Integrate with custom GPT for "asking the docs"

[otisg]

I think this would be a killer feature.
Allow one to integrate their mkdocs with e.g. OpenAI where one can build a custom GPT (e.g. from docs), so that in addition to the regular mkdocs search -- or maybe in place of is -- one can prompt/query the docs using the custom GPT behind the scenes.

[otisg]

@oprypin this already exists?

[pawamoy]

I've seen some examples, yes: https://pdm-project.org/latest/ (enable all Javascript and click on the robot head in the bottom right corner). The sources for the chat window seem to be here: https://github.com/pdm-project/pdm/blob/main/chatbot/app.py.

There's also a chat bot in FastAPI's docs: https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/.

Let me move this to a discussion.

[pawamoy]

Actually the PDM chat bot does not seem to work on my end. There's no input and the fullscreen app just shows "Running...".

[pawamoy]

Also, code that integrates the streamlit-based chatbot in the docs: https://github.com/pdm-project/pdm/blob/main/docs/overrides/main.html.

[otisg]

Thanks for these links. OK, so somebody has created a chatbot and put it on the mkdocs-generated website... but that's not the same as having this functionality as part of mkdocs. What am I missing?

[gbathree]

hmmmm... I'm not sure if that answer will hold up well in a year or two.

[pawamoy]

I think it will, unless MkDocs starts being a HTTP server or something :)

[pawamoy]

Do note that I'm not arguing against the feature itself. I'm arguing against implementing it in MkDocs itself. This is too complex a subject for a static site generator to provide a single solution for it. Themes, frameworks, plugins are welcome to try and provide a solution :)

[gbathree]

I get it, that's fair. But from a user's point of view, mkdocs today has search which is expected and is a core feature. Users similarly will expect a better search (which will be in some way llm supported) in the future.

So while from a technical perspective this may seem separate, from an actual users perspective, they will absolutely expect llm based search interactions in the future as core.

[pawamoy]

Yeah that's a good point :)

[Andre601]

This feels like something not suited for MkDocs.

MkDocs is for building static sites, not integrating some custom Chat bot/AI system into itself. That said, the plugin API exists and one could just make a plugin for this feature.

Also, you can (most likely) customize a theme to integrate this functionality into the final site...