> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://cometchat-22654f5b-docs-rn-guide-message-privately.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bots

> Bots — CometChat documentation.

Bots are special users, in CometChat, who can send and receive messages autonomously. Users can text bots privately in one-on-one conversations as well as in groups. When a bot receives a message, either in a one-on-one conversation or in a group conversation, CometChat forwards the message to a Callback URL that you specify. Once you receive this message, you can send a reply using our API.

## The flow

### Create a user

CometChat requires you to connect every bot to a user. This has one major advantage- at any time, you can log in as that bot user and send out personalized replies. So before you create a bot, you must first create a new user.

### Create the bot

Once you've created a user, you can create a new bot. The actual implementation of the bot is entirely up to you. You simply need to specify a `Callback URL` and CometChat will automatically start forwarding all messages that fit the criteria to the URL.

### Bot Payload

The sample bot payload looks like:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="JavaScript">
    ```javascript theme={null}
    {
      "trigger": "after_message",
      "data": {
        "id": "712",
        "conversationId": "cometchat-uid-1_user_cometchat-uid-2",
        "sender": "cometchat-uid-1",
        "receiverType": "user",
        "receiver": "cometchat-uid-2",
        "category": "message",
        "type": "text",
        "data": {
          "text": "hi",
          "resource": "WEB-3_0_11-055bb47a-7b1f-417b-8385-9d31e606da2a-1680119041609",
          "entities": {
            "sender": {
              "entity": {
                "uid": "cometchat-uid-1",
                "name": "Andrew Joseph",
                "avatar": "https:__data-eu.cometchat.io_assets_images_avatars_cometchat-uid-1.webp",
                "status": "available",
                "role": "default",
                "lastActiveAt": 1675773639
              },
              "entityType": "user"
            },
            "receiver": {
              "entity": {
                "uid": "cometchat-uid-2",
                "name": "George Alan",
                "avatar": "https:__data-eu.cometchat.io_assets_images_avatars_cometchat-uid-2.webp",
                "status": "offline",
                "role": "default",
                "lastActiveAt": 1680124695,
                "conversationId": "cometchat-uid-1_user_cometchat-uid-2"
              },
              "entityType": "user"
            }
          }
        },
        "sentAt": 1680125130,
        "updatedAt": 1680125130
      },
      "appId": "2248348660ad9bd4",
      "origin": {
        "platform": "web",
        "language": "reactjs",
        "resource": "chat-widget"
      },
      "chatAPIVersion": "3.0",
      "region": "eu",
      "bot": "demo_bot"
    }
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

### Reply to a message

When you receive a message from CometChat, you can process it and provide a response using our [Send Bot Message](/rest-api/chat-apis) Rest API.