For Antora documentation sites

Ask AI for your Antora docs

Q: Does it work with our custom UI bundle?

Yes. The install is two partial edits: head.hbs for the script tags, and your footer or navbar partial for the widget element. The UI bundle keeps everything else.

Drop in a page-search widget with Ask AI and a separate assistant through Antora's UI bundle partials. Multi-repo content, version branches, and AsciiDoc-aware indexing are supported.

Add Biel to Antora See the install code

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docs.acme.dev/sdk/3.2/api/routes

Acme Docs

SDKCLIAPI

SDK›3.2›API reference›acme.routes

Per-route rate limiting

Each endpoint has its own bucket, configured at deploy time. Limits are enforced at the edge before requests reach your handler.

# Configure rate limit per route
curl -X PATCH https://api.acme.dev/v1/routes/checkout \
  -d '{"rate_limit": {"requests": 100, "per": "minute"}}'

Note: Authenticated traffic is metered separately from anonymous traffic.

Used by documentation and developer-experience teams

Install

Three ways to ship Biel on Antora

A floating Ask AI assistant via a partial edit, a page-search field with an Ask AI handoff in the navbar, or a hosted MCP endpoint Claude and Cursor can query directly.

Full installation guide

Patch the UI bundle partials

Antora renders pages from a UI bundle of Handlebars partials. Add the script tags to src/partials/head.hbs and the assistant button to src/partials/footer.hbs. Re-bundle the UI and rebuild.

→Floating Ask AI button on every page
→Default UI bundle or your custom UI
→Coexists with the search bundle of your choice
→Indexes AsciiDoc as rendered HTML

src/partials/footer.hbs

{{!-- 1. In src/partials/head.hbs append: --}}

<link rel="stylesheet"
  href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/biel-search/dist/biel-search/biel-search.css">
<script type="module"
  src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/biel-search/dist/biel-search/biel-search.esm.js">
</script>

{{!-- 2. In src/partials/footer.hbs (or any partial) drop in: --}}

<biel-button
  project="<YOUR_PROJECT_ID>"
  header-title="Documentation AI"
  button-position="bottom-right"
  modal-position="bottom-right"
  button-style="dark">
    Ask AI
</biel-button>

Add search with Ask AI to the navbar partial

Antora has no built-in search; teams typically wire up Lunr or Algolia. To add Biel page search with an Ask AI handoff to the navbar, drop a <biel-search-button> into src/partials/navbar.hbs (or wherever your UI bundle puts the navbar search slot).

→Drop-in page-search field in the navbar
→Works alongside an existing Lunr or Algolia setup
→Page results with an Ask AI handoff
→Same UI-bundle pattern as the assistant

src/partials/navbar.hbs

{{!-- 1. In src/partials/head.hbs append: --}}

<link rel="stylesheet"
  href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/biel-search/dist/biel-search/biel-search.css">
<script type="module"
  src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/biel-search/dist/biel-search/biel-search.esm.js">
</script>

{{!-- 2. In src/partials/navbar.hbs, next to or in place of
        an existing search element: --}}

<biel-search-button
  project="<YOUR_PROJECT_ID>"
  header-title="Documentation AI"
  button-style="rounded">
    Search
</biel-search-button>

Make your docs queryable by AI agents

Hosted MCP is available from $150/month. Enable it for your Biel project to give compatible AI tools access to the same indexed documentation. Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible assistants can search your Antora site directly. Configure once in mcp.json.

→Hosted MCP server, no self-hosting
→Same index as the assistant, one source of truth
→Works with Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor
→Private projects require a project-scoped API key

mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "biel-ai": {
      "name": "Biel.ai",
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.biel.ai/v2/YOUR_PROJECT_SLUG/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Biel.ai vs antora-lunr

Antora has no built-in search. Most sites add @antora/lunr-extension (the official Antora extension for offline keyword search) or wire up Algolia DocSearch. Biel provides its own page-search widget plus an Ask AI handoff to the assistant. It can replace those tools or run alongside them.

Dimension	`@antora/lunr-extension`	Biel.ai
Search engine	Antora ships without a search engine. The de-facto standard is `@antora/lunr-extension` (offline keyword search). Algolia DocSearch is the other common path.	Drop in page search via the same UI bundle, with Ask AI for source-linked assistant answers.
AsciiDoc handling	`@antora/lunr-extension` and Algolia both index the rendered HTML. Macros and roles surface as plain text.	Indexes the rendered HTML, with awareness of admonitions, code blocks, and cross-references.
Multi-repo content	Antora's strength: pull docs from many repos into one site. Search engines flatten them all into one index.	Index each content source as its own logical source in Biel. Citations show which repo the answer came from.
Versioning	Antora publishes each version as its own URL tree. Each version has its own search index.	Per-version indexes. Scope answers to the user's current version automatically.
Component / module model	Search engines see flat HTML. The component → module → page hierarchy is invisible.	Citations preserve the breadcrumb. Readers see component name and module, not just page title.
Analytics	Algolia exposes query volume; `@antora/lunr-extension` does not. Neither tells you what your docs do not cover.	Unanswered questions, satisfaction trends, and a Content Gaps view that updates daily.
Install	antora-lunr: register the extension in the playbook, rebuild. Algolia: an account, a crawler, theme integration.	Two partial edits and a UI re-bundle. Indexing time depends on site size.
Cost	`@antora/lunr-extension` is free; Algolia is paid past free tiers.	Self-serve. 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

Before you install

Does it work with our custom UI bundle?

Yes. The install is two partial edits: head.hbs for the script tags, and your footer or navbar partial for the widget element. The UI bundle keeps everything else.

Does it handle multi-repo content sources?

Yes. Index the published Antora site to provide source-page links. If you connect repositories instead, their file links are not shown in answers.

What about version branches?

Index the published version URLs you need. Use separate projects when answers must stay within one version. The reader’s current page does not automatically limit chat to that version.

Does it understand AsciiDoc admonitions and macros?

Biel reads the published HTML, including visible admonitions, code blocks, and text produced by macros. Content must appear on the published page.

Can we keep `@antora/lunr-extension` or Algolia DocSearch?

Yes. Keep Lunr or DocSearch for page lookup and add the Biel assistant separately. You can also add Biel Search, whose Ask AI action sends the current query to the assistant.

How long does the install take?

Edit two partials, rebuild the UI bundle, then rebuild the Antora site. Indexing time depends on the size of the site.

Make your Antora docs answer questions

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Use a different platform? See our integration pages for Docusaurus, MkDocs, Sphinx, Starlight, and Jekyll.