@botpress/nlu

Botpress NLU ⚡

Botpress NLU is a Botpress module that adds NLU capatibilities to your bot by connecting to the NLU provider of your choice.

🚧 I'm looking for help to support more providers

Provider	🚩 Status
Native (built-in)	✅
LUIS	✅
Dialogflow	Help needed
RASA	✅
Recast	✅

We believe NLP/NLU is a commodity, so this package abstracts the provider by providing a standard, clean interface that allows you (and the non-technicals) to easily edit the NLU data within Botpress.

With Botpress NLU,

• You own your data
• You can seamlessly switch to another NLP provider
• (soon) You can continously train your bot on misunderstood phrases
• (soon) You can share and import open-source, community-curated intents & entities

Installation

⚠️ This module only works with the upcoming Botpress X.

• Install the module yarn add @botpress/nlu
• Configure a provider (see below)

Usage

• You need to chose a Provider (currently dialogflow, luis, rasa, recast or native)
• Set the provider config
• Configure the provider

Global Configuration (source)

Key	Environment Variable	Required	Default
provider	NLU_PROVIDER	Yes*	native
intentsDir	NLU_INTENTS_DIR	Yes	./intents
entitiesDir	NLU_ENTITIES_DIR	Yes	./entities

'*': Provider is one of dialogflow, rasa, luis, recast or native

Standard NLU Object (event.nlu)

Botpress NLU will instrument incoming events by providing a standardized object with the structure below.

Path	Description	Supported by
nlu.intent	Best classified intent based on confidence (same structure as below)	Dialogflow, LUIS, Rasa, Recast
nlu.intents[i].name	The name of the classified intent	LUIS, Rasa, Recast
nlu.intents[i].confidence	Confidence of the classification, between 0 and 1, higher the better	LUIS, Rasa, Recast
nlu.intents[i].provider	The provider that provided the classification	*
nlu.entities[i].name	The name of the extracted entitiy	Dialogflow
nlu.entities[i].type	The type of entity that was extracted	LUIS, Rasa, Recast
nlu.entities[i].value	The normalized value of the extracted entity	Dialogflow, LUIS, Rasa
nlu.entities[i].original	The original (raw) value of the extracted entity	Rasa, Recast
nlu.entities[i].confidence	Confidence of the extraction, between 0 and 1	LUIS, Recast
nlu.entities[i].provider	The provider that extracted the entity	*
nlu.entities[i].position	The position where it was found in the input string (start position)	LUIS, Rasa
nlu.sentiment	TBD	Recast
nlu.language	TBD	Recast

Botpress NLU also provides two convenient methods to the NLU Object : nlu.intent.is(intentName) and nlu.intents.has(intentName).

Providers – Features Matrix

Provider	Synchronization	Intent Classification	Entity Extraction	Scopes (coming soon)
Dialogflow	❌	✅	✅	❌
LUIS	✅	✅	✅	❌
RASA	✅	✅	✅	❌
Recast	✅	✅	✅	❌
Native	✅	✅	❌	❌

DIALOGFLOW

NOTE: Dialogflow-provider is not fully implemented yet and isn't recommended to use at this point.

Botpress NLU use the V2 API of Dialogflow, checkout this link for more information.

Dialogflow Specific Configuration (source)

Key	Environment Variable	Required
googleProjectId	NLU_GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID	Yes
https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/getting-started	GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS	Yes

LUIS

LUIS Specific Configuration (source)

Key	Environment Variable	Required
luisAppId	NLU_LUIS_APP_ID	Yes
luisProgrammaticKey	NLU_LUIS_PROGRAMMATIC_KEY	Yes
luisAppSecret	NLU_LUIS_APP_SECRET	Yes
luisAppRegion	NLU_LUIS_APP_REGION	No (default is westus)

LUIS Caveats

There are some entities that LUIS doesn't support in some languages, make sure that the language you are using supports the entities you are using in Botpress (this module doesn't do this check for you).

LUIS FAQ

I get an error when syncing my model (click to see)

Make sure that:

• You have enough labels (min 2) for the intent
• The entities you are using are supported by your app's language

RASA

Botpress NLU will create and train and maintain your projects and models automatically for you.

Note: By default, Botpress creates separate projects for development and production environment, e.g. dev__botpress__all and prod__botpress__all.

Rasa Specific Configuration (source)

Key	Environment Variable	Required
rasaEndpoint	NLU_RASA_URL	No (default is http://localhost:5000/)
rasaToken	NLU_RASA_TOKEN	No (none by default)
rasaProject	NLU_RASA_PROJECT	No (default is botpress)

RECAST

Recast Specific Configuration (source)

Key	Environment Variable	Required
recastToken	NLU_RECAST_TOKEN	Yes
recastUserSlug	NLU_RECAST_USER_SLUG	Yes
recastBotSlug	NLU_RECAST_BOT_SLUG	Yes

Note: Make sure to use developer token for Recast not request one.

Contributing

The best way to help right now is by helping with the exising issues here on GitHub and by reporting new issues!

License

Botpress is dual-licensed under AGPLv3 and the Botpress Proprietary License.

By default, any bot created with Botpress is licensed under AGPLv3, but you may change to the Botpress License from within your bot's web interface in a few clicks.

For more information about how the dual-license works and why it works that way please see the FAQS.