This is a command-line chatbot designed to act as a social media query handler, with a basic focus on car maintenance topics. It requires a Google API key to be provided at runtime for its (placeholder) core chat functionalities.

Note: The actual integration with a specific Google Chat API is currently a placeholder. You will need to replace the placeholder function with actual API calls using the appropriate Google client library.

• Python 3.x
• Pip (Python package installer)

1. Clone the repository (if you haven't already):

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd <repository-directory>

2. Create a virtual environment (recommended):

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows use `venv\Scripts\activate`

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

   (Note: requirements.txt currently includes google-api-python-client as a general placeholder. You might need to adjust this based on the specific Google API you choose to integrate.)

To run the chatbot, you need to provide your Google API key using the --api-key command-line argument:

python chatbot.py --api-key YOUR_API_KEY_HERE

Replace YOUR_API_KEY_HERE with your actual Google API key.

Once running, you can type your queries into the console. Type exit to quit the chatbot.

• Accepts a Google API key at runtime (not stored).
• Simulates interaction with a Google Chat API (current implementation is a placeholder).
• Includes very basic keyword spotting for car maintenance related queries to provide slightly tailored (placeholder) responses.
• Basic error handling for API key input and simulated API calls.

• Integrate with a specific Google Chat/NLP API (e.g., Dialogflow, Vertex AI, Google Cloud Natural Language API).
• Expand car maintenance query understanding beyond simple keywords.
• Implement more robust error handling for specific API responses.
• Develop more sophisticated conversation management.