Enterprise Edition

ChatbotX Self Hosting is available in two editions:

Community Edition provides the core self-hosted platform under the open-source license.
Enterprise Edition adds commercially licensed administration, security, and branding capabilities for larger organizations.

Enterprise Edition requires a valid commercial license from ChatbotX. Changing an environment variable does not grant a commercial license or permission to use Enterprise code without a valid agreement.

Community and Enterprise comparison

Capability	Community Edition	Enterprise Edition
Workspaces	Limited to 1 Workspace.	Supports multiple Workspaces and usage monitoring within the licensed allowance.
Administrator roles	An invited administrator can only be assigned the Super Admin role. RBAC is unavailable.	Supports RBAC for more detailed administrator permissions.
Audit log	Audit log is unavailable.	Provides Audit log access for reviewing administrative activity.
Branding	Colors, logos, Powered by, and other branding settings cannot be changed.	Allows Platform Branding customization according to the licensed features.
SSO/SAML	SSO/SAML is unavailable.	Supports centralized authentication with SSO/SAML.
Email templates	Email templates cannot be edited.	Allows administrators to configure SMTP and Email Templates.

Enterprise Edition is not automatically unlimited. Workspace limits and other allowances can depend on your license or commercial agreement.

The linked White Label guides explain where to configure each capability after Enterprise Edition enables it for your installation. Feature availability still depends on your license.

Activate Enterprise Edition

The official Compose file may define NEXT_PUBLIC_EDITION: community directly in x-environment. In that case, creating .env alone does not change the edition because values in the Compose environment block take precedence.

Open the deployment directory

Use the directory that contains the active docker-compose.yml. The default path in the self-hosting package is:

cd /root/chatbotx-docker-compose

Allow Compose to read the edition and license

Open the active Compose file:

nano /root/chatbotx-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml

Find x-environment: &common-vars. Replace the fixed Community value and add the server-only license variable:

NEXT_PUBLIC_EDITION: ${NEXT_PUBLIC_EDITION:-community}
LICENSE_KEY: ${LICENSE_KEY:-}

Create the protected environment file

Open .env in the same directory as docker-compose.yml:

nano /root/chatbotx-docker-compose/.env

Add these values:

NEXT_PUBLIC_EDITION=enterprise
LICENSE_KEY=your_signed_enterprise_license

Protect the file after saving it:

chmod 600 .env

Validate the resolved configuration

Verify that Compose resolves the Enterprise values. This command redacts the license before printing the result:

docker compose -p chatbotx config --quiet
docker compose -p chatbotx config \
  | sed -E 's/(LICENSE_KEY:).*/\1 [REDACTED]/' \
  | grep -E 'NEXT_PUBLIC_EDITION|LICENSE_KEY'

Confirm that the result contains NEXT_PUBLIC_EDITION: enterprise and LICENSE_KEY: [REDACTED] before continuing.

Restart Builder

Recreate Builder so it reads the new edition and license values:

docker compose -p chatbotx up -d --no-deps --force-recreate builder
docker compose -p chatbotx ps
docker compose -p chatbotx logs --tail=150 builder

Recreate Worker or Realtime only if those services were already running and need the updated shared environment.

Configure SMTP email delivery

SMTP lets ChatbotX send account verification, password reset, invitation, and other system emails from your own sender address. The current environment template uses SMTP_SERVER and SMTP_FROM for this connection. The following example uses Gmail with implicit TLS on port 465.

Connect Compose to the SMTP variables

Open the active Compose file:

nano /root/chatbotx-docker-compose/docker-compose.yml

In x-environment: &common-vars, replace the fixed SMTP values with variables read from .env:

SMTP_SERVER: ${SMTP_SERVER}
SMTP_FROM: ${SMTP_FROM}

Add the Gmail SMTP values

Open the protected environment file:

nano /root/chatbotx-docker-compose/.env

Add the SMTP connection and sender identity:

SMTP_SERVER=smtps://your_email%40gmail.com:your_gmail_app_password@smtp.gmail.com:465
SMTP_FROM="Your Company <your_email@gmail.com>"

Replace the example email, App Password, and company name with your own values. Keep %40 in the username to represent the @ character inside the connection URL. Use a Gmail App Password without spaces, not the normal password for the Google account.

Restart Builder and send a test email

Validate the resolved configuration, then recreate Builder:

docker compose -p chatbotx config --quiet
docker compose -p chatbotx config \
  | sed -E 's#(SMTP_SERVER:).*#\1 [CONFIGURED]#' \
  | grep -E 'SMTP_SERVER|SMTP_FROM'
docker compose -p chatbotx up -d --no-deps --force-recreate builder

Request an account verification or password reset email. Confirm that the message arrives with the expected sender name and that its verification link uses your ChatbotX domain.

For platform-level sender settings and customized email content, see SMTP and Email Templates.

Verify Enterprise features

Sign out, then sign in with a Super Admin account after the services are healthy.

Confirm the edition and license

Open the Builder logs and confirm that they contain License verified with tier set to enterprise. Never share the complete log line if it contains customer information.

Test Enterprise capabilities

Open /admin with the account configured in PLATFORM_ADMIN_EMAIL. Confirm the capabilities included in the license, such as Platform Branding, Audit log, or SSO.

If the interface still displays old permissions after the services have restarted, sign in again or refresh the browser cache before testing.

Manage and protect the license

Store the license key in a secret manager or a protected .env file.
Restrict access to the deployment environment and backups containing the key.
Check the license state after upgrading ChatbotX or moving the installation.
Contact ChatbotX before transferring a license to another server or installation.
Do not reuse a license across installations unless your commercial agreement explicitly permits it.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Possible cause	Resolution
The installation still shows Community Edition.	A fixed `NEXT_PUBLIC_EDITION: community` value in Compose overrides `.env`, or Builder still uses the old environment.	Run `docker compose config`, correct the Compose variable substitution, then force-recreate Builder.
Enterprise is selected but features remain unavailable.	The license is missing, invalid, expired, has an unknown signing key, or does not include the requested feature.	Search Builder logs for `license`, `invalid`, `expired`, or `unknown kid`. Redact customer data before sharing logs.
Builder and Worker behave differently.	The services received different shared environment values.	Check the rendered configuration with `docker compose config`, then recreate only the affected running services.
The interface still looks unchanged.	The browser session or cached interface is stale.	Sign out, clear the relevant browser cache, and sign in again.

Keep LICENSE_KEY confidential. Never share it with anyone, including the ChatbotX support team.

Getting started

Installation

Configuration

Reverse Proxies

Super Admin

Channels

Community and Enterprise comparison

Activate Enterprise Edition

Configure SMTP email delivery

Verify Enterprise features

Manage and protect the license

Troubleshooting

​Community and Enterprise comparison

​Activate Enterprise Edition

​Configure SMTP email delivery

​Verify Enterprise features

​Manage and protect the license

​Troubleshooting

Community and Enterprise comparison

Activate Enterprise Edition

Configure SMTP email delivery

Verify Enterprise features

Manage and protect the license

Troubleshooting