Getting Started

Overview

In general, here are the steps to get the emulator and your bot communicating:

• Enter your bot's endpoint into the emulator's address bar. This value differs by hosting environment. See sections below for specific scenarios.
• If your bot is running with Microsoft Account (MSA) credentials, enter these credentials too.
• If your bot is hosted remotely, ensure that ngrok tunneling software is installed and configured. The Bot Framework Emulator is tightly integrated with ngrok and can launch it for you when needed. Learn more about what ngrok is, how the emulator utilizes ngrok, and how to configure it: Tunneling (ngrok).
• If you prefer to use alternate tunneling software, you may configure a custom Callback URL in the emulator's App Settings dialog.

Connecting to a bot running on localhost

When developing a bot using the BotBuilder SDK, the default endpoint for local debugging is http://localhost:3978/api/messages. This is where the bot will be listening for messages when you run it locally.

In the emulator, enter your bot's endpoint into the emulator's address bar and click on the Connect button:

[screenshot]

For localhost debugging you will not typically need to enter MSA appId or password, although it is supported of your bot requires it.

Connecting to a bot hosted remotely

Connecting to an Azure Bot App

Troubleshooting

TODO