Xatkit is an open source chatbot development platform. This presentation was shown at the Paris Open source summit

1. Création facile de chatbots - Créez votre
chatbot en 20 minutes avec une plateforme
de développement low-code et Open Source.
Gwendal Daniel, Jordi Cabot, Laurent Deruelle & Mustapha Derras
@xatkit xatkit-bot-platformxatkit.com

2. Let’s create a chatbot to help
newcomers to write issues on Github!
Alright! It’s just a set of questions &
answers, this will be pretty simple!
Narrator It wasn’t.
Once upon a time

3. What went wrong?
if(‘’ I have an issue’’) {
return ‘’In which repository?’’
}

4. Chatbots are complex systems
Conversation Logic
Text Processing
External Services
Messaging
Platforms
Deployment
Evolution
Maintenance
Tests

5. Chatbot applications
In the end what do we really want to do?
User Intent
Action Parameters
If the User Wants To Open Issue
Reply « In which repository? » on Slack
Platform

6. Xatkit Framework
• Raise the level of abstraction at what chatbots are defined
• Focus on the core logic of the chatbot
• Conversation and user interactions
• Action computations
• Independent from specific implementation technologies
• Automatize the deployment and execution of the modeled chatbot
• Deploy over multiple platforms
• Execute the chatbot logic

7. Example
• A bot easing issue reporting on Github
• Let the user explain the problem
• Collect additional information: operating system, software version …
• Synthetize the information
• Open the issue for the user

8. What do we need to do?
1. Think about the potential questions/inputs from the user
• « I have an issue »
• « Your tool doesn’t work »
• « Did you use your brain to code this stuff?»
2. Reactions from the bot
• Textual reply
• Computation/Evaluation
• Service call
3. Compose and deploy

9. Specify user inputs
Training sentences
Parameter extraction
Conversation flow

10. Specify user inputs
Custom Entities
Definition is independent from the NLP solution

11. Specify bot’s reactions
Input provider to listen to
Signature of available actions
Defined by a third party

12. Platform language package
Defined by a third party

13. Compose inputs & reactions

14. Compose inputs & reactions

15. Xatkit Framework
• Runtime component
• Generic event-based execution engine
• Platform-specific connectors
• Automatic deployment
• Execution life-cycle
• Inputs
• Chatbot model (defined with the Xatkit modeling language)
• Configuration file

16. Xatkit Framework
• Runtime configuration
• Provide deployment information
• NLP engine to use
• Credentials
• Authentication tokens
• Platform-specific properties (e.g. username, fallback urls, etc)

17. Xatkit Framework
• Runtime configuration
// Intent Recognition Provider Configuration
xatkit.intent.recognition = DialogFlow
xatkit.dialogflow.project = dialogflow_project_id
xatkit.dialogflow.credentials = key.json
// Platform configuration
xatkit.platforms.abstract.ChatPlatform = SlackPlatform
xatkit.slack.credentials = slack_oauth_token
xatkit.github.credentials = github_oauth_token

18. Result

19. Xatkit Framework Intent Recognition Providers
(platform-specific)
Platorm Package
Intent Package
Xatkit Modeling Language
Instant
Messaging
Platforms
Xatkit Runtime
Execution Package
uses
uses
Platform-independent
chatbot definition
External
Services
Deployment
Configuration
Chatbot
Designer Chatbot
User
Platform
Designer

20. Xatkit Github organization
• Tooling
• Open source project (EPL v2)
• Available on Github
• Under development (~1300 commits)
• Test-driven development (~350 tests)
• 6 contributors
• Forks and contributions more than welcome!
• Intent recognition
• DialogFlow
• RegExp
(To Extend)

21. Supported platforms

22. Let’s get in touch!
@xatkit xatkit-bot-platformxatkit.com