ChatterBot Django Settings¶

You can edit the ChatterBot configuration through your Django settings.py file.

settings.py¶

CHATTERBOT = {
    'name': 'Tech Support Bot',
    'logic_adapters': [
        'chatterbot.logic.MathematicalEvaluation',
        'chatterbot.logic.TimeLogicAdapter',
        'chatterbot.logic.BestMatch'
    ]
}

Any setting that gets set in the CHATTERBOT dictionary will be passed to the chat bot that powers your django app.

Additional Django settings¶

django_app_name [default: ‘django_chatterbot’] The Django app name to look up the models from.
database [default: ‘default’] The Django database alias to use for ChatterBot data storage.

Swappable Model Settings¶

ChatterBot supports custom Statement and Tag models similar to Django’s AUTH_USER_MODEL pattern:

CHATTERBOT_STATEMENT_MODEL [default: ‘django_chatterbot.Statement’] The Statement model to use.
CHATTERBOT_TAG_MODEL [default: ‘django_chatterbot.Tag’] The Tag model to use.

settings.py¶

# Use custom models
CHATTERBOT_STATEMENT_MODEL = 'myapp.CustomStatement'
CHATTERBOT_TAG_MODEL = 'myapp.CustomTag'

These settings can be overridden per ChatBot instance using the statement_model and tag_model kwargs on the storage adapter. See Custom Statement Models for details.

Per-instance configuration¶

from chatterbot import ChatBot

bot = ChatBot(
    'My Bot',
    storage_adapter='chatterbot.storage.DjangoStorageAdapter',
    statement_model='myapp.CustomStatement',
    tag_model='myapp.CustomTag'
)

Using a Secondary Database¶

ChatterBot can store its data in a separate database from your main Django application. This is useful for:

Data isolation - Separate backups and maintenance schedules
Performance - Reduce load on your main application database
Organization - Clear separation between conversational data and application data
Scalability - Different database engines or servers for different needs

Configuration¶

Define your databases in settings.py:

settings.py¶

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
    },
    'chatbot_db': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'chatbot.sqlite3'),
    }
}

Configure ChatterBot to use the secondary database:

settings.py¶

CHATTERBOT = {
    'name': 'Tech Support Bot',
    'storage_adapter': 'chatterbot.storage.DjangoStorageAdapter',
    'database': 'chatbot_db',  # Specify the database alias
    'logic_adapters': [
        'chatterbot.logic.BestMatch'
    ]
}

Run migrations on the secondary database:

python manage.py migrate --database=chatbot_db

ChatterBot will now utilize the secondary database to store and query its data.

Example with PostgreSQL¶

You can use different database engines for your main app and ChatterBot:

settings.py¶

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': 'myapp_db',
        'USER': 'myuser',
        'PASSWORD': 'mypassword',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '5432',
    },
    'chatbot_db': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': 'chatbot_db',
        'USER': 'chatbot_user',
        'PASSWORD': 'chatbot_password',
        'HOST': 'chatbot.example.com',
        'PORT': '5432',
    }
}

CHATTERBOT = {
    'name': 'Support Bot',
    'storage_adapter': 'chatterbot.storage.DjangoStorageAdapter',
    'database': 'chatbot_db',
}