Channels

A channel is a named widget mount point. It carries its own model, system prompt, throttle, tool allowlist, extractor allowlist, and retention policy. Channels let one Laravel application host multiple independent chatbots (for example, a customer-facing widget and an internal admin assistant) without entangling their configuration.

The default channel is always default. You only need named channels when you want to deviate from defaults.

Selecting a channel from a controller

use Aanfarhan\Chatbot\Facades\Chatbot;

Chatbot::channel('admin')
    ->context(['report' => $reportData])
    ->prompt('You assist admin users only. Do not discuss pricing.')
    ->greeting('Hello, admin — what would you like to know?')
    ->tools(['lookup_user', 'reset_password']);

Chatbot::channel($name) returns a ChannelScope fluent builder. Every setter is chainable and scoped to the named channel only — Chatbot::context(...) on the bare facade always targets default.

Mounting a named channel

@chatbot('admin')

The widget element's channel attribute determines which signed envelope is minted and which configuration block is consulted. Multiple <chatbot-widget> elements can coexist on the same page if you want.

Channel-scoped configuration

Defaults for each channel live under chatbot.channels in config/chatbot.php:

'channels' => [
    'default' => [],

    'admin' => [
        'model'                    => 'gpt-4o',
        'prompt'                   => 'You assist internal admin users.',
        'greeting'                 => 'Hello! Need a hand?',
        'throttle'                 => ['per_minute' => 5, 'per_day' => 100],
        'retention_days'           => 90,
        'allowed_extractors'       => ['form_state'],
        'extractor_timeout_ms'     => 500,
        'extractor_size_cap_bytes' => 16384,
    ],
],

Any key absent from a channel block falls back to the top-level chatbot.* default.

Per-channel overrides supported in v1:

Key	Falls back to
model	chatbot.model
prompt	(no top-level default)
greeting	(no top-level default)
summary	(no top-level default)
throttle.per_minute / throttle.per_day	chatbot.throttle.*
retention_days	chatbot.retention_days
allowed_extractors	[]
extractor_timeout_ms	250
extractor_size_cap_bytes	8192

Runtime overrides win

Values set via the fluent builder at request time take precedence over config/chatbot.php defaults. This lets you supply per-request prompts and contexts without hard-coding them in config.

Chatbot::channel('support')
    ->context(['ticket' => $ticket->toArray()])
    ->prompt("You are a support agent for ticket #{$ticket->id}.");

Channels and tool allowlists

A tool is registered globally (in a service provider) but only callable on channels whose allowlist names it. See Tool calling — Per-channel allowlists for the full rules.

Chatbot::channel('support')
    ->tools(['lookup_order', 'get_shipping_status']);

If a channel does not set an allowlist, no tools are callable on that channel. This is intentional: tool exposure is opt-in per channel.

Theming per channel

The widget exposes its channel attribute, which you can target in CSS:

chatbot-widget[channel="admin"]    { --chatbot-primary: #dc2626; }
chatbot-widget[channel="default"]  { --chatbot-primary: #2563eb; }

See Theming for the full CSS API.