Publishing via command line

Using the Instant.chat command line tools

Installing ibot

Our command line tools are available at github.com/instantbots/ibot. For the most up to date guide on using the command line tools, please check the repository. This page exists as a quick getting started guide.

Initialize a new Instant.chat package

To initialize a new Instant.chat package:

$ npm i ibot -g
$ mkdir new-package
$ cd new-package
$ ibot init

You'll be walked through the process. The ibot CLI will automatically check for updates to core packages, so make sure you update when available. To play around with your Instant.chat package locally;

$ ibot serve

Will start an HTTP server. To execute a standalone endpoint / tool:

# run functions/index.js
$ ibot run /

# run functions/some-endpoint.js
$ ibot run some-endpoint

# run functions/index.js with {"name":"hello"} POST parameters
$ ibot run / --name hello

Creating tools aka endpoints

Defining custom tools is easy. You'll find the terms tool and endpoint used interchangeably as they all refer to the same thing: your bot executing custom code in the cloud.

A tool is just an endpoint hosted by the Instant.chat Package Registry.

All endpoints for Instant.chat packages live in the functions/ directory. Each file name maps to the endpoint route e.g. functions/hello.js routes to localhost:8000/hello. You can export custom GET, POST, PUT and DELETE functions from every file. Here's an example "hello world" endpoint:

You can create a new endpoint with:

$ ibot g:endpoint hello

// functions/hello.js

/**
 * A basic hello world function
 * @param {string} name Your name
 * @returns {string} message The return message
 */
export async function GET (name = 'world') {
  return `hello ${name}`!
};

You can write any code you want and install any NPM packages you'd like to your tool package.

Installing NPM packages

You can install NPM packages the traditional way, or using your bundler of choice:

$ npm i stripe --save # or whatever package you want

Instant.chat will automatically install NPM packages on deployment, we do not use your locally stored packages.

Deploy an Instant.chat Package

Public packages

You will not be billed for other people using your public packages. They are billed directly from their account.

By default all packages are created as public projects. Public projects are namespaced to your username, e.g. @my-username/project. This can be found in the "name" field of instant.package.json.

Note that the code for public projects will be shared publicly for anybody to see, and the expectation is that others can use this code in their bots as well. they will be billed from their balance.

To deploy a public project to a development environment, you can use:

$ ibot up

You can also publish to staging and production using:

$ ibot up --env staging
$ ibot up --env production

Private packages

Private packages are in beta and are currently only publishable via our command line tools. We expect the functionality may change.

You will be billed for all usage of your private packages. However, all code and endpoints will not be publicly available; you must share the URL with somebody in order for them to use it.

You can publish private project by prepending private/ on the "name" field in instant.package.json, e.g.

{
  "name": "private/@my-username/private-package"
}

You then deploy as normal. These packages will be visible by you in the registry but nobody else.

Additional utilities

There are a few additional utilities you may find useful with this package;

Generate endpoints

# generates functions/my-endpoint/example.js
$ ibot g:endpoint my-endpoint/example

Generate tests

# Generate blank tests or ones for an endpoint
$ ibot g:test my_test # OR ...
$ ibot g:test --endpoint my-endpoint/example

Run tests

You can write tests for your tools to verify they work. Simply run;

$ ibot test

Your tests in the test/ directory will be run top-down with shallow folders first, and alphabetically.

Environment variables

Be careful when using environment variables with public packages. By default we do not expose .env files in public package code, so your secrets are safe and encrypted. However, all Instant.chat users can run public package code — so if you expose any of your secrets in endpoint results or logs they may leak.

You can store environment variables with your packages in the root directory as:

.env
.env.staging
.env.production

These files will not be published for everybody to see, so you can use them to hide secrets within your code. However, be careful when using environment variables with public packages: if you ever return them in an endpoint response, or connect to sensitive data, there's a chance you may expose that information to another user of the platform.