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How to create a chatbot without a programmer: the path from task to launch
Creating a chatbot without a programmer today is a matter of two to three hours, if you go in the right order. The wrong order is known: open the constructor, add blocks, connect Telegram, and then spend a week thinking about why all this is needed. Below is a path of seven stages, from the formulation of the task to the first week after launch, on the CHBT constructor: one script, four channels - Telegram, MAX, VKontakte and a widget on the site. Each channel has separate connection instructions; here is the entire route so you don’t get lost between them.
Stage 0. One phrase about the task
Before registering, write one sentence using the formula: who writes to the bot → what he wants → what the bot must give or collect → what happens then. Examples that work:
- “A salon client wants to make an appointment → the bot asks for a service, convenient time and phone number → the administrator confirms within an hour.”
- “A site visitor asks about price → the bot responds with a range and offers a calculation → takes an e-mail → the manager sends a calculation."
- "The buyer from the marketplace scans the QR → the bot issues instructions and a guarantee → asks for feedback → the contact is saved in CRM".
Examples that do not work: “bot for sales”, “smart assistant”, “to answer everything”. From such a phrase one cannot deduce either the first message, or the buttons, or what is considered success. If the proposal does not add up, there are several tasks, and the first bot must take one. The rest will become separate scripts in the same bot later.
Three decisions immediately follow from the phrase: which template to take (record, requests, FAQ), what data to collect (phone, e-mail, own field) and where the bot transfers the conversation (operator, letter, CRM). If you doubt whether a bot is needed at all, there is analysis of what a chatbot is for business; if it is not clear whether you need a push-button one or with AI, - select the type of bot. Then we consider that the problem is formulated.
Stage 1. Channels: no need to select, you need to prepare accesses
The usual question at this stage is “Telegram or MAX, or maybe a website?” In CHBT it is removed by the product device: “Bot” is a project to which any number of channels are connected, and one script responds to all of them. Therefore, the stage is called not “select”, but “prepare accesses” - each channel needs its own key.
| Channel | What you need get | Where | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telegram | Token bot | @BotFather → /newbot | Buttons under the message, deep links ?start=, command /start; script blocks send text and buttons, photos - only AI seller cards |
| MAX | Token bot | Cabinet “MAX for business” (business.max.ru) | Text and buttons, deep link via bot_started; texts should be kept shorter |
| VK | Community admin rights (sign in with the “Connect via VK” button) or an access key with the “Community messages” and “Community management” rights | Key: community → “Manage” → “API usage” → “Access tokens” | CHBT sets up the Callback API itself; the bot responds in community messages; up to 10 buttons, 2 in a row |
| Site | Nothing: the widget code displays CHBT | Widget section | One line before </body>; pre-chat form, files, working hours |
This list is closed: WhatsApp and chat bots for social networks Meta (recognized as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) in CHBT is not and will not be - if the audience is there, the bot in Telegram or MAX becomes the point where it is transferred with a link from the profile. But there is something that designers usually don’t have: if you sell a product, the catalog is connected by uploading the store via a link, file or Wildberries seller key, and the AI seller (from the Basic plan) responds with your price and availability. The site directory is marked “not verified” in the account until the first download has taken place. We will connect channels at stage 4; Now it’s enough to understand what keys you will need and create a Telegram account or a VK community if they don’t exist yet.
Stage 2. Account: registration and the first “Bot”
Register for app.chbt.io/register - e-mail and password. The free plan is activated immediately; Payment will only be required when upgrading to Basic. After logging in, create a “Bot” and name it after the task from stage 0: “Registration - salon on Lenin”, “Requests from the site”. Only you can see the name; clients will see the name of the bot from BotFather or the title of the widget.
The cabinet sections that will be needed on the first evening are five of fourteen:
- “flows” - logic is collected here bot.
- “Channels” - tokens and keys.
- “Widget” - chat settings for the site and code inserts.
- “Conversations” - inbox where correspondence sent to the operator goes conversations.
- “Contacts” - cards of people with phone numbers, tags and history.
The rest - “CRM”, “Mailouts”, “AI agents”, “QR campaigns”, “Marketplaces”, “Analytics”, “Payment”, “Access” - will wait for the second week. The Free plan includes one bot, 30 conversations per month, all four channels, one operator, and the “Steps” editor mode. This is enough to start; “Canvas”, AI and newsletters are opened on Basic for 650 ₽ per month.
Stage 3. Script: template, then your own words
The most common mistake a newbie makes is assembling a script from scratch. B CHBT 19 templates for typical tasks, and almost any phrase from stage 0 falls on one of them: “Customer registration”, “Collection of applications”, “FAQ autoresponder”, “Issuing a lead magnet”, “Quiz-bot”, “Support”, “Menu and order”, “Object selection”, “Buyer bot” for QR. The “Use Template” button on the template page creates a script in your bot with all the blocks.
Then there are only words. Go through the blocks from top to bottom and replace:
- Greetings in the first block “Message”: who you are and what the bot can do, in one or two lines. Here is a phrase that by continuing the conversation, the client agrees to the processing of data, with reference to your policy: there is no separate consent checkbox in the bot.
- Button texts: names of your services instead of “Service 1”, your sections instead of “Question about prices”.
- Questions in the “Data Collection” blocks and texts in case of an input error: “It seems that the number is missing numbers - write this: +7 900 000-00-00.”
- Final message with substitution: “Thank you, {{name}}! We’ll call you back at {{phone}} before 18:00.”
Don’t change the structure—which blocks follow which—for the first time: the template has already gone through dozens of runs. On the Free plan, the editor works in the “Steps” mode - a linear list that is enough for recording and applications. It is more convenient to draw an extensive support menu on the “Canvas” (Basic), where blocks and connections are visible as a diagram. On Basic, AI editing of the script is available with the text: “add a branch selection after the greeting” - and the block will appear on its own. How to design a script if there is no template for the task - in the article about the conversation map.
Stage 4. Connecting channels: two minutes for each
The script is ready - we connect the places where it will work. Each channel has its own item in the “Channels” section; you can connect one today and the other three tomorrow, you don’t have to change the script.
Telegram. “Channels” → “Connect Telegram” → insert a token from @BotFather. CHBT will install the webhook with the secret key. After a minute, the /start command in your bot will launch the script. Details and typical errors with the token can be found in the article how to create a Telegram bot.
MAX. “Channels” → “Connect MAX” → token from the “MAX for business” account. Same script, same buttons; The difference is the start behavior: the bot_started event with payload plays the role of a deep link. Analysis of the steps is in the article how to create a bot in MAX.
VKontakte. In the community: “Manage” → “Messages” → enable community messages, and in “Bot settings” enable bot features. In CHBT: “Channels” → the “VKontakte” card → “Connect via VK” (sign in with VK ID, choose the community, “Allow”) or “Connect using community key” - a key with the “Community messages” and “Community management” rights. CHBT will set up the Callback API itself. The bot responds in private messages from the community; remember the limit of 10 buttons. Step by step - in the article bot VKontakte for the community and in the help connection.
Site. “Widget” section: title, color, position, name and avatar of the “agent”, greeting, if necessary pre-chat form (name, e-mail, telephone) and a list of allowed domains. Copy the line <script src="https://app.chbt.io/w.js" data-key="…"> and paste before </body> - the code is the same on Tilda, WordPress, Bitrix. Opening a widget is a separate script trigger. The widget settings are detailed in the article about online chat for the site.
If the same script should behave differently in channels - for example, in the widget suggest a file, and in MAX shorten the text - the script has a “Condition” block with checking “Channel”.
Stage 5. Verification: in the editor, then from the phone
Two checks, both required, and they catch different errors.
“Check script” — test chat right in the editor. It shows the logic: whether the branches go where intended, whether the variables are substituted, whether the phone check works. Go through each menu button to the end, enter the word “later” in the phone field and make sure that the bot replies with your text.
Real test from your phone in each connected channel. It shows what the editor doesn’t see: what the buttons look like in Telegram and VK, whether the text is readable on the phone screen, whether the greeting in MAX is stretched, whether the widget opens on the mobile version of the site. At the same time, you will see how the conversation appears in the “Conversations” section and what the card looks like in “Contacts”.
Checklist before giving a link to clients:
- /start (and opening the widget) starts a greeting, not silence.
- Each message has a continuation: a button, a question or an “Operator” block. A message without continuation is a dead end from which the client leaves.
- Invalid phone number and e-mail are asked again by your “Text in case of error”, and in this text there is a way out: “or write “operator”” - with a script for this word.
- A message that does not end up in any thread catches the “Any message” trigger and leads to the operator, rather than responding with “I don’t understand.”
- The test lead appeared in “Contacts”, a letter was sent to the owner; In “Account → Notifications” browser notifications or Web Push are enabled.
- A person has been appointed who opens “Conversations” at least twice a day.
Stage 6. Launch and first week
Launch is not a button, but a link to the bot where there are people: in the profile header, in the signature of the letter, on the website with the “Write in Telegram” button with a deep link ?start=sait, on the business card with a QR code from the “QR campaigns” section. Give the link to a few loyal clients first and ask them to go through the flow.
Where to look in the first week:
- “Conversations” - read every correspondence. Where people wrote in text instead of pressing a button, a new button or different text is needed. Where we left the conversation, there was a dead end or an unnecessary question.
- “Contacts” — how many cards with a phone number appeared. This is the result from the phrase of stage 0.
- "Analytics" — “Review” tab: incoming and bot and operator responses by day for 14 days, conversations for 24 hours, conversations that are waiting for a response, and a breakdown of conversations by channel for 30 days. There are no counters for individual blocks of the script - collect the picture by branches using tags through “Action” → “Add tag”.
- Conversation limit. On the Free plan - 30 per month, the “N out of 30” counter is on the “Review” page of the bot. Once exhausted, the bot talks to those who have already written this month as usual, and instead of the script, it responds to new people with a service phrase about the limit, and for them it looks like “the bot is broken.” If the limit runs out within a week, switch to Basic; if you don’t get even ten in a month, the problem is not in the bot, but in the fact that no one sees the link to it.
Make edits right away: autosave and version history allow you to roll back if the new text worked worse than the old one.
What to put off until the second week
A list of functions that are useful, but interfere with the first launch if you take them on right away.
- AI agent. You need a knowledge base in the text and a Basic plan. The meaning will appear when the “Conversations” accumulate questions that are not included in the menu.
- Mailings. There is no one to send it to yet: the base of those who opened the conversation will be assembled in two to three weeks. The “Mailouts” section is on Basic; text with variables, audience by tags, delayed launch.
- Transfer to your CRM. The HTTP Request action will send the contact data and variables to your URL - to Make, n8n, or your server. There are no ready-made “amoCRM” and “Bitrix24” buttons. For the first two weeks, the built-in CRM kanban and emails will suffice.
- Second and third flows. Replies based on the keyword “price”, a separate thread for those who clicked via QR, a nightly autoresponder based on time conditions - each is added by a separate script with its own trigger, when the first one works.
- Team. Inviting operators by e-mail in the “Access” section (roles Owner, Administrator, Operator). On Free there is one operator, on Basic there is no limit.
This procedure gives you a working bot in an evening and an understanding of what to improve in a week. If you only need a bot in one channel, there are pages for each: Telegram, MAX, VK. Start with the free plan: create a chatbot without a programmer →
Ready-made bot templatesTelegram chatbotChatbot MAXChatbot VKontakteOnline chat for the site: widget