Project Setup and Microbots Installation¶

In this guide, you will set up a project folder, install the microbots package inside a virtual environment, and configure an LLM provider so your bot has a brain to think with.

Step 1 — Setting Up the Project Directory¶

Create a project folder, activate a virtual environment, and install the microbots package:

Terminal

mkdir microbots-introduction
cd microbots-introduction
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install microbots

When the venv is active, your shell prompt is prefixed with (.venv) as below:

Terminal

(.venv) user@host:~/microbots-introduction$

Step 2 — Configuring the LLM Provider¶

Microbots supports Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Ollama. This guide uses Azure OpenAI — for the environment variables required by the other providers, see the Authentication Setup guide.

Create a .env file in the project root:

.env

AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT="https://your-resource-name.openai.azure.com"
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION="2025-03-01-preview"

Replace the placeholders with values from the Azure portal:

AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT — the endpoint URL of your Azure OpenAI resource.
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY — a key from the resource's Keys and Endpoint page.
AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION — the REST API version your deployment supports.

Your project is now set up with the microbots package installed and an LLM provider configured. Next, you'll create a sample project and run your first bot — continue with the Sample Project Creation and First Run guide.