Rapls AI Chatbot – Self-Hosted RAG & MCP Server vs Trill AI Product Chat for WooCommerce

Add an AI chatbot that answers visitors from your own content — and admits when it doesn’t know. Rapls AI Chatbot searches your posts, pages, and knowledge base first, then replies in natural language, in the visitor’s own language. With Grounded Answers Only mode, if your content has no answer, the bot says so instead of making something up. You can be live in about five minutes, for free, with no credit card. On first setup a guided “Start for free” panel hands you a free key from OpenRouter or the Google Gemini free tier, tests it, auto-selects a working model, and switches the chatbot on — no AI or API experience needed. Watch the setup, start to finish: No monthly SaaS fee — and no runaway bill. It runs on your own API key with no markup, and built-in Usage Control caps daily usage per visitor, so you can open the bot to the public without worrying about your API spend. A Monthly Cost Guard lets you set a hard budget, and Model Fallback keeps the bot answering on a lightweight model when your main model hits its quota. Conversations and keys stay on your own server. Built for site owners, agencies, and developers who want control over the model, the data, and the cost. Connect OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, or OpenRouter, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint such as Alibaba Tongyi Qwen (DashScope) — useful where OpenAI and Gemini are hard to reach — and switch anytime. Why site owners pick Rapls Free to try, fast to launch. Guided onboarding gets you from install to a working chatbot in minutes, with a no-credit-card OpenRouter or Gemini key. Grounded answers, or an honest “I don’t know.” RAG hybrid search grounds replies in your actual posts, pages, and knowledge base — and Grounded Answers Only mode keeps the bot from inventing answers your site doesn’t contain. Your bill can’t run away. Self-hosted and BYOK with no markup, plus per-visitor daily caps (Usage Control) so public traffic can’t drain your API budget. Replies that don’t sound like a robot. An optional AI-smell score reviews the bot’s Japanese replies for machine-sounding wording, so you can tune the tone. (Detection only — replies are never altered.) No lock-in. Switch between OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and OpenRouter whenever you want. Speaks your visitors’ language. Automatic multi-language replies, so one bot serves an international audience. What it does Bring your own key: OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (Alibaba Qwen/DashScope, DeepSeek, Zhipu), switchable per site. Site learning: indexes your posts and pages so the bot answers from your content. Knowledge base: add Q&A or upload TXT/MD/PDF/DOCX files (large documents are split into parts automatically so they embed reliably), with priority over general answers. RAG hybrid search: combines keyword and semantic retrieval for grounded replies. Grounded Answers Only: an optional mode that makes the bot reply “I couldn’t find that” instead of inventing an answer your content doesn’t support. Web search: lets the bot pull current information when configured. MCP tools: exposes 5 Model Context Protocol tools, so agents such as Claude or ChatGPT can read and act on your site through conversation. Usage dashboard: tracks conversations, messages, and API cost. Usage Control: optional per-visitor daily caps so public traffic can’t run up your API bill. Unanswered Questions: records what the bot could not answer, with one-click “Add to knowledge” and an AI-drafted FAQ page. AI-smell score: an optional read-only score that flags machine-sounding wording in Japanese replies (detection only — replies are never altered). Industry starter templates: one click applies a ready-made system prompt and preset questions for hotels, shops, clinics, professional services, or company sites. Gutenberg block: drop the chatbot into any page or post. Deep-link auto-send: a ?raplsaich_q= URL opens the chatbot and sends the question automatically, so end-of-article “suggested questions” become one-click conversations. Turns visitor questions into content The bot doesn’t just answer — it tells you what your site is missing. Questions it could not answer from your content are recorded on the dashboard, one click turns them into a knowledge entry, and another click drafts an FAQ page from the last 30 days of real visitor questions. Answer gaps become content, content improves the bot, and the same pages work for SEO and AI search (LLMO). Self-hosted and private Conversations and keys stay on your own WordPress install. You are billed by your AI provider directly, so cost is transparent and there is no markup. Visitors can delete their own chat history from the widget (optional), and retention is configurable — GDPR-friendly by design. Free and Pro Free — not a trial. The free version is the full product: chatbot, site learning, knowledge base, RAG hybrid search, Grounded Answers Only, MCP server (5 tools), a usage dashboard (conversations, messages, and cost), and per-visitor daily caps. Run it forever at no cost on a free-tier key. Pro — for sites that run the bot as a business tool: Lead capture automation — collect contacts from conversations, with Google Sheets and Slack sync. Analytics — conversation, cost, and quality metrics at a glance. Usage Control suite — role-based limits, per-user monthly credits with auto-reset, and a usage-control dashboard to grant and track credits, so members and guests each get a fair share of your API budget. Extra MCP tools — product-search and analytics tools for AI agents, on top of the five in Free. Context & embedding controls — reprocess embeddings and shape the context retrieved for each reply. LINE integration (add-on) — connect the chatbot to LINE messaging, the dominant messenger in Japan. Up and running in about 5 minutes (free, no credit card) You do not need an API key or any AI experience to start. On first setup the plugin shows a “Start for free” panel with two no-credit-card paths: an OpenRouter free key or a Google Gemini free-tier key. Pick OpenRouter or Gemini. Click through to get a free key (about a minute) and paste it in. Press Test Connection — the key is validated and saved, a working free model is auto-selected, and the chatbot is switched on. That’s it. Each option states its data-handling trade-off up front (the Gemini free tier may use submitted content to improve Google’s models), so you choose with eyes open. You can switch to your own OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini key at any time. Learn more: Plugin details | Source code (GitHub) See it in action Watch the full setup — from install to first reply — in about 5 minutes, no credit card required: See it answer from your own content, and how that differs from plain ChatGPT: External Services This plugin connects to the following external third-party services. No data is sent to any service until you configure an API key and enable the feature in the plugin settings. Each service requires the site administrator to create an account and obtain API credentials. By using these services, you agree to their respective terms and privacy policies listed below. 1. OpenAI (GPT models): AI Provider Used when you select OpenAI as your AI provider. User messages and optionally site content are sent to generate AI responses. Service URL: https://api.openai.com/ Terms of Use: https://openai.com/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://openai.com/privacy/ 2. Anthropic (Claude models): AI Provider Used when you select Anthropic Claude as your AI provider. User messages and optionally site content are sent to generate AI responses. Service URL: https://api.anthropic.com/ Terms of Use: https://www.anthropic.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.anthropic.com/privacy 3. Google (Gemini models): AI Provider Used when you select Google Gemini as your AI provider. User messages and optionally site content are sent to generate AI responses. Service URL: https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/ Terms of Use: https://policies.google.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy 4. OpenRouter: AI Provider Used when you select OpenRouter as your AI provider. OpenRouter is a unified API gateway that routes requests to various AI models. Service URL: https://openrouter.ai/api/ Terms of Use: https://openrouter.ai/terms Privacy Policy: https://openrouter.ai/privacy 5. OpenAI-compatible endpoints (e.g. Alibaba Qwen/DashScope, DeepSeek, Zhipu): AI Provider Used only if you select the “OpenAI-compatible” provider and enter a base URL. User messages, and optionally your site content (including indexed content for RAG embeddings), are sent to the endpoint you configure to generate responses or embeddings. Because the endpoint is chosen by you, please review the terms and privacy policy of the specific provider you connect to. For example, Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (DashScope), which powers Tongyi Qwen: Service URL: https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/ Terms of Use: https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/legal/ Privacy Policy: https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/legal/latest/alibaba-cloud-privacy-policy/ 6. Google reCAPTCHA v3 (Optional) Used only if you enable reCAPTCHA in the plugin settings for spam protection. The visitor’s IP address and interaction data are sent to Google for verification. Service URL: https://www.google.com/recaptcha/ Terms of Use: https://policies.google.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy 7. LINE Messaging API (Pro Add-on, Optional) Used only if you enable the LINE integration via the Pro add-on. Connects to the LINE Messaging API for chatbot-to-LINE messaging. Service URL: https://api.line.me/ Terms of Use: https://terms.line.me/ Privacy Policy: https://line.me/en/terms/policy/ Cross-Site Embed The plugin includes an optional embed loader script (embed-loader.js) for embedding the chatbot on external websites via an iframe. This script does not load any external CDN resources or third-party scripts. It creates an iframe pointing back to your own WordPress site, and all data processing occurs on your server. Data Transmitted to External Services User messages: Chat messages entered by visitors (sent to the configured AI provider only) Site content (if Site Learning is enabled): Excerpts from your published posts/pages (sent to the configured AI provider) Knowledge base (if configured): Custom Q&A entries you create (sent to the configured AI provider) IP address (reCAPTCHA only): Sent to Google for spam verification Data Storage Conversation history: Stored locally in your WordPress database (can be disabled) Visitor IP: Stored as SHA-256 hash (not plain text) for rate limiting Retention: Configurable auto-deletion period (default 90 days) User Controls You can disable these features in the plugin settings: * Conversation history saving * Site content crawling/learning * Google reCAPTCHA verification * Web search

Trill AI Product Chat for WooCommerce — the AI shopping assistant that turns chat into measurable revenue. Trill AI Chat Lite adds a friendly, store-aware AI chat to your WooCommerce site in under 5 minutes. Robin — the AI assistant — answers shoppers in natural language using your real catalogue, your real page content, the current cart, and verified order data. The merchant gets a dashboard that proves revenue from chat. Free forever, open source, GDPR-ready. New in 2.4 — GDPR tools that usually sit behind a paywall, free GDPR Tools admin page. Look up everything the plugin holds for a visitor’s email, review it on screen, download it as JSON or CSV, or erase it permanently — with a typed DELETE confirmation so nothing is removed by accident. Audit trail. Every search, view, export and erase is recorded: who, when, and how many records. Emails are stored masked — and there is deliberately no IP column, because I never store IPs. Consent gate in the widget. Optionally require visitors to accept your privacy notice before chatting. Consent lives only in their browser and is re-requested automatically if you change the notice. “Request My Data” in the widget. Visitors can trigger a WordPress-native personal-data request straight from the chat footer, confirmed by email through WordPress core. Retention dashboard. See stored totals and your retention window at a glance, preview what a cleanup would delete, or run it on demand. New in 2.3 — resilient by design Reinstall without fear. Deleting and reinstalling the plugin now reconnects to Trill Cloud automatically — the plugin proves it controls your site and receives a fresh connection secret. Your plan and monthly usage are preserved. Small catalogues get real answers. “What do you sell?” now responds with your featured and latest products instead of coming up empty. Policy questions find the right policy. Answers draw from a wider variety of your pages — one snippet per page — so “what’s your refund policy?” surfaces the Refund page every time. An honest usage bar. The Monthly Usage panel shows your plan’s real allowance (50 free / 2,000 on Trill Cloud) and updates automatically when your plan changes. New in 2.2 — see every conversation New Conversations admin page. Browse every chat from a new Trill Chat → Conversations screen, with message count, average rating, conversion status and attributed revenue on every row. Filter and search. Narrow by date range, status and star rating, and search across message content to find any conversation fast. Read full transcripts. Open any conversation in a popup to read the complete back-and-forth, rendered as plain text. Export to CSV. Download the whole filtered list, or a single conversation’s transcript — exports are hardened against spreadsheet formula injection. Tidy up. Permanently delete conversations you no longer need, one at a time or in bulk. Why store owners pick Trill AI Chat over generic AI plugins WooCommerce-native, not bolted on. Understands products, variations, stock, categories, carts and orders out of the box — every code path is designed for e-commerce. 5-minute install. No API keys. No external account signup — your WordPress admin is the only login you need. Reads your real catalogue + your real pages. Real-time product search and page content indexing. Robin can answer “do you have red dresses?” and “what’s your return policy?” from the same conversation. Knows the cart. Robin sees what shoppers already added and helps them checkout instead of forgetting state. Privacy-first order lookup. Identity verified before any order detail is shared. WordPress login for registered customers, email-match for guests, silent fall-through on mismatch. Revenue attribution built in. Orders placed within 24h of a chat are tagged as “from chat” and surface on the dashboard with attributed revenue. Managed AI, predictable cost. Generous monthly conversation allowance on Trill Cloud. Track usage from the admin dashboard. No OpenAI account required. Topic-safe. Built-in guardrails auto-generated from your store metadata keep conversations about shopping, politely declining homework, code generation, medical or legal advice. Prompt-injection-protected. The assistant will not reveal system instructions or adopt different personas. GDPR-ready, with the tooling to prove it. UK-registered company (Greensolutions Pioneers Limited, Companies House 15693716). HTTPS end-to-end. Chat data is never used to train AI models. A dedicated GDPR Tools page covers access, portability and erasure — audited, and with no IPs ever stored. Fast. Sub-second responses on typical product questions. What Lite includes (free, forever) AI shopping assistant widget on every page of your store Smart product discovery — real-time catalogue search with natural-language understanding (50+ shopping phrases, English de-pluralisation) and product cards with one-click AJAX add-to-cart Page content indexing — Robin also answers from your FAQ, shipping, returns, contact and policy pages Cart-aware chat that sees the current basket and guides to checkout Verified order tracking with login or email-match identity check Smart lead capture for out-of-stock and price-drop opt-ins, with audited consent Revenue analytics dashboard — orders and revenue attributed to chat, 7/30/90-day windows Conversation history — browse, filter, full-text search, read, export (CSV) and delete every chat Full GDPR toolkit — data subject lookup, on-screen access, JSON/CSV portability and audited erasure from a dedicated admin page; widget consent gate and “Request My Data”; DSAR + erasure via WP Privacy Tools; configurable retention with preview and run-now Topic-safe — guardrails and prompt-injection protection keep chats about your store Full widget customisation — colours, position, size, assistant name, avatar, font, starter chips and privacy notice, with live preview WooCommerce-ready — WordPress 6.0+, WooCommerce 8.0+ and HPOS compatible; [trill_chat] shortcode to embed anywhere Built to extend — translation-ready (.pot, Loco Translate, WPML) and the WordPress 7.0 Abilities API for AI agents and MCP adapters Generous monthly conversation quota on Trill Cloud, tracked in the dashboard Need more conversations? Trill Cloud The free tier includes 50 conversations per month — plenty to see the value on a smaller store. Growing stores can upgrade to Trill Cloud (£12/month) for 2,000 conversations per month, longer AI responses and priority support. The upgrade is applied to your site’s existing connection — same plugin, no reinstall — and the dashboard usage bar reflects your new allowance automatically. See trillai.io/pricing. Built for WooCommerce, by a UK developer I build Trill AI at Greensolutions Pioneers Limited, a UK-registered company (Companies House 15693716). I focus exclusively on AI products for WooCommerce — not a generic chatbot with a Woo plugin bolted on. If you run a UK, US or EU store and want AI chat that respects your data, your time and your budget, I’d love to hear what you think. Read more on the Trill AI blog: Complete guide to AI chat for WooCommerce Reduce WooCommerce support tickets with AI WooCommerce AI chat vs live chat Developer-friendly Clean PSR-4 architecture, WordPress coding standards, filter hooks for customisation (trcl_localize_script_data), and debug logging via WP_DEBUG. No Composer dependencies, no external JavaScript libraries. External Services This plugin relies on Trill Cloud, the managed AI back-end I operate (Greensolutions Pioneers Limited), at https://api-v2.trillai.io, as its sole AI processing service. The service is required for the plugin to function. What data is sent, and when: When a store visitor sends a chat message, the message text and the WooCommerce context needed to answer it — product names, prices, descriptions and, where relevant to the question, the current cart contents and order-status details — are transmitted to Trill Cloud over HTTPS for AI processing. Each site authenticates with a per-site Bearer token (hashed at rest). Trill Cloud enforces the monthly conversation allowance server-side (no local trialware). No IP addresses are sent, and no customer personal data beyond what the visitor types into the chat and the catalogue context required to answer. Service links: Service URL: https://api-v2.trillai.io Terms of Service: https://trillai.io/terms-of-service/ Privacy Policy: https://trillai.io/privacy-policy/ No personal visitor data is collected or stored by Trill Cloud beyond what is strictly necessary to process each individual chat message. Chat data is never used to train AI models.