Getting Started

This guide takes you from a new Botyard organization to a running bot with an LLM provider credential attached.

1. Create your organization

Sign in to app.botyard.io. If this is your first time using Botyard, create an organization when prompted. Your organization owns the bots, credentials, MCP servers, and API keys you create.

2. Add provider credentials

Bots need a model provider before they can answer with an LLM. You can either bring your own provider API key or use an account-backed provider when available.

1. Open Credentials in the dashboard.
2. Choose the provider you want to use.
3. Paste the required secret or complete the provider connection flow.
4. Save the credential with a recognizable label.

Credential secret values are stored as encrypted runtime secrets. After creation, Botyard shows only safe metadata such as the label, provider, and masked key prefix.

3. Deploy your first bot

1. Open Bots and choose Deploy bot.
2. Give the bot a name and pick a starter template.
3. Select the provider credential and model the bot should use.
4. Review the configuration, then deploy.

Botyard provisions the bot into the cluster and shows its status in the dashboard. Once the bot is running, open it from the bot detail page and send a test message.

Video walkthroughs

• Deploy your AI bots (about a minute): naming the bot and setting its avatar, picking a template, choosing a provider and model, and confirming the bot is live.
• Working with your AI bots: the chat interface, thinking level and behavior settings, and assigning skills from the skill catalogue.

4. Next steps

• Host apps with Botyard when your bot creates a local web app you want to share with your team.
• MCP setup templates when your bot needs extra tools from MCP servers.
• API Authentication when you want to call the Botyard API from your own automation.
• Manage Botyard with Terraform when you want to declare bots, skills, MCP servers, and vault secrets as code.