Docbot

Docbot is a CLI agent that helps you keep documentation up to date.

It reads your docs + codebase, proposes a concrete plan (file-level operations), and only writes changes after you approve.

Notes on speed (and why it's still worth it)

• Indexing can feel a bit slow right now; running a full cycle across a bunch of pages may take 5–10 minutes, but that's still way faster than the hours you'd spend doing it by hand
• Overall flow is under-optimized today; expect it to improve soon (again, the time and token costs are still much lower than manual work, at least for us)

Install

bunx @helmlabs/docbot --help

(Optional) global:

bun add -g @helmlabs/docbot
docbot --help

Quick Start

# qdrant (required)
docker run --rm -p 6333:6333 -v "$(pwd)/qdrant_storage:/qdrant/storage" qdrant/qdrant

# config + local state (.docbot/, docbot.config.jsonc)
bunx @helmlabs/docbot init

# index docs/code (uses config; CLI flags override)
bunx @helmlabs/docbot index

# run the agent
bunx @helmlabs/docbot run "document the settings page"

What It Does

• Codebase-aware doc work: finds gaps/stale pages by reading your code, not vibes
• Search that's actually useful: semantic + exact match, reranked
• Interactive planning: you approve the plan before anything touches your files
• MDX-first output: structured edits instead of “giant blob rewrite”
• TUI + API: run with a terminal UI, or start the HTTP server only

Requirements

Required:

• Bun
• Qdrant (local via Docker or remote - docbot init will set you up with a local instance via Docker)
• rg (ripgrep) for fast exact-match search
• AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY (Vercel AI Gateway)

How It Works

1. Analysis: scan docs + codebase, find gaps/duplicates/stale content
2. Planning: propose a structured set of operations (create/update/move/delete/consolidate)
3. Execution: apply changes (MDX edits, component-aware when relevant)
4. Review: verify and re-scan for obvious misses

Dependencies & Design Choices

Docbot is opinionated so we were able to build it fast, but it's not meant to stay tied to a single docs framework or provider forever.

• Docs frameworks: Today Docbot targets MDX-based doc sites and detects Mintlify project structure automatically (as long as you use docs.json). Mintlify was the first target because that's what we use at Helm; support will expand (custom MDX, Fumadocs, Nextra, Docusaurus, etc.). It's just a matter of tweaking the tools and prompts.
• Vector store: Currently Qdrant (required). It's easy to run locally and does the job well. This may evolve as CI/multi-user needs grow.
• Models/provider: Currently Vercel AI Gateway via AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY. Adding other providers is planned - you can use configure the models in the config file though.
• Bun: Required. Will not change.

Commands

docbot init

Scaffolds project config in the repo root:

• .docbot/
• docbot.config.jsonc

docbot init

Options:

• --force: overwrite existing config
• --skip-docker: skip docker setup (you'll need to set up Qdrant manually)

docbot index

Indexes docs/code for search. If you don't pass flags, it uses your config.

docbot index
# or
docbot index --docs ./docs --codebase ./src

Options:

• --docs: docs path (optional if configured)
• --codebase: one or more codebase paths
• --config: config file path (default: docbot.config.jsonc)
• --qdrant-url: qdrant url (default: http://127.0.0.1:6333)
• --force: force full re-index, ignoring manifest

docbot run "<task>"

Runs the interactive workflow (plan → approval → execution → review).

docbot run "document the new api endpoints"

Options:

• --docs: docs path (optional if configured)
• --codebase: one or more codebase paths
• --config: config file path (default: docbot.config.jsonc)
• --interactive: plan approval (default: true)
• --port: server port (default: 3070)
• --qdrant-url: qdrant url (default: http://127.0.0.1:6333)
• --index-only: only index, don't run
• --verbose / --no-verbose: detailed logging + log panel
• --no-server: reuse an already running server
• --force: rebuild embeddings from scratch

docbot search "<query>"

docbot search "authentication" --type hybrid --limit 10

Options:

• --type: semantic, exact, hybrid (default: hybrid)
• --limit: max results (default: 5)

docbot serve

Starts the HTTP server (Elysia) without the TUI.

docbot serve --port 3070

Configuration

docbot init creates docbot.config.jsonc. CLI flags override config.

Example:

{
  "projectSlug": "my-project",
  "paths": {
    "docs": "./docs",
    "codebase": ["./apps/web", "./packages/shared"]
  },
  "qdrant": {
    "url": "http://127.0.0.1:6333",
    "manifestPath": ".docbot/manifest.json",
    "collections": {
      "docs": "docbot_my-project_docs",
      "code": "docbot_my-project_code"
    }
  },
  "server": { "port": 3070 },
  "models": {
    "planning": "openai/gpt-5.2",
    "prose": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5",
    "fast": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5",
    "embedding": "openai/text-embedding-3-small",
    "reranker": "cohere/rerank-v3.5"
  }
}

CLI flags take precedence over the config file.

Logs & UI

• Run (default): TUI + server in one process (verbose by default; log panel available)
• Serve: server only; logs to stdout
• Index-only: --index-only
• No-server: --no-server

Log panel (TUI, verbose only):

• Toggle: Ctrl+L
• Tabs: ←/→
• Scroll: Shift+↑/↓ or Shift+PgUp/PgDn
• Clear: C

Contributing

PRs welcome. Issues welcome.

Support

• This is a very new project—if you hit issues, please open an issue here
• You can also reach celia on X: @pariscestchiant
• Our own docs live at docs.helmkit.com

License

MIT

Todo

Tasks and progress are tracked in todo.md. Next big focus is changebot's integration inside of docbot (it's a changelog generator between two commits; we use it at helmkit.com/changelog)