Installing ConvoKit

System Requirements

ConvoKit requires Python 3.10 or above.

Package Installation

ConvoKit can be installed via pip: pip3 install convokit

Post-install Steps

ConvoKit relies on NLTK and SpaCy to implement certain basic NLP functions. If you have not already previously used these packages, they require additional first-time setup:

1. For NLTK, download the punkt tokenizer: import nltk; nltk.download('punkt') (in a python interactive session)

2. For SpaCy, download the default English model: python3 -m spacy download en_core_web_sm

Optional: Choose a Backend

By default, ConvoKit uses a native Python backend which keeps all data in memory during runtime. This is suitable for most use cases and does not require any additional setup. However, certain use cases (including low-memory environments and real-time applications) may prefer the alternative MongoDB backend, which requires additional setup. For more information on choosing between the two options and setting up the MongoDB backend, please consult the following guides:

• Choosing a Backend: native Python vs MongoDB
• Setting up MongoDB for ConvoKit

Configuration

ConvoKit configurations are stored in “~/.convokit/config.yml”, check out our Configuration Guide for a list of configuration details.

Troubleshooting

If you run into any issues during or after installation, check out our Troubleshooting Guide for a list of solutions to common issues.