Manual Installation

If you are using local development, then it’s recommended to install the script manually. We will guide you in this article, step by step, on manual installation.

Step 1 — Get the Files

Download BotMerze from CodeCanyon. Extract to find:

Documentation/
Installable File/
Update/

Upload the installable ZIP to your server.

Step 2 — Create the Database

CREATE DATABASE botmerze;
CREATE USER botmerze_user WITH PASSWORD 'StrongAppPass!';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE botmerze TO botmerze_user;
\c botmerze
GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO botmerze_user;
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS vector;

Step 3 — Import the Schema

The CodeCanyon distribution package includes Install/database.sql for environments that require a direct SQL import (e.g. restricted hosting where php artisan migrate can’t run). If available, import it:

psql -U botmerze_user -d botmerze -f Install/database.sql

⚠️ Do not run both the SQL import and php artisan migrate — they create the same tables and will conflict. If you can run Artisan commands (Step 6), skip this step entirely and let migrate --force build the schema.

Step 4 — Upload & Extract

Unzip the installable file to your web root. Confirm index.php permission is 0755.

Step 5 — Configure `.env`

Open core/.env. If absent, copy Install/env-sample.txt (or core/.env.example) to core/.env:

APP_NAME=BotMerze
APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com

DB_CONNECTION=pgsql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=5432
DB_DATABASE=botmerze
DB_USERNAME=botmerze_user
DB_PASSWORD=StrongAppPass!

QUEUE_CONNECTION=database

BROADCAST_DRIVER=reverb

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

💡 APP_KEY is set by php artisan key:generate in Step 6 — leave it blank here. Copy the full core/.env.example to core/.env and fill in all values; the snippet above highlights the most commonly missed ones.

Step 6 — Install Dependencies & Initialize

cd /home/<domain>/public_html/core
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
php artisan key:generate
php artisan storage:link
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan chatbot:generate-secret-key

Step 7 — Verify

Visit your domain. If the page doesn’t render, set APP_DEBUG=true in core/.env and check core/storage/logs/laravel.log.

💡 Tip: Manual install skips license validation. To use One-Click Updates later, register your license from the admin panel.