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BASIC Course

Why BASIC for Bot Programming

BASIC was designed in 1964 at Dartmouth College with a single purpose: to make programming accessible to people who were not computer scientists. That purpose is more relevant today than ever. The people who know what a bot should say, how it should handle errors, and what data it should retrieve are domain experts — support agents, HR managers, operations analysts — not software engineers. General Bots uses BASIC because it lets the people who understand the work also program the tool that does the work. A BASIC program reads like pseudocode: each line does one thing, and the entire program fits in a single screen.

• Designed for non-programmers: reads like pseudocode
• Domain experts program the tools they use daily
• Each line does one thing; programs fit on a single screen
• No compilation, no frameworks, no build tools required

Course Structure

The BASIC Course progresses from conversational flows to full LLM tool integration. Module one covers the fundamentals: dialog trees, user input handling, and response formatting. Module two introduces data operations: reading from databases, calling REST APIs, and transforming results. Module three covers LLM integration: defining tools that the language model can call, managing conversation context, and handling multi-step reasoning. Module four addresses production concerns: error handling, logging, testing, and deployment. Each module includes hands-on exercises that build on the previous one, culminating in a complete, production-ready bot.

• Module 1: Dialog trees, user input, and response formatting
• Module 2: Database reads, REST API calls, and data transformation
• Module 3: LLM tool definitions, context management, and multi-step reasoning
• Module 4: Error handling, logging, testing, and production deployment

From Course to Production

The course is not an academic exercise — it is a production on-ramp. By the end of Module four, participants have a working bot deployed on a real channel with real users. The course emphasizes the same patterns used in production deployments: modular BASIC scripts, tool abstractions that separate business logic from LLM interaction, and configuration-driven channel setup. Participants who complete the course can independently build, modify, and operate General Bots deployments. They do not need to wait for engineering resources, file tickets, or rely on external consultants. They own the full stack from conversation design to deployment.

• Course completion results in a live, production-deployed bot
• Production patterns: modular scripts, tool abstractions, configuration-driven setup
• Independence from engineering teams and external consultants
• Full ownership from conversation design to deployment