> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bothive.cloud/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# FAQ

> Answers to the most common questions about Bothive.

<div className="hero-container">
  <p className="hero-subtitle">
    Can't find what you're looking for? Join the [Discord community](https://discord.gg/bothive) or email [support@bothive.cloud](mailto:support@bothive.cloud).
  </p>
</div>

## General

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Why use Bothive instead of building an agent myself?">
    Because the hard part of building AI agents isn't generating code — it's everything around the model: memory, integrations, channels, observability, deployment, and multi-user state.

    If you build it yourself, you're also responsible for auth and token refresh, session storage, retry queues, run logs, end-user identity separation, deployment infrastructure, and scaling. Bothive handles all of that as one unified platform.

    The real question isn't "can I build it myself?" — it's "do I want to maintain that stack once real users arrive?"
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What makes Bothive different from LangChain?">
    LangChain is a Python library for building LLM chains. Bothive is a complete platform.

    With LangChain, you still need to provision hosting, build your own memory system, implement each integration, manage OAuth tokens, wire up your deployment channels, and add observability separately.

    With Bothive: define your agent in HiveLang, connect integrations in the dashboard, deploy with one click. Everything else is handled.

    Full comparison: [Observability](./concepts/observability)
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What makes Bothive different from Vercel AI SDK?">
    Vercel AI SDK is a JavaScript library — building blocks for developers. Bothive is a platform.

    Vercel AI SDK gives you primitives for calling models and streaming responses. You assemble the rest: hosting, memory, integrations, channels, observability.

    Bothive gives you everything assembled: HiveLang for defining agents, multiple integrations, multiple deployment channels, built-in memory, and per-run observability — out of the box.

    Full comparison: [Bothive vs Vercel AI SDK](./concepts/bothive-vs-vercel-ai)
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can Bothive power agents inside a SaaS product?">
    Yes — this is one of the primary use cases Bothive is designed for.

    Call the Bothive API from your backend, pass your user's ID as the session ID, and the agent handles tenant-isolated memory, tool execution, and observability per user. Each of your users gets a fully isolated agent experience.

    See: [Building SaaS Agents](./concepts/saas-agents)
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Is Bothive no-code or code?">
    Both. Bothive has three authoring modes:

    1. **HiveMind** — describe your agent in plain English, HiveMind builds it
    2. **Visual Builder** — configure instructions, tools, memory, and schedules in the UI
    3. **HiveLang** — write agent behavior in a readable declarative language

    Non-technical users can ship production agents using HiveMind and the Builder. Developers can write HiveLang and deploy via the API.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## HiveLang

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="What is HiveLang?">
    HiveLang is Bothive's native declarative language for defining agent behavior. It's designed to be readable by anyone — not just developers.

    Instead of writing 50 lines of Python to set up an agent with tools and instructions, you write 10 lines of HiveLang:

    ```hivelang theme={null}
    bot SupportBot {
      description: "Customer support agent"
      capabilities { knowledgebase.search, billing.getStatus }
      instructions { You help customers with billing and account issues. }
    }
    ```

    HiveLang v5 supports: `bot`, `swarm`, `agent`, `capabilities { }`, `instructions { }`, `before input { }`, `after response { }`, `on event { }`, `schedule`, and `loop`.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do I have to use HiveLang?">
    No. The visual Builder and HiveMind AI assistant both produce the same agent definition under the hood. HiveLang is the underlying representation, but you never have to write it if you don't want to.

    HiveLang is most useful for teams who want their agent definitions in version control and want to deploy via CI/CD pipelines.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What's new in HiveLang v5?">
    HiveLang v5 introduces:

    * **Curly-brace blocks** for `instructions { }` and `capabilities { }` — no more string escaping
    * **`bot` keyword** at the top level (previously `agent`)
    * **`swarm` blocks** for multi-agent orchestration, native in the language
    * **`loop` and `if` expressions** for control flow inside event handlers
    * **`delegate to AgentName`** for swarm coordination
    * **`remember` and `recall`** built-in keywords for memory
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Integrations

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="What integrations does Bothive support?">
    Bothive has 25+ native integrations including: GitHub, Gmail, Slack, Telegram, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Notion, Airtable, Stripe, Paystack, Lemon Squeezy, Jira, Linear, Twitter/X, Discord, WhatsApp (beta), OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, and Groq.

    Full list: [Integrations](./concepts/integrations)
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I build a custom integration?">
    Yes. Any REST or GraphQL API can be connected as a custom integration. Define the endpoint, auth method (API Key, Bearer, OAuth2), request parameters, and response schema. Custom capabilities appear in the same `capabilities { }` block as native ones.

    Guide: [Custom Integrations](./guides/custom-integrations)
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How does Bothive handle OAuth token refresh?">
    Automatically. When you connect an OAuth integration (GitHub, Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, etc.), Bothive stores the access token and refresh token securely. Before each tool call, it checks if the token is expired and silently refreshes it. You never need to re-authorize unless you revoke access.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Pricing & Plans

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="What's included in the free plan?">
    The Free plan includes: 3 bots, 1,000 runs/month, 2 custom integrations, Web and API channels, basic observability, and community support.

    It's designed to let you build, test, and validate your first agent before committing to a paid plan.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What is a 'run'?">
    A run is one execution of your agent — one user message processed and responded to. Runs include all the tool calls, memory lookups, and model inference that happen within that single request-response cycle.

    Scheduled bot executions count as one run each. Background tasks count as one run each.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I sell my agents?">
    Yes. The **HiveStore** marketplace lets you publish your agents for others to subscribe to. You set the price (monthly or per-use), users subscribe directly, and Bothive handles payments and revenue sharing.

    Your agent runs on Bothive's infrastructure — no ops overhead for you.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Deployment & Channels

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Which channels are supported?">
    Web chat (hosted link + embeddable widget), Telegram, Slack, and REST API. WhatsApp is in beta.

    One agent definition deploys to all channels. Updating your agent propagates to all connected channels automatically.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I embed the agent on my own website?">
    Yes. Add one `<script>` tag to your HTML and the Bothive web widget appears as a floating chat button. Configure the color, greeting, position, and user identity. Full docs: [Web Widget](./guides/web-widget).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can my SaaS backend call the Bothive API?">
    Yes. Use the REST API to call your agents from any server-side language. Pass a stable `X-Session-ID` per user for scoped memory. Supports streaming via SSE. Full reference: [API Reference](./api/overview).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Support

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Where do I get help?">
    * **Community:** [Discord server](https://discord.gg/bothive) — fastest for general questions
    * **Email:** [support@bothive.cloud](mailto:support@bothive.cloud) — Pro and Business plans
    * **Docs:** You're here — search is your friend
    * **HiveMind Debug:** Inside any run trace — one-click AI-powered root cause analysis
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How do I report a bug?">
    Email [support@bothive.cloud](mailto:support@bothive.cloud) with:

    1. Your bot ID
    2. A run ID that demonstrates the issue
    3. What you expected to happen
    4. What actually happened

    Including a run ID is the single most helpful thing you can do — it lets us see exactly what happened in your trace.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Next reads

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="bolt" href="./quickstart" className="glass-effect" />

  <Card title="Discord Community" icon="discord" href="https://discord.gg/bothive" className="glass-effect" />

  <Card title="API Overview" icon="code" href="./api/overview" className="glass-effect" />
</CardGroup>