diff --git a/scripts/deployments/deploy_everything_locally.bash b/scripts/deployments/deploy_everything_locally.bash
index a20c02e8..e1c0c1f1 100755
--- a/scripts/deployments/deploy_everything_locally.bash
+++ b/scripts/deployments/deploy_everything_locally.bash
@@ -258,4 +258,9 @@ if [ "$start_simcore" -eq 0 ]; then
     pushd "${service_dir}"
     call_make "." up-"$stack_target"
     popd
+    log_info "starting vendor services..."
+    service_dir="${repo_basedir}"/services/vendors
+    pushd "${service_dir}"
+    call_make "." up-"$stack_target"
+    popd
 fi
diff --git a/services/maintenance-page/docker-compose.yml.j2 b/services/maintenance-page/docker-compose.yml.j2
index 1b7b4e58..97fb4c35 100644
--- a/services/maintenance-page/docker-compose.yml.j2
+++ b/services/maintenance-page/docker-compose.yml.j2
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ services:
         - traefik.enable=true
         - traefik.swarm.network=${PUBLIC_NETWORK}
         - traefik.http.routers.{{"maintenance_" + j2item.replace('@','').replace(' ','').replace('.','').replace('-','').replace('\'','') + "_html"}}.priority={{MAINTENANCE_PAGES_TRAEFIK_PRIORITY}}
+        - traefik.http.routers.{{"maintenance_" + j2item.replace('@','').replace(' ','').replace('.','').replace('-','').replace('\'','') + "_html"}}.rule=Host(`{{VENDOR_CHATBOT_SUBDOMAIN_PREFIX}}.{{j2item}}`) || (Host(`{{j2item}}`) && PathPrefix(`/`)) || (HostRegexp(`services.{{j2item}}`) && PathPrefix(`/`))
         - traefik.http.routers.{{"maintenance_" + j2item.replace('@','').replace(' ','').replace('.','').replace('-','').replace('\'','') + "_html"}}.rule=Host(`{{VENDOR_MANUAL_SUBDOMAIN_PREFIX}}.{{j2item}}`) || (Host(`{{j2item}}`) && PathPrefix(`/`)) || (HostRegexp(`services.{{j2item}}`) && PathPrefix(`/`))
         - traefik.http.routers.{{"maintenance_" + j2item.replace('@','').replace(' ','').replace('.','').replace('-','').replace('\'','') + "_html"}}.tls=true
         - traefik.http.services.{{"maintenance_" + j2item.replace('@','').replace(' ','').replace('.','').replace('-','').replace('\'','') + "_html"}}.loadbalancer.server.port=80
diff --git a/services/vendors/docker-compose.yml.j2 b/services/vendors/docker-compose.yml.j2
index 82be95d8..e860a292 100644
--- a/services/vendors/docker-compose.yml.j2
+++ b/services/vendors/docker-compose.yml.j2
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ services:
     image: ${VENDOR_MANUAL_IMAGE}
     init: true
 {%- raw %}
-    hostname: "{{.Node.Hostname}}-{{.Task.Slot}}"
+    hostname: "v-manual-{{.Node.Hostname}}-{{.Task.Slot}}"
 {%- endraw %}
     deploy:
       replicas: ${VENDOR_MANUAL_REPLICAS}
@@ -30,11 +30,45 @@ services:
         - traefik.http.services.vendor_manual.loadbalancer.server.port=${VENDOR_MANUAL_PORT}
         - traefik.http.routers.vendor_manual.entrypoints=https
         - traefik.http.routers.vendor_manual.tls=true
-        - traefik.http.routers.vendor_manual.rule={{ generate_vendors_manual_traefik_rule(VENDOR_MANUAL_PRODUCTS, VENDOR_MANUAL_SUBDOMAIN_PREFIX) }}
+        - traefik.http.routers.vendor_manual.rule={{ generate_vendors_traefik_rule(VENDOR_MANUAL_PRODUCTS, VENDOR_MANUAL_SUBDOMAIN_PREFIX) }}
         - traefik.http.routers.vendor_manual.middlewares=ops_gzip@swarm, authenticated_platform_user@swarm
     networks:
       - public
-
+  chat:
+    image: ${VENDOR_CHATBOT_IMAGE}
+    init: true
+{%- raw %}
+    hostname: "v-chat-{{.Node.Hostname}}-{{.Task.Slot}}"
+{%- endraw %}
+    deploy:
+      replicas: ${VENDOR_CHATBOT_REPLICAS}
+      placement:
+        constraints:
+          - node.labels.simcore==true
+      resources:
+        limits:
+          cpus: "1.0"
+          memory: 2.5G
+        reservations:
+          cpus: "0.1"
+          memory: 512M
+      update_config:
+        parallelism: 1
+        order: start-first
+        failure_action: continue
+        delay: 10s
+      labels:
+        - traefik.enable=true
+        - traefik.swarm.network=${PUBLIC_NETWORK}
+        - traefik.http.services.vendor_chat.loadbalancer.server.port=${VENDOR_CHATBOT_PORT}
+        - traefik.http.routers.vendor_chat.entrypoints=https
+        - traefik.http.routers.vendor_chat.tls=true
+        - traefik.http.routers.vendor_chat.rule={{ generate_vendors_traefik_rule(VENDOR_CHATBOT_PRODUCTS, VENDOR_CHATBOT_SUBDOMAIN_PREFIX) }}
+        - traefik.http.routers.vendor_chat.middlewares=authenticated_platform_user@swarm
+        - prometheus-job=vendor-chat
+        - prometheus-port=8000
+    networks:
+      - public
 networks:
   public:
     external: true
diff --git a/services/vendors/j2cli_customization.py b/services/vendors/j2cli_customization.py
index 802597bf..0268acba 100644
--- a/services/vendors/j2cli_customization.py
+++ b/services/vendors/j2cli_customization.py
@@ -1,11 +1,9 @@
-def _generate_vendors_manual_traefik_rule(domains: str, subdomain_prefix: str) -> str:
+def _generate_vendors_traefik_rule(domains: str, subdomain_prefix: str) -> str:
     domain_list = domains.strip().strip(",").split(",")
     domains = [f"{subdomain_prefix}.{domain}" for domain in domain_list]
     return " || ".join(f"Host(`{d}`)" for d in domains)
 
 
 def j2_environment(env):
-    env.globals.update(
-        generate_vendors_manual_traefik_rule=_generate_vendors_manual_traefik_rule
-    )
+    env.globals.update(generate_vendors_traefik_rule=_generate_vendors_traefik_rule)
     return env
diff --git a/services/vendors/template.env b/services/vendors/template.env
index 7086513a..8e6b5a2c 100644
--- a/services/vendors/template.env
+++ b/services/vendors/template.env
@@ -3,4 +3,10 @@ VENDOR_MANUAL_REPLICAS=${VENDOR_MANUAL_REPLICAS}
 VENDOR_MANUAL_SUBDOMAIN_PREFIX=${VENDOR_MANUAL_SUBDOMAIN_PREFIX}
 VENDOR_MANUAL_PRODUCTS=${VENDOR_MANUAL_PRODUCTS}
 VENDOR_MANUAL_PORT=${VENDOR_MANUAL_PORT}
+VENDOR_CHATBOT_IMAGE=${VENDOR_CHATBOT_IMAGE}
+VENDOR_CHATBOT_REPLICAS=${VENDOR_CHATBOT_REPLICAS}
+VENDOR_CHATBOT_SUBDOMAIN_PREFIX=${VENDOR_CHATBOT_SUBDOMAIN_PREFIX}
+VENDOR_CHATBOT_PRODUCTS=${VENDOR_CHATBOT_PRODUCTS}
+VENDOR_CHATBOT_PORT=${VENDOR_CHATBOT_PORT}
 PUBLIC_NETWORK=${PUBLIC_NETWORK}
+OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=${TRACING_OPENTELEMETRY_COLLECTOR_ENDPOINT}:${TRACING_OPENTELEMETRY_COLLECTOR_PORT}