Installing the BotKit SDK

Back to BotKit SDK Overview

The BotKit SDK runs as a Node.js application. You can add a reverse proxy, firewall, and load balancer to meet your availability, scalability, and performance requirements.

For a full end-to-end tutorial, see BotKit SDK Tutorial — Flight Search.

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Prerequisites

Register your app on the Platform to get authentication credentials:

1. Go to Deploy > Integrations > BotKit.
2. Create or register an app for your bot to generate Client ID and Client Secret.

Copy these values into your config.json:

• appId → Client ID
• appKey → Client Secret

See SDK App Registration for details.

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Download and Install

Download the BotKit SDK from GitHub:

https://github.com/Koredotcom/BotKit

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Configure config.json

Set the following keys in config.json:

Key	Description
server.port	Port for the BotKit Node.js app (default: 8003)
app.apiPrefix	API path prefix for the Express route (empty in sample code)
app.url	ngrok forwarding URL or your callback server URL
validations.leastNodeVersion	Minimum Node.js version — must be 10 or higher
credentials.apikey	Client Secret from the Platform
credentials.appId	Client ID from the Platform
credentials.st-<botId>.apikey	Per-bot override for Client Secret (falls back to parent if absent)
credentials.st-<botId>.appId	Per-bot override for Client ID
jwt.jwtAlgorithm	JWT signing algorithm: HS256, HS512, RS256, or RS512 (default: HS256)
jwt.jwt-expiry	JWT expiry in seconds (default: 60)
jwt.st-<botId>	Per-bot JWT algorithm and expiry overrides
redis.options.host	Redis host (default: localhost)
redis.options.port	Redis port (default: 6379)
redis.available	Set true to enable Redis for async webhook payload storage
examples.mockServicesHost	Host for mock services used in testing
liveagentlicense	LiveChat license key for agent transfer integrations
supportsMessageAck	Set true to enable message acknowledgment
languages	List of supported language codes, for example, ["en", "de"]

Example config.json:

{
  "server": { "port": 8003 },
  "app": {
    "apiPrefix": "",
    "url": "https://your-ngrok-url.ngrok-free.app"
  },
  "validations": { "leastNodeVersion": 10 },
  "credentials": {
    "apikey": "your-client-secret",
    "appId": "cs-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "st-67890": {
      "apikey": "bot-specific-secret",
      "appId": "bot-specific-client-id"
    }
  },
  "jwt": {
    "jwtAlgorithm": "HS256",
    "jwt-expiry": 60,
    "st-67890": {
      "jwtAlgorithm": "HS512",
      "jwt-expiry": 60
    }
  },
  "redis": {
    "options": { "host": "localhost", "port": 6379 },
    "available": false
  },
  "examples": { "mockServicesHost": "https://localhost:8004" },
  "liveagentlicense": "your-livechat-license",
  "supportsMessageAck": true,
  "languages": ["en", "de"]
}

The default JWT token expiry is 60 seconds. Override with the KoreConfig setting:

"botkit": { "jwt_expiry": 300 }

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Run the SDK

In a Terminal window, navigate to your BotKit SDK folder and run:

node app.js

Requires Node.js version 10 or higher.

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