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Building Bots

SendSeven gives you three different building blocks for automating conversations. They live side-by-side in the Automation area of the dashboard and can run on any channel — WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, Email, or your website widget.

This page is the decision tree: pick the right tool, then jump into the guide that walks you through building it.

The three building blocks​

Building blockWhat it doesBest for
AI AssistantAnswers questions in natural language using your Knowledge Base (RAG). Streams responses, cites sources, escalates when confidence is low.Support, sales, FAQ, anything where customers ask open-ended questions.
Keyword BotMatches incoming messages against a list of keywords and replies with a pre-defined message, media, template, or button menu. No AI.Office-hours autoresponders, status replies ("delivery"), DM-trigger campaigns, simple menus.
FlowA visual graph of nodes — send, wait, branch, collect input, tag, webhook. Multi-step orchestration.Lead capture, onboarding sequences, multi-step routing, drip campaigns, anything requiring memory across messages.
tip

You can combine them. A Flow can hand off to an Assistant for a free-text Q&A section, and an Assistant can fall back to a human agent. A Keyword Bot can also trigger a Flow as its response.

Which one do I need?​

Does the user need to ask open-ended questions
that an AI should answer from documents?
│
├── Yes  →  AI Assistant  (see "Build an Assistant")
│
└── No   ──▶ Is the conversation a fixed sequence
             (collect 3 fields, then book a call)?
             │
             ├── Yes  →  Flow  (see Flows guide)
             │
             └── No   ──▶ Do you just want to react
                          to specific words or phrases?
                          │
                          └── Yes  →  Keyword Bot

Pick AI Assistant when…​

  • Customers ask questions like "What's your return policy?" or "Do you ship to Canada?".
  • You have product docs, FAQs, a website, or PDFs the bot can learn from.
  • You want the bot to escalate to a human when it isn't sure.
  • You need answers in multiple languages — the Assistant detects the contact's language automatically.

Pick Keyword Bot when…​

  • You want one specific reply for one specific keyword (e.g., the word "hours" triggers your opening times).
  • You don't need AI — speed and predictability matter more.
  • You want a simple menu: "Type 1 for sales, 2 for support, 3 for billing."

Pick a Flow when…​

  • The conversation has steps that depend on previous answers.
  • You need to collect specific fields (email, company size, budget) before doing something.
  • You want time delays, branching logic, or to call an external webhook.
  • See the Flows overview for the full node catalog.

How a bot reaches a customer​

A bot doesn't run on a channel by default — you choose when and where it should fire by attaching Activation Rules:

  • Channel selection — which connected channels (or specific channel IDs) the bot is active on.
  • Schedule — optionally restrict to business hours, a timezone, or weekdays.
  • Priority — when multiple bots could match, the lower-priority number wins.
  • Agent availability — optionally only activate when no human agents are online.

For your website, bots are attached to a Widget instead. See Deploy to Widget.

For WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, and Email, bots are attached via channel Activation Rules. See Deploy to Channels.

What's next​

Pick a guide: