Bot vs Gateway - PraisonAI

Two ways to deploy AI agents for real-time communication: Bot for messaging platforms, Gateway for custom applications.

Quick Comparison

Feature	Bot	Gateway
Use Case	Messaging platforms	Custom applications
Platforms	Telegram, Discord, Slack	Any WebSocket client
Users	Single-user conversations	Multi-user, multi-agent
Protocol	Platform-specific	WebSocket
CLI	`praisonai bot <platform>`	`praisonai serve gateway`

When to Use Bot

Team Communication

Deploy to Slack/Discord for team assistants

Customer Support

Telegram bots for customer interactions

Personal Assistant

Single-user conversational AI

Quick Deployment

One command to production

# Deploy to Telegram in one command
praisonai bot telegram --token $TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN --memory --web

When to Use Gateway

Web Applications

Custom chat interfaces and dashboards

Multi-Agent Systems

Coordinate multiple specialized agents

Real-time Dashboards

Live updates and streaming responses

Custom Protocols

Full control over communication

# Start gateway for custom applications
praisonai serve gateway --port 8765

Architecture Deep Dive

Bot Architecture
Gateway Architecture

Key Points:

Platform handles user authentication
Bot receives messages via webhook or polling
Multi-agent routing per bot (dm → agent A, group → agent B)
Platform-specific features (reactions, threads, etc.)

Feature Comparison

Capabilities Support

Capability	Bot	Gateway
Memory	✅ `--memory`	✅ Session state
Knowledge/RAG	✅ `--knowledge`	✅ Per-agent
Tools	✅ `--tools`	✅ Per-agent
Web Search	✅ `--web`	✅ Per-agent
Browser	✅ `--browser`	✅ Per-agent
Thinking Mode	✅ `--thinking`	✅ Per-agent
Multi-Agent	✅ Context-based routing	✅ Multiple agents with routing
Multi-Platform	✅ All 4 platforms concurrently	✅ WebSocket + bots
Custom UI	❌ Platform UI	✅ Full control

Deployment

Aspect	Bot	Gateway
Setup	Platform token required	No external deps
Scaling	Multiple bots per platform via `platform:` field	Multiple clients per gateway
Auth	Platform handles	You implement
SSL	Platform handles	You configure

Code Examples

Bot (Telegram)
Gateway (WebSocket)

from praisonai.bots import TelegramBot
from praisonaiagents import Agent

# Create agent with capabilities
agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant.",
    memory=True,
    knowledge=["./docs/"]
)

# Deploy to Telegram
bot = TelegramBot(
    token="YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
    agent=agent
)

# Start bot
await bot.start()

CLI equivalent:

praisonai bot telegram --token $TOKEN --memory --knowledge

from praisonai.gateway import WebSocketGateway
from praisonaiagents import Agent, GatewayConfig

# Create gateway
config = GatewayConfig(host="0.0.0.0", port=8765)
gateway = WebSocketGateway(config=config)

# Register multiple agents
researcher = Agent(name="researcher", instructions="Research topics")
writer = Agent(name="writer", instructions="Write content")

gateway.register_agent(researcher)
gateway.register_agent(writer)

# Start gateway
await gateway.start()

CLI equivalent:

praisonai serve gateway --port 8765 --agents agents.yaml

Migration Guide

Bot to Gateway

Moving from bot to gateway for more control:

Extract Agent Configuration

# agents.yaml
agents:
  - name: assistant
    instructions: Your current bot instructions
    memory: true
    tools:
      - search_web

Start Gateway

praisonai serve gateway --port 8765 --agents agents.yaml

Connect Your Client

const ws = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:8765/ws');

ws.onopen = () => {
  ws.send(JSON.stringify({
    type: 'join',
    agent_id: 'assistant'
  }));
};

ws.onmessage = (event) => {
  const data = JSON.parse(event.data);
  console.log('Response:', data.content);
};

Decision Tree

Bot CLI

Full bot CLI reference

Gateway Feature

Gateway configuration guide

Multi-Agent

Multi-agent coordination

Serve CLI

All serve commands

​Quick Comparison

​When to Use Bot

Team Communication

Customer Support

Personal Assistant

Quick Deployment

​When to Use Gateway

Web Applications

Multi-Agent Systems

Real-time Dashboards

Custom Protocols

​Architecture Deep Dive

​Feature Comparison

​Capabilities Support

​Deployment

​Code Examples

​Migration Guide

​Bot to Gateway

​Decision Tree

​Related