Key features

• Ask AI button that opens the documentation assistant for answers with source links.

• Documentation search: add a search widget for matching pages from indexed docs, with an Ask AI action that sends the current query to the assistant.

• Integration with Sphinx.

• Customizable to match your site’s branding and user needs.

• Connect menu to connect indexed docs to Claude Code, Codex, and other MCP clients by copying an endpoint or setup command, or opening a supported client.

Get started

See the Sphinx AI assistant integration guide for installation and setup instructions, including selecting a widget version.

The extension loads the widget’s JavaScript and CSS from the CDN. It uses latest by default; set biel_version in conf.py to choose a specific release. You do not need to install biel-search with npm.

Support

Need assistance? Contact us for help.

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Biel.ai

Licensed under the MIT License.

Development

For a reusable Sphinx project to test locally, see demo/README.rst. The demo is excluded from published wheels and source distributions.

Widget option metadata is included in the Python package. To refresh it, unpack the published widget and run python tools/update_widget_options.py /path/to/biel-search. This reads the widget’s property definitions without executing its JavaScript.

Build with python -m build --wheel, install the wheel in a separate Sphinx environment, and run python tests/test_artifact.py /tmp/biel-sphinx-site. This checks the generated HTML, typed settings and version overrides.

The browser test also needs Puppeteer and a local widget package for its test fixtures. Set NODE_PATH to that test environment’s node_modules and run PUPPETEER_EXECUTABLE_PATH=/path/to/chrome node tests/browser-contract.cjs /tmp/biel-sphinx-site. It uses local sample replies to check the button and assistant settings.