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VK community bot is silent: a checklist
A VK bot has two sides that break independently: the community settings (events don't reach CHBT) and the flow and plan (events arrive, but there's no reply). The first step is to figure out which side is broken, then go through that side's checklist. Two minutes in total.
Step 0. Where it breaks: a 30-second test
- From your personal page (not as the community), open the community’s messages and send any text, for example “test.”
- In the CHBT dashboard, open the “Conversations” section.
- The message appeared, but there’s no reply → events are arriving and the connection works. See the “CHBT side” checklist below.
- The message didn’t appear → VK isn’t sending events or CHBT is discarding them. See the “VK side” checklist.
Also click “Check flow” in the editor: the test chat works without VK. If the bot replies there but not in the community, the flow is fine and the problem is the connection.
VK side: events don’t arrive
All items are in the community’s “Manage” section and in CHBT “Channels”; you need community administrator rights.
- “Messages” → “Community messages: Enabled”. If they’re off, people have no “Message” button and VK sends nothing.
- Channel status in CHBT “Channels”. “Works” is set only when VK has confirmed the CHBT server. “Error” — the reason is shown under the status: what it means and how to fix it is in the error table of the connection guide.
- The “CHBT” server in “API usage” → “Callback API”. When connecting, CHBT creates it itself with the address
https://app.chbt.io/webhook/vk/channel_number, a secret, the API version and the needed events. The server status is “confirmed”. If the server was deleted or its address, secret, version or event types were changed, click “Reinstall webhook” in the channel row: CHBT will set everything up again. - The channel is connected to the right community. The channel row in “Channels” shows the name of the community you’re writing to. With several communities it’s easy to connect the wrong one.
CHBT side: the event arrived, but there's no reply
- Access key permissions. The channel key has the “Community messages” permission. Without it the event arrives, but sending the reply is rejected: in “Conversations” the bot reply is marked “not delivered”. This happens with channels connected by a key without this permission. Create a key with the “Community messages” and “Community management” permissions and paste it via “Change key” in the channel row — or reconnect the community with the “Connect via VK” button.
- The flow is enabled and has an entry point for VK. In “Flows”, the flow card shows the “Enabled” badge, not “Draft”; you enable a flow with the toggle on its card. VK users don’t type
/start: the “Command (/start)” trigger fires on the “Start” button, which appears when “Bot features” is enabled in “Bot settings” and “Add “Start” button” is checked. Text like “hi, how much does it cost” is caught only by “Keywords” or “Any message” — without them, the bot responds to the button but stays silent on text. - Free plan limit. 30 conversations per month per bot, across all channels combined. The sign: new users get a single line from the bot, “We can't reply in this chat right now”, instead of the flow; conversations with people who already wrote this month continue. Your plan is shown in the “Overview” subtitle, and the limit is removed in “Payment”: Basic costs 650 ₽/month.
- The conversation is with an operator. If an “Operator” block fired in the flow, the bot stays silent in that conversation on purpose until you click “Return to bot” in “Conversations”. This also happens with the owner’s own test conversation: after testing the “Operator” block, the conversation stays with the operator.
One more case outside the checklist: the user has blocked messages from the community. The bot can’t reply: in “Conversations”, the bot’s reply gets a “not delivered” mark, and hovering over it shows the error text from VK. Test from a different VK account.
Symptom → where to look
| Symptom | Likely cause | Item |
|---|---|---|
| Channel status “Error” | Key without permissions, key revoked, or VK didn’t confirm the server | 2 |
| “Conversations” is empty, the channel “Works” | Community messages are off, the “CHBT” server was deleted or changed, the wrong community is connected | 1, 3, 4 |
| The message is in “Conversations”, no reply | Key without message permission, scenario off, limit | 5, 6, 7 |
| Replies to “Start”, silent on text | No “Any message” / “Keywords” trigger | 6 |
| The button keeps “spinning”, no reply | The “CHBT” server’s event types were changed, or the scenario is off | 3, 6 |
| New people get a single phrase about the limit | The 30 Free dialogs are used up | 7 |
| Silent for one person only | The dialog is with an operator, or messages from the community are blocked | 8 |
Which account to test from
Message the community from a personal page — yours or a colleague’s. Admin replies from the VK interface don’t create events for the bot, and the flow doesn’t see them. For a clean test, you need a page that hasn’t messaged the community before: that way you test both the “Start” button and the first message.
The step-by-step connection setup is in the VK connection guide; the full path from the access key to the first flow, with every setting explained, is in the article VK bot for a community. What the bot can do in this channel is described on the VK chatbot page. Similar checklists: Telegram and MAX. If your community doesn’t have a bot yet, connect it for free: VK is included in the Free plan.
FAQ
I changed the access key — what do I update in CHBT?
In the channel row in “Channels” click “Change key” and paste the new one. The channel, its address and conversations stay the same, and nothing needs to change in Callback API. If the new key doesn’t work, CHBT restores the old one.
The bot replies to the “Start” button but not to text. Is it broken?
No. The “Start” button fires the “Command (/start)” trigger, while regular text needs the “Any message” or “Keywords” trigger. Add one to the flow — on VK, people write in words, not commands.
VK says “delivered”, but nothing shows up in CHBT. Why?
That’s what a foreign secret looks like: someone changed the secret key of the “CHBT” server in Callback API, so CHBT answers VK “ok” but drops the request. Click “Reinstall webhook” in the channel row — CHBT will set up the server again with its own secret.