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The assistant is automatically enabled on Pro and Custom plans.

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About the assistant

The assistant answers questions about your documentation through natural language queries. It is embedded directly in your documentation site, providing users with immediate access to contextual help. The assistant uses agentic RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) with tool calling powered by Claude Sonnet 4. When users ask questions, the assistant:
  • Searches and retrieves relevant content from your documentation to provide accurate answers.
  • Cites sources and provides navigable links to take users directly to referenced pages.
  • Generates copyable code examples to help users implement solutions from your documentation.
Each message sent to the assistant counts toward your plan’s message allowance. If you exceed your allowance, additional messages incur overage charges. You can set spending limits or disable the assistant if you reach your message allowance. You can view assistant usage through your dashboard to understand user behavior and documentation effectiveness. Export and analyze query data to help identify:
  • Frequently asked questions that might need better coverage.
  • Content gaps where users struggle to find answers.
  • Popular topics that could benefit from additional content.

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Configuring the assistant

The assistant is enabled by default for Pro and Custom plans. Manage the assistant from your dashboard. Click Configuration to enable or disable the assistant, configure response handling, add default questions, and set a spend limit.
The assistant toolbar in the dashboard. The Configuration button is emphasized with an orange rectangle.

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Enable or disable the assistant

Toggle the assistant status to enable or disable the assistant for your documentation site.
The assistant status toggle in the dashboard.

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Set deflection email

In the response handling section, enable the assistant to redirect unanswered questions to your support team. Specify an email address that the assistant provides to users who ask questions that it cannot answer.
The assistant deflection panel in the dashboard. Assistant deflection is toggled on and support@mintlify.com is set as the deflection email.

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Search sites

Site search is in beta. To enable it for your documentation site, contact our sales team.
In the response handling section, configure sites that the assistant can search for additional context when answering questions.
  • Sites must be publicly available.
  • Sites that require JavaScript to load are not supported.
The assistant search sites panel in the dashboard. The assistant is configured to search the mintlify.com and mintlify.com/blog domains.
Use the following filtering syntax for more precise control over what the assistant can search:
  • Domain-level filtering
    • example.com: Search only the example.com domain
    • docs.example.com: Search only the docs.example.com subdomain
    • *.example.com: Search all subdomains of example.com
  • Path-level filtering
    • docs.example.com/api: Search all pages under the /api subpath
  • Multiple patterns
    • Add multiple entries to target different sections of sites

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Add sample questions

Help your users start questions with the assistant by adding sample questions. In the search suggestions section, add up to three sample questions.
The search suggestions panel in the dashboard. What is an OpenAPI spec? is configured as a sample question.

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Set a spend limit

Set a spend limit to control what happens if you reach your message allowance. By default, the assistant continues to answer user questions after you reach your message allowance, which incurs overages. When you reach your spend limit, the assistant is disabled until your message allowance resets.
  1. Select the Billing tab.
The billing tab on the Assistant Configurations page. The Billing tab is emphasized with an orange rectangle.
  1. Set a spend limit for assistant messages beyond your allowance.
  2. Set usage alerts to receive an email when you reach a certain percentage of your spend limit.

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Using the assistant

Users can access the assistant in three ways:
  • Keyboard shortcut: Command + I (Ctrl + I on Windows)
  • Assistant button next to the search bar Search bar and assistant button in light mode.
  • URLs with ?assistant=open appended open the assistant when the page loads. For example, https://mintlify.com/docs?assistant=open.
Each method opens a chat panel on the right side of your docs. Users can ask any question and the assistant searches your documentation for an answer. If no relevant information is found, the assistant responds that it cannot answer the question.

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Making content AI ingestible

Structure your documentation to help the assistant provide accurate, relevant answers. Clear organization and comprehensive context benefit both human readers and AI understanding.

Structure and organization

  • Use semantic markup.
  • Write descriptive headings for sections.
  • Create a logical information hierarchy.
  • Use consistent formatting across your docs.
  • Include comprehensive metadata in page frontmatter.
  • Break up long blocks of text into shorter paragraphs.

Context

  • Define specific terms and acronyms when first introduced.
  • Provide sufficient conceptual content about features and procedures.
  • Include examples and use cases.
  • Cross-reference related topics.
  • Add hidden pages with additional context that users don’t need, but the assistant can reference.

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Exporting and analyzing queries

Review and export queries from your dashboard to understand how people interact with your documentation and identify improvement opportunities. Some ways that analyzing queries can help you improve your documentation:
  • Identify content gaps where frequent queries receive insufficient answers.
  • Discover user behavior patterns and common information needs from themes and patterns in queries.
  • Prioritize high-traffic pages for accuracy and quality improvements.
You can explore queries from your dashboard, but to get more powerful insights we recommend exporting a CSV file of your queries, responses, and sources to analyze with your preferred AI tool.
  1. Navigate to the assistant page in your dashboard.
  2. Select Export to CSV.
  3. Analyze the exported data using your preferred tool.

Sample analysis prompts

  • Summarize the most common themes of the queries.
  • List any queries that had no sources cited.
  • Find patterns in unsuccessful interactions.

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Troubleshooting

If the assistant UI is not visible in specific browsers, you may need to submit a false positive report to EasyList. Browsers that use the EasyList Cookies List like Brave and Comet sometimes block the assistant or other UI elements. The EasyList Cookies List includes a domain-specific rule that hides fixed elements on certain domains to block cookie banners. This rule inadvertently affects legitimate UI components.Submit a false positive report to EasyList to request removal of the rule. This resolves the issue for all users once the filter list is updated.
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