README

Adds a chat UI to your Volet widget, backed by any OpenAI-compatible endpoint: OpenAI itself, or your own Laravel app's backend.

Built on Laravel's official laravel/ai package. This package only wires that up to Volet's widget host; everything else (providers, streaming, conversation storage, tools, testing fakes) is laravel/ai's own surface.

Installation

composer require mydnic/volet-chatbot

Publish laravel/ai's config and migrations (conversation history lives in its agent_conversations / agent_conversation_messages tables : this package does not add its own):

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laravel\Ai\AiServiceProvider"
php artisan migrate

Publish this package's assets and config:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="volet-assets" --force
php artisan vendor:publish --tag="volet-chatbot-config"

Configuration

By default this package uses config('ai.php')'s openai provider, which talks to OpenAI directly:

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

To point it at your own backend (or any other OpenAI-compatible endpoint) instead, override OPENAI_URL — no code change needed, openai is just an HTTP client pointed at a base URL:

OPENAI_URL=https://your-backend.test/v1
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

The API key only ever lives server-side in this config. It is never sent to the widget's JavaScript.

(Some versions of laravel/ai also ship a separate openai-compatible provider entry in config/ai.php for this — check your installed version if you'd rather use that instead of overriding openai's URL. Either way works the same; this package defaults to openai since that entry is guaranteed to exist across versions.)

In config/volet-chatbot.php, set the provider/model/system prompt and the request rate limit:

'provider' => env('VOLET_CHATBOT_PROVIDER', 'openai'),
'model' => env('VOLET_CHATBOT_MODEL', 'gpt-4o-mini'),
'system_prompt' => env('VOLET_CHATBOT_SYSTEM_PROMPT', 'You are a helpful assistant.'),

This widget is reachable by anyone who loads the page where you are loading Volet. Every message is a paid API call. The throttle middleware in config('volet-chatbot.routes.middleware') is keyed by user id (falling back to IP), tune VOLET_CHATBOT_RATE_LIMIT (default 20,1) to your budget.

Registering the feature

In your VoletServiceProvider (see the main Volet package's README for the quickstart):

use Mydnic\VoletChatbot\VoletChatbot;

$volet->register(
    (new VoletChatbot)
        ->setLabel('Chat with us')
);

Extending the agent - tools, MCP, structured output

The widget's replies are produced by config('volet-chatbot.agent'), which defaults to Mydnic\VoletChatbot\Agents\ChatbotAgent. To add tools, MCP servers, provider failover, or anything else laravel/ai supports, don't modify this package. Extend the agent in your own app and point the config at it:

namespace App\Ai\Agents;

use Laravel\Ai\Contracts\HasTools;
use Mydnic\VoletChatbot\Agents\ChatbotAgent;

class SupportAgent extends ChatbotAgent implements HasTools
{
    public function tools(): array
    {
        return [
            new \App\Ai\Tools\LookupOrderStatus,
        ];
    }
}

// config/volet-chatbot.php
'agent' => \App\Ai\Agents\SupportAgent::class,

See laravel/ai's own docs for php artisan make:tool, MCP servers, structured output, and provider failover. None of it needs a Volet-specific bridge.

Conversation history

Guests are tracked by a conversation_id minted on the first message and returned to the client, which stores it (e.g. localStorage) and sends it back on continue. No account or cookie is required. If a visitor is authenticated, their user_id is recorded alongside the conversation automatically.

Scope

Not included in v1, by design: function/tool calling out of the box (bring your own via agent extension above), image/vision input, moderation of outbound messages, human handoff. Open an issue if you need one of these before building it yourself.

mydnic / volet-chatbot

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