Here, training means extracting the text, splitting it into searchable sections, and creating the search index used by this chatbot. It does not mean training a new AI model with the document.

If a source fails, open its actions menu to review the error. Fix the source and add or recrawl it again.

## 4. Test in Playground

Open **Playground** and ask a question covered by your source.

Do not test only the exact sentence from the source. If the approved question is “What are your opening hours?”, also try:

- “When are you open?”
- “Are you open on Sunday?”
- “What time do you close?”

Review the response for:

- **Accuracy** — it matches the approved information
- **Relevance** — it answers the question that was asked
- **Clarity** — it is easy for a customer to understand
- **Tone** — it sounds appropriate for your business
- **Boundaries** — it does not invent an answer when information is missing

## 5. Configure the chatbot

Use the **AI** tab in Playground to review:

- **Model** — the AI model used to write responses
- **Temperature** — lower values are more consistent; higher values are more varied
- **Instructions** — the role, tone, boundaries, and fallback behavior
- **Plugins** — actions currently available to the chatbot

Use the **Widget** tab to set the welcome message, suggested messages, colors, and other visitor-facing options.

Save your changes and repeat the same test questions. Use **Compare Models** when you want to evaluate the same prompt across several models before choosing one.

## 6. Add plugins when needed

Plugins let the chatbot do more than return text. For example, it can:

- Show a button that sends the visitor to another page
- Display a form and send the submission to your webhook
- Call an HTTP endpoint to retrieve information from your system

Add plugins only after the basic answers work. Test both the message that should trigger a plugin and similar messages that should not.

## 7. Share the chatbot

Open the **Share** tab in Playground. Orkata provides three options:

- A standalone public chat link
- A JavaScript website widget
- A direct iframe embed

Open the public version and run your test questions one more time. If you install the widget or iframe, verify it on both desktop and mobile layouts.

## You are ready to expand

You now have a chatbot with verified knowledge, tested behavior, and a customer-facing deployment option. Add the next topic only after the first one is working consistently.

## Next step

Read [Best Practices](/docs/quick-start/best-practices) before adding more sources or sending the chatbot to a larger audience.