Maina-Duncan/whatsapp-clinic-chatbot

A WhatsApp chatbot for clinics in Kenya to automate appointment booking and answer FAQs using Google Gemini API Node.js, Twilio and MongoDB. # 🇰🇪 WhatsApp Clinic Chatbot A smart WhatsApp chatbot for clinics in Kenya to automate appointment booking and answer common medical inquiries, powered by Node.js, Twilio, MongoDB, and Google Gemini. ## Features * **AI-Powered General Inquiries:** Leverages Google Gemini to answer general medical questions (e.g., "What are the common symptoms of malaria?"). * **Multi-Turn Appointment Booking:** Guides users step-by-step through the appointment scheduling process, collecting service, patient name, date, and time. * **Natural Language Date & Time Parsing:** Utilizes `date-fns` to understand natural language dates like "tomorrow," "next Wednesday," or "June 3rd" for flexible booking. * **Persistent Conversation Sessions:** Maintains chat context using MongoDB to ensure smooth multi-turn interactions. * **Appointment Management:** (Future feature: Allow users to view/cancel appointments.) ## Technologies Used * **Node.js & Express.js:** Backend API and server. * **MongoDB & Mongoose:** Database for storing conversation sessions and appointments. * **Twilio WhatsApp API:** Integration for sending and receiving WhatsApp messages. * **Google Gemini API:** AI model for natural language understanding and generation. * **`date-fns`:** JavaScript library for robust date parsing and formatting. ## Setup and Installation (Local Development) Follow these steps to get the project running on your local machine. ### Prerequisites * Node.js (v18 or higher recommended) * MongoDB Atlas Account (for a cloud database) * Twilio Account (with WhatsApp Sandbox configured) * Google AI Studio Account (to get a Gemini API Key) * Git ### 1. Project Initialization If you are cloning this repository (for other contributors): ```bash git clone github.com cd whatsapp-clinic-chatbot