Help Docs¶

Answers questions by searching your project's documentation folder — READMEs, guides, API docs, whatever lives under /docs.

/help_docs "How do I configure the retry policy for the HTTP client?"

MergeMate pulls files from the docs directory, feeds them to the model as context, and replies with a direct answer.

Pointing at a different repo¶

By default the tool reads docs from the repo that triggered the command. Override it to answer questions about another project:

/help_docs "What's the auth setup for the billing service?" --pr_help_docs.repo_url="https://github.com/owner/billing-service" --pr_help_docs.docs_path="docs"

Configuration¶

([pr_help_docs] section)

Option	Default	Notes
`repo_url`	`""`	Override to read docs from a different repository.
`docs_path`	`"docs"`	Relative path to the documentation folder.
`repo_default_branch`	`"main"`	Branch to use when `repo_url` is overridden.
`exclude_root_readme`	`false`	Skip the repo root README when building context.
`supported_doc_exts`	`[".md", ".rst", ".txt"]`	File extensions included in the search.

Auto-respond to new issues¶

Run /help_docs automatically when someone opens an issue — ideal for OSS projects with extensive docs:

Set up MergeMate as a GitHub Action.
Create .github/workflows/help_docs.yml:

name: Auto-respond from docs
on:
  issues:
    types: [opened]

env:
  GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
  GITHUB_API_URL: ${{ github.api_url }}
  ISSUE_URL: ${{ github.event.issue.html_url }}
  ISSUE_BODY: ${{ github.event.issue.body }}
  OPENAI_KEY: ${{ secrets.OPENAI_KEY }}

jobs:
  help_docs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: ${{ github.event.sender.type != 'Bot' }}
    permissions:
      contents: read
      issues: write
    steps:
      - name: Answer from docs
        uses: docker://imtiyaazsalie/mergemate-review:latest
        with:
          entrypoint: /bin/bash
          args: |
            -c "cd /app && \
            export config__git_provider='github' && \
            export github__user_token=$GITHUB_TOKEN && \
            export github__base_url=$GITHUB_API_URL && \
            export openai__key=$OPENAI_KEY && \
            python -m mergemate.cli --issue_url=$ISSUE_URL help_docs \"$ISSUE_BODY\""

Commit and push to your default branch.

Tips¶

Set repo_url if your docs live in a central wiki repo separate from the code.
Exclude files with supported_doc_exts if you have large non-text files in the docs folder.
Auto-respond mode is a force multiplier for projects that get repetitive questions — point users at the right docs before a maintainer even sees the issue.