Set up your liq bot

A liq bot answers only from the files you give it. Setup takes about ten minutes.

• Quickstart
• Starter template
• Files and limits
• Writing knowledge
• Voice and prompt
• Skills
• Embed on your site
• Troubleshooting

Quickstart

1. Sign in. Click Get started, enter your email, and open the one-time link we send (valid 15 minutes). There are no passwords.
2. Create a bot and give it a title.
3. Add your docs. Upload Markdown or text files, or the starter zip.
4. Set the voice in Settings: a custom prompt, and optionally a refusal and a fallback message.
5. Test in the console chat. Check the sources under each answer.
6. Embed. Add your site's address under Allowed origins, then copy the snippet into your page.

Starter template

Start from a working example instead of a blank page. It is a small coffee-shop bot: three knowledge files, two skills, and a ready custom prompt.

Download liq-starter.zip

In the console, open your bot and choose Upload zip. Files outside knowledge/ and skills/ (the README and custom-prompt.txt) are skipped; paste the prompt into Settings by hand. Replace the coffee-shop facts with yours.

Files and limits

A bot is a folder with a fixed layout:

knowledge/*.md   facts the bot may use (also .txt)
skills/*.md      how to reply to kinds of questions

An upload that breaks a rule is rejected with the rule named, and nothing is stored.

Writing knowledge

• liq splits each file by heading, so use one heading per question or topic.
• Put the answer in the first sentence under the heading. Add numbers, dates and names exactly as they should be said.
• Write only what is true. If it is not in the files, the bot says it doesn't know and points to a person.
• Keep internal notes out. Anything in a file can end up in an answer.
• Small bots are read in one pass. Larger ones are searched, so clear headings matter more.

Voice and prompt

The custom prompt sets tone and rules. liq adds its own safety and source rules first, and you cannot change those.

• Custom prompt (up to 8,000 characters): who the bot is, how it sounds, how long answers are, what to do when it can't answer.
• Refusal (500): what to say to questions outside your topic.
• Fallback (500): shown if something goes wrong while answering.

Skills

A skill is a Markdown file with a name and a description. It teaches the bot how to reply to one kind of question, such as complaints or price objections. Skills never run code.

---
name: handle-complaints
description: "How to reply when someone is unhappy"
---
1. Acknowledge it in half a sentence.
2. Give the fix the knowledge allows.
3. Ask for what you need, such as an order number.

Add always: true to the header to put a skill in every answer (up to 10). Other skills load only when the question calls for them.

Embed on your site

Add your site's address under Allowed origins in Settings (for example https://example.com, no path). Then paste this before </body>:

<script src="https://api.liq.dev/widget/v1.js"
        data-bot="YOUR_BOT_ID"
        data-title="Ask us"
        defer></script>

No key or secret goes in the tag. Optional attributes:

If your site sets a Content Security Policy, allow https://api.liq.dev in script-src and connect-src.

Troubleshooting

Still stuck? Email hello@datahashi.com.