npx helpnest seed

Your documentation, written by AI

The helpnest CLI reads your PRs, releases, code, and docs — then drafts customer-facing help articles and pushes them straight to your HelpNest workspace. Your Knowledge Base, populated in minutes.

terminal

# Seed an entire Knowledge Base from a GitHub repo

$npx helpnest seed \

--repo acme/my-app \

--token ghp_xxx \

--collection clx123abc \

--api-key hn_xxx

 

Collecting README sections...

Found 2 README sections

Collecting docs files...

Found 5 docs files

Collecting releases...

Found 10 releases

Collecting merged PRs...

Found 15 relevant PRs

 

Found 32 items: 2 readme, 5 docs, 10 releases, 15 prs

 

Generate 32 article(s)?[Y/n]y

 

[1/32]PR #87: Add webhook retries...Draft created: "Webhook retry and error handling"

[2/32]PR #91: Add SSO support...Draft created: "Setting up SSO"

[3/32] ... 30 more

 

Done:30 drafted, 2 skipped (duplicates)

How it works

From code to help center in four steps

No manual writing. No copy-pasting from changelogs.

01

Reads your sources

Pulls from GitHub PRs, release notes, docs folders, READMEs, and your local codebase. You choose which sources to use.

02

Understands the code

A multi-round AI analysis identifies which files are relevant to each topic — not just by filename, but by reading the actual logic.

03

Writes for customers

Generates clear, readable help articles written for your end users — not engineers. No code snippets, no jargon.

04

Pushes to your help center

Articles land directly in your HelpNest workspace, ready to review and publish. Idempotent — re-running never creates duplicates.

Two commands

Draft one article or populate your entire Knowledge Base

helpnest draft

Draft a single article

Two modes: give it a PR title and body to document a specific change, or give it a plain topic and let it search your codebase for relevant context.

# Document a specific PR

$helpnest draft \

--pr-title "Add webhook retries" \

--collection clx123abc \

--api-key hn_xxx

  • PR mode: title + body + diff → one article
  • Topic mode: plain question + optional local codebase
  • Multi-round AI file analysis when --local is used
  • Returns article ID and a direct edit URL
helpnest seedRecommended

Populate your entire Knowledge Base

Point it at a GitHub repo or local directory. It collects everything worth documenting and drafts articles in bulk — idempotent, so you can re-run anytime.

example

$helpnest seed \

--repo acme/my-app \

--source prs,releases,docs \

--from 2025-01-01 \

--api-key hn_xxx

  • GitHub mode: PRs, releases, docs, README
  • Local mode: code domains, topics, docs, README
  • Incremental — pick up only what's new with --from
  • Dry-run mode to preview before generating
  • --yes flag to skip prompts in CI pipelines

Sources

Every place documentation lives in your repo

The CLI understands the difference between things worth documenting for customers and things that aren't.

GitHub PRs

GitHub mode

Every merged PR becomes a candidate for a help article. Low-signal PRs (chore, deps, bump) are filtered automatically.

Release notes

GitHub mode

Turn your GitHub releases into changelog-style articles. Filtered by date so you can catch up incrementally.

Docs folder

GitHub + local

Ingests .md and .mdx files from your docs/ directory, one article per file.

README sections

GitHub + local

Splits your README on H2 headings and turns each section into a focused help article.

Source code domains

Local mode

AI maps your file tree into feature domains (Auth, Billing, Notifications…) and drafts one article per domain.

Plain topics

GitHub + local

Give it a list of topics like 'SSO, password reset, API keys' and it drafts each one. Add --local to ground each article in your actual codebase.

Works everywhere

Cloud or self-hosted — the CLI works with both

By default, the CLI points to helpnest.cloud. If you run your own HelpNest instance, pass --base-url to point it anywhere.

self-hosted example

$helpnest seed \

--repo acme/my-app \

--base-url https://help.acme.com \

--api-key hn_xxx

Stop writing documentation by hand

Install the CLI, point it at your repo, and let it draft your first batch of articles. Free to use with any HelpNest instance.

$npm install -g helpnest