Recipe: Custom greetings

Make the bot feel less robotic by varying its first reply based on context.

Time-of-day greeting

from datetime import datetime
import pytz

def respond(message, context):
    msg = message.lower().strip()

    # Only trigger on the first message of the session
    if len(context.get("history", [])) > 1:
        return None

    if msg in {"hi", "hello", "hey", "hi there", "hello!"}:
        london = pytz.timezone("Europe/London")
        hour = datetime.now(london).hour
        if hour < 12:
            return "Good morning! How can I help you today?"
        elif hour < 18:
            return "Good afternoon! What can I help you with?"
        else:
            return "Good evening! How can I help?"

    return None

Greeting based on the page they're on

Useful if you want the bot to lead with something relevant to the page context.

def respond(message, context):
    if len(context.get("history", [])) > 1:
        return None

    page = context.get("page_url", "")
    msg = message.lower().strip()
    if msg not in {"hi", "hello", "hey"}:
        return None

    if "/pricing" in page:
        return "Hi! Looking at our pricing — happy to help you pick the right plan. What size is your team?"
    if "/blog" in page:
        return "Hi! Hope you're enjoying the article. Anything I can help with?"
    if "/contact" in page:
        return "Hi! You're in the right place — what brings you here today?"

    return "Hi! How can I help you today?"

Language detection

A simple "is this English?" check using common words:

def respond(message, context):
    msg = message.lower().strip()

    spanish_hints = {"hola", "buenos", "gracias", "ayuda"}
    french_hints  = {"bonjour", "salut", "merci", "aide"}

    words = set(msg.split())
    if words & spanish_hints:
        return "¡Hola! ¿En qué puedo ayudarte?"
    if words & french_hints:
        return "Bonjour ! Comment puis-je vous aider ?"

    return None

For full multilingual support, see Multi-language bots instead.

Tip

Keep greetings short. Don't lecture. The visitor is here to ask a question — let them ask it.