simplex-chat/apps/simplex-support-bot/README.md

SimpleX Support Bot

A business-address bot that triages incoming support chats, optionally runs them through Grok, and routes handoffs to a team group.

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18 or newer (v24 tested)
• GROK_API_KEY env var (xAI) — optional; the bot runs without it
• For the PostgreSQL backend: Linux x86_64, libpq5 installed on the host, and a reachable PostgreSQL server

Install & build

cd apps/simplex-support-bot
npm install      # downloads native libs + transitive deps
npm run build    # tsc

By default this installs the SQLite backend.

To use PostgreSQL instead, drop a .npmrc next to package.json before npm install:

echo 'simplex_backend=postgres' > .npmrc
npm install      # now pulls postgres-flavored native libs
npm run build

.npmrc lives next to the package — npm reads it natively, no extra setup.

Switching backends

npm install is a no-op for already-installed deps, so editing .npmrc and re-running npm install will not re-trigger simplex-chat's preinstall. To switch backends, force a clean install:

rm -rf node_modules
npm install      # download-libs.js re-runs and pulls the right native lib

Run

mkdir -p data    # state file lives here by default

# SQLite (default)
npm start -- --team-group "Support Team"

# PostgreSQL
npm start -- --team-group "Support Team" \
             --pg-conn "postgres://user:pass@host/db"

The bot runs via npm start so npm can expose .npmrc settings to the process — detectBackend() reads npm_config_simplex_backend to know which backend was installed.

Flags

Run npm start -- --help for the auto-generated reference. Summary:

Flag	Backend	Required	Default	Description
--team-group	both	yes	—	team group display name
--state-file	both	no	./data/state.json	path to bot state JSON
--sqlite-file-prefix	sqlite	no	./data/simplex	DB file prefix (creates <prefix>_chat.db, <prefix>_agent.db)
--sqlite-key	sqlite	no	(unencrypted)	SQLCipher encryption key
--pg-conn	postgres	yes	—	PostgreSQL connection string
--pg-schema	postgres	no	simplex_v1	schema prefix used for bot tables
-a / --auto-add-team-members	both	no		comma-separated ID:name pairs (e.g. 1:Alice,2:Bob)
--broadcasters	both	no		comma-separated ID:name pairs of contacts allowed to use /broadcast in the team group
--timezone	both	no	UTC	IANA zone for weekend detection
--complete-hours	both	no	3	auto-complete chats after N hours idle (0 disables)
--card-flush-seconds	both	no	300	debounce card state writes
--context-file	both	required with GROK_API_KEY		text file with Grok system context
--dry-run	both	no		check config, database and state, then exit
--allow-migrations	both	no		with --dry-run: apply pending migrations instead of reporting them
-h / --help	both	no		show usage and exit

Broadcasts

A contact listed in --broadcasters sends /broadcast <text> in the team group. The bot sends the text as a feed message to every customer group and every direct contact of the bot, replies that the broadcast is queued, and replies again when delivery completes or fails. The text after /broadcast may span several lines.

A broadcaster must be a contact of the bot, not only a team group member: the bot authorises the sender by memberContactId. The bot DMs every team group member the contact id it knows them by; pass that id to --broadcasters and restart.

Feeds are part of the core, so /broadcast needs a libsimplex and types built from this tree — no released version has them. See Running against this tree.

Environment variables

Var	Purpose
GROK_API_KEY	xAI API key; enables Grok replies
SIMPLEX_BACKEND	alternative to .npmrc for selecting the install backend (sqlite or postgres)
SIMPLEX_LIBS_DIR	read by simplex-chat's preinstall: install the libsimplex in this directory instead of downloading the release
NODE_OPTIONS	--max-old-space-size=8192 on a bot with many chats: single API responses outgrow the default heap

Running against this tree

The manifest points at the released simplex-chat and @simplex-chat/types, which is what a deployment installs. scripts/support-bot/Dockerfile builds both from this checkout instead, with the core; by hand:

scripts/desktop/build-lib-linux.sh     # libsimplex, hours on a cold cabal store
libs=$(pwd)/apps/multiplatform/common/src/commonMain/cpp/desktop/libs/linux-$(uname -m)

(cd packages/simplex-chat-client/types/typescript && npm install && npx tsc)

cd packages/simplex-chat-nodejs
SIMPLEX_LIBS_DIR=$libs npm install
npm install --no-save ../simplex-chat-client/types/typescript
npx tsc && cp src/simplex.* dist/

cd ../../apps/simplex-support-bot
npm ci
SIMPLEX_LIBS_DIR=$libs npm install --no-save \
  ../../packages/simplex-chat-nodejs \
  ../../packages/simplex-chat-client/types/typescript

SIMPLEX_LIBS_DIR is needed in the last step too: npm re-runs the linked library's preinstall, which downloads the released libs without it. rm -rf node_modules && npm ci reverts.

Dry run

--dry-run opens the database, checks what the next start would do, and exits — it never calls startChat, so nothing reaches the network, and migrations are reported rather than applied.

npm start -- --dry-run --team-group "Support Team" --pg-conn "postgres://user:pass@host/db" \
             --broadcasters 3:alice --context-file ./data/grok-context.yaml

ok    database postgres opened, schema up to date
ok    active user: 1:Ask SimpleX Team
ok    team group 1: Support Team
FAIL  broadcaster 3:bob has display name "alice", the bot would exit

A pending migration stops it, since the checks need an open database and opening one can only upgrade or refuse:

FAIL  database: 21 migration(s) pending, a real start would apply them: 20260507_relay_inactive_at, …

--allow-migrations lets it apply them first (applied 21 migration(s): …) and then run the remaining checks — which makes it a migration rehearsal, so point it at a restored copy unless you mean to migrate for real. The bot must be stopped either way; migrating under a running instance is what breaks things, and the upgrade is one-way.

Lines are ok, FAIL, or ?. A ? means the check could not be made offline: getChatPreviews — the only chat query that works with the chat stopped — filters on contacts.contact_used, so a contact whose direct chat was never used is invisible here even though the bot finds it at startup. Those ids are reported, not failed.

Exit code is 0 when no line is FAIL, 1 otherwise. It verifies the database connection, that no migration is pending, that the persisted team group and Grok user still exist (so neither would be recreated), that every --broadcasters / --auto-add-team-members id resolves to a contact with the expected display name, and that --context-file parses.

Troubleshooting

• --pg-conn is required when backend is postgres — the postgres backend is installed but you didn't pass a connection string.
• libpq5 errors at startup — install libpq5 on the host (apt install libpq5 on Debian/Ubuntu).
• ENOENT: no such file or directory, open './data/state.json' — the parent directory of --state-file must exist; mkdir -p data before starting.
• Wrong backend installed — check node_modules/simplex-chat/libs/installed.txt. Edit .npmrc, then rm -rf node_modules && npm install to switch (npm install alone won't re-run the dep's preinstall).
• JavaScript heap out of memory — a response outgrew the default heap; restart with NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=8192.
• libpq connection error at startup with sqlite-flavored config (or vice versa) — .npmrc was changed but libs weren't reinstalled. See "Switching backends" above.