--- doc_version: "1.0.0" last_updated: "2026-07-14T15:00:57.718Z" title: "Bot Settings Reference" description: "Complete reference for every ChatbotIQ bot configuration option: identity, AI model, behavior, privacy, rate limiting, MCP, human handoff, contact form, and more." keywords: [bot settings, bot configuration, AI model, temperature, RAG threshold, privacy, rate limiting, ChatbotIQ reference] --- This page documents every setting available on a ChatbotIQ bot. Access bot settings by clicking **Edit** on a bot, or the **gear icon** (⚙) in the Playground header. --- ## Identity | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **Name** | Text | *(required)* | The display name for your bot (e.g., "Support Bot"). Shown in the dashboard and conversation list. | | **Description** | Text | *(empty)* | Optional description for your reference. Not shown to visitors. | | **Active** | Toggle | On | Whether the bot accepts messages. When off, the widget won't load and API calls are rejected. | --- ## AI Model | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **LLM Provider** | Select | OpenAI | The AI provider. Options: OpenAI, Mistral, Anthropic, Google Gemini. | | **LLM Model** | Select | GPT-5 Mini | The specific model to use. Available models depend on the selected provider. | > **Embedding Model** is not a standard per-bot setting. It is managed by administrators/support as an **Embedding Model Override** on the workspace admin page; the default is `text-embedding-3-large`. --- ## Behavior | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **System Prompt** | Text | *(empty)* | Custom instructions for your bot's personality, tone, and scope. This is the most important setting for controlling how your bot responds. Also called "base prompt." | | **Language** | Select | Auto-detect | The language your bot responds in. Defaults to **Auto-detect**, which mirrors the language of each user message (falling back to English if unclear). See [Supported Languages](/reference/supported-languages/) for the full list. | | **Temperature** | Number (0-1.0) | *(model default)* | Controls response randomness. Lower = more consistent, higher = more creative. Leave blank to use the model's default. Only shown for **Mistral** and **Anthropic** models; hidden for the GPT-5 family and Gemini (reasoning models that reject a temperature setting). | | **Response Verbosity** | Select | *(model default)* | How detailed responses should be: Low (concise), Medium (balanced), or High (detailed). | | **Allow General Knowledge** | Toggle | Off | When off, the bot only answers from your knowledge base. When on, it may supplement answers with general knowledge for definitions and explanations. | | **Content Type** | Select | *(auto-detected)* | The type of content your bot serves: technical docs, e-commerce, customer support, legal, or education. Affects prompt behavior and output filtering. | --- ## Knowledge Sources | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **Sources** | Multi-select | All sources | Which knowledge sources the bot draws from. Choose specific sources or "All sources" to use everything in your knowledge base. | | **RAG Score Threshold** | Number (0-1) | *(auto-tuned)* | Controls how strictly the bot matches your content. The slider sits at 0.25 by default, but leaving it there stores no value: the retrieval engine then applies its own tuned default (around 0.30), which also varies by content type (lower, ~0.20, for e-commerce; higher, ~0.40, for legal). Raising the value makes the bot stricter (only answers when very confident); lowering it makes the bot more lenient (answers more questions but may be less precise). | --- ## UI Features | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **Suggested Questions** | List | *(empty)* | Pre-written prompts shown when the chat opens. Helps guide users to common topics. | | **Show Suggested Questions** | Toggle | On | Whether to display suggested questions. | | **Suggested Questions Count** | Number | 3 | How many suggested questions to show at once. | | **Include Source Citations** | Toggle | On | Show citation links at the bottom of responses, linking to the source pages used. | | **Inline Citations** | Toggle | Off | Show numbered citation superscripts within the response text (in addition to footer citations). | | **Include Images** | Toggle | Off | Allow the bot to include images from your knowledge base in responses. | | **Allow User Images** | Toggle | Off | Let users upload images in the chat (for multimodal AI models). | | **Include Links** | Toggle | On | Include hyperlinks in bot responses. | | **Glossary** | Key-value pairs | *(empty)* | Custom term definitions. When the bot encounters these terms, it uses your definitions. Add terms via the dashboard - no coding needed. | --- ## Privacy & Access | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **Privacy Mode** | Select | Private | **Public** = anyone can chat (required for website widget). **Private** = only workspace members. **Authenticated** = any logged-in user. | | **Allowed Domains** | List | *(empty = all)* | Domains where the widget is allowed to load. Empty means any domain. Supports wildcards (e.g., `*.example.com`). | | **Record IP Addresses** | Toggle | Off | Store visitor IP addresses with conversations. Useful for analytics but may have privacy implications. | | **PII Redaction** | Toggle | Off | Automatically detect and mask personally identifiable information (emails, phone numbers, etc.) in chat messages. See [Enable PII Redaction](/how-to/enable-pii-redaction/). | --- ## Rate Limiting | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **Messages per Minute** | Number | *(plan default)* | Maximum messages a single visitor can send per minute. Prevents abuse. | | **Messages per Hour** | Number | *(plan default)* | Maximum messages a single visitor can send per hour. | | **Warning Message** | Text | *(empty)* | Custom message shown when a visitor hits the rate limit. If empty, a default message is used. | --- ## Web Search | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **Web Search Enabled** | Toggle | Off | When on, the bot performs a parallel web search scoped to your source domains during retrieval. Supplements knowledge base results with fresh web content. See [Enable Web Search](/how-to/enable-web-search/). | --- ## MCP (Model Context Protocol) | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **MCP Enabled** | Toggle | Off | Expose this bot as an MCP server so AI tools can query your knowledge base. Requires a paid plan (Personal or higher). Choose between API Key (authenticated) or Public mode when enabling. See [Connect via MCP](/how-to/set-up-mcp-integration/). | | **MCP API Key** | Generated | *(none)* | API key for authenticating MCP connections. Generated when you enable MCP in API Key mode. Shown with a prefix for identification; the full key is shown once at creation. | | **Show MCP Tools in Widget** | Toggle | Off | Display available MCP tools in the chat widget. Only available when MCP is enabled in **Public mode**, generating an API key force-disables this toggle. | --- ## Human Handoff | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **Handoff Enabled** | Toggle | Off | Allow conversations to be transferred to a live agent. See [Enable Human Handoff](/how-to/enable-human-handoff/). | | **Handoff Trigger** | Select | Button | When handoff is offered: **Button** = user clicks a button, **Auto** = bot decides automatically, **Both** = either method. | | **Offline Message** | Text | *(empty)* | Message shown when no agents are available (e.g., "Our team is offline. We'll get back to you soon."). | | **Agent Label** | Text | *(empty)* | Display name for the human agent in the chat (e.g., "Support Agent"). | | **Agents Available** | Toggle | Off | Whether live agents are currently online and ready to respond. | --- ## Contact Form | Setting | Type | Default | Description | |---------|------|---------|-------------| | **Contact Form Enabled** | Toggle | Off | Show an inline contact form in the chat when the bot can't help. Collects name, email, and message, delivered to your inbox. | | **Contact Form Trigger** | Select | Button | When the form is offered: **Button** = a "Contact us" button in the widget, **Auto** = shown when the bot can't answer, **Both** = button + auto-detect. | | **Button Display** | Select | After response | When the contact form button is visible: **After response** = only after a bot response, **Always** = always visible in the widget. | | **Custom Fields** | JSON | *(default: name, email, message)* | Define custom form fields. Each field has a name, label, type (`text`, `email`, or `textarea`), and whether it's required. Leave empty to use the default fields. | | **Notification Email** | Text | *(empty)* | Override email for form submissions. If empty, notifications go to all workspace members. | | **Success Message** | Text | *(default)* | Message shown after the user submits the form. Leave empty for the default message. | --- ## Related - [Create and Manage Bots](/how-to/create-and-manage-bots/) - how to create and configure bots - [Improve Your Bot's Answers](/how-to/optimize-bot-answers/) - practical tuning guide - [Choose and Switch AI Models](/how-to/switch-ai-models/) - model selection guidance ## Sitemap Full documentation index: [sitemap.md](/sitemap.md) and [llms.txt](/llms.txt).