Ship Helpbot

Purpose

Turn the user guide you already have into an in-app assistant users can ask in plain language — and that answers only from the guide, with citations that deep-link to the exact section. Two drop-in pieces do this in any app:

1. <ship-helpbot> — a self-contained, themeable web component (a floating "Ask the guide" launcher + chat panel). Plain HTML, React/Next, Vue, Svelte, Astro — anywhere.
2. /api/ask-docs — a reference server route: it retrieves the top guide sections and asks an LLM to answer using only those, returning { answer, citations }.

A small script chunks the guide markdown into docs/guide-index.json (the retrieval corpus). The retrieval ranking is dependency-free and runnable on the CLI, so you can verify answer quality before any API key is involved. The LLM is pluggable behind an adapter (Claude / Vercel AI Gateway / local Ollama), so the same code runs on any stack.

This is grounded retrieval over your own docs — not a general chatbot. If the guide doesn't cover something, the bot says so instead of inventing steps.

Part of the "ship" pack

This skill consumes the output of user-guide-builder and shares the same docs/VERSION anchor and docs/brand.json theming as the rest of the pack:

docs/VERSION  ← single source of truth (semver)
  ├─ user-guide-builder → writes docs/user-guide/<Guide>.md + renders <Guide>.html (anchors = heading slugs)
  ├─ ship-helpbot       → chunks that .md into guide-index.json; answers cite the SAME anchors  (this skill)
  ├─ shipping-log       → "what changed" (the bot can point users to what's new)
  └─ screenshot-capture → the images the guide references

Because the index reuses the guide renderer's anchor slugs, a citation like ▸ Change Orders links straight to /help#change-orders in the rendered guide. Re-run the chunker on each release. Also relevant: logo-pack for the launcher mark if you want one.

Discovery first — check what already exists

Before building anything, run this discovery so you don't clobber or duplicate work:

node "<skill-dir>/scripts/version.mjs" get 2>/dev/null   # current docs version (or init it)
ls docs/brand.json docs/guide-index.json 2>/dev/null     # brand tokens? a prior index?
ls docs/user-guide/*.md docs/user-guide.md USER_GUIDE.md 2>/dev/null   # the guide to chunk
ls public/ship-helpbot.js public/guide-index.json 2>/dev/null         # widget already deployed?
ls app/api/ask-docs/route.* pages/api/ask-docs.* 2>/dev/null          # route already wired?

Interpret the results:

• No guide markdown → stop and run user-guide-builder first (/ship-guide). The helpbot is only as good as the guide; there is nothing to chunk without it. Say so plainly.
• No docs/brand.json → the widget falls back to on-brand neutral defaults (never purple). Offer to create brand.json (see logo-pack / the pack) so the launcher matches the app, but don't block on it.
• A prior guide-index.json → you're refreshing; rebuild it from the current guide.
• An existing route/widget → update in place; don't create a competing second copy.
• No version anchor → node "<skill-dir>/scripts/version.mjs" init 0.1.0 and say so.

<skill-dir> is this skill's folder. Use the absolute path the slash command passes, or ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/ship-helpbot.

Workflow

1. Build the retrieval index from the guide

node "<skill-dir>/scripts/build-index.mjs" \
  --in docs/user-guide/<Guide>.md --out docs/guide-index.json \
  --version docs/VERSION --brand docs/brand.json

• Omit --in to auto-discover the guide (docs/user-guide/*.md, then docs/user-guide.md, …).
• Each ##/### heading becomes one section: { id, title, level, anchor, breadcrumb, text, tokens }. Anchors are the same slugs the guide's HTML renderer emits, so citations deep-link.
• Empty heading shells (no real prose) are dropped; YAML front-matter and [SCREENSHOT:] markers are stripped. Tune granularity with --min-level/--max-level (default h2–h3).
• The script prints section count + word total. If it reports very few sections, the guide is thin — fix the guide (run user-guide-builder), not the chunker.

2. Verify retrieval BEFORE involving an LLM

node "<skill-dir>/scripts/retrieve.mjs" --index docs/guide-index.json --q "how do I add a change order"

This runs the exact ranking the route uses (BM25-lite + title boost) and prints the top sections with scores. If the right section isn't on top, the bug is in chunking or the guide — catch it here, cheaply. Try 3–5 real user questions. This step is the quality gate.

3. Emit the widget (themed from brand.json)

node "<skill-dir>/scripts/build-widget.mjs" \
  --out public/ship-helpbot.js --brand docs/brand.json \
  --endpoint /api/ask-docs --src /guide-index.json

Writes one self-contained custom-element file. Colors/fonts come from brand.json (baked in, also overridable at runtime via --shb-* host CSS). No purple default, no backdrop-filter, no SVG feTurbulence — per the pack's HTML rules; Shadow DOM isolates it from host CSS; honors prefers-reduced-motion. Also copy guide-index.json to where it's served (e.g. public/).

4. Wire the /api/ask-docs route

Read references/api-route.md and create the route for the app's stack (Next.js route shown in full; Express/SvelteKit/Remix/edge notes included). Copy scripts/retrieve.mjs into the app (e.g. lib/ship-helpbot/retrieve.mjs) and import { rank } — do not re-implement ranking. Pick the model adapter via HELPBOT_PROVIDER env var.

5. Embed the component

Read references/embedding.md and add the two lines (script + tag) to the app's root layout. Set guide="/help" (or wherever the rendered guide is served) so citations deep-link. Verify the launcher appears, ask a real question, confirm an answer + a working citation.

6. Report

Tell the user: index path + section count + version stamped, the widget/route files written, which model provider is wired (and the env vars it needs), and any gaps (e.g. "guide is thin on billing — the bot will say it can't answer billing questions"). Do not paste the whole index into chat.

Model adapters (pluggable, nothing assumed installed)

Pick at runtime with HELPBOT_PROVIDER. Full code in references/api-route.md.

Adapters are referenced via env, not assumed installed — if a provider isn't configured the route fails soft (502 + friendly message) and the widget still links to the guide. If the repo already uses the Vercel AI SDK, prefer generateText (see the vercel:ai-sdk skill) over raw fetch.

Quality bar

The helpbot isn't done until all of these hold:

• Grounded, not generative. Answers come only from retrieved sections. Off-guide questions get an honest "I couldn't find that in the guide," never a fabricated feature, price, or step.
• Real citations that deep-link. Every answer that uses the guide shows ≥1 citation chip whose anchor opens the matching section in the rendered guide. Click one and verify it lands.
• Retrieval verified without an LLM. You ran retrieve.mjs on real questions and the right sections ranked first. (If retrieval is wrong, the LLM can't save it.)
• On-brand, self-contained widget. Themed from brand.json; no purple default; no backdrop-filter/feTurbulence; Shadow-DOM isolated; respects reduced motion; one file, no deps.
• Pluggable + portable. Provider swaps via one env var; the same two pieces drop into any app; nothing hardcoded to one project. Index, widget, and route all read brand/version where relevant.
• Hardened. Input validated and length-capped, route rate-limited, keys server-side, src never used as a filesystem path. See the hardening checklist in references/api-route.md.
• Honest about coverage. Your report names the topics the guide is thin on, so expectations match.

A bot that confidently invents steps is worse than no bot. Grounding + citations are non-negotiable.

Worked example

A full input→output trace (guide slice → guide-index.json → ranked retrieval → grounded, cited answer, including the honest-failure case) is in references/worked-example.md.

Files in this skill

• scripts/build-index.mjs — chunk the guide markdown into docs/guide-index.json (run it).
• scripts/retrieve.mjs — dependency-free BM25-lite ranking; CLI verifier and the rank() the route imports. Don't reinvent retrieval; import this.
• scripts/build-widget.mjs — emit the themed, self-contained <ship-helpbot> web component.
• scripts/version.mjs — the shared semver anchor manager (byte-identical across the pack).
• references/api-route.md — the /api/ask-docs route, system prompt, the three model adapters, full Next.js code, and the hardening checklist.
• references/embedding.md — how to embed <ship-helpbot> in HTML/Next/Vue/Svelte/Astro; attributes; theming.
• references/worked-example.md — one concrete input→output trace.