AI chatbot for Starlight

Biel.ai is an advanced chatbot designed to transform the way users interact with your technical documentation. By leveraging AI, Biel.ai delivers instant, context-rich answers, making your documentation more accessible and reducing the need for repetitive support tasks.

Here's a step-by-step guide to help you install Biel.ai chatbot in your Starlight (Astro) project.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have the following:

A Biel.ai account. If you don't have one, sign up for free.
A project created in your Biel.ai dashboard. Follow the Quickstart guide to create one.
A Starlight site ready to install Biel.ai.

Installation

The Biel.ai widget enables a conversational chat powered by AI in your site.

To integrate the PushFeedback widget into your Starlight site:

Go to src/components. If components does not exist, create the directory.

Create a new file CustomFooter.astro under your docs project src/components directory with the following content:

---
import type { Props } from '@astrojs/starlight/props';

import EditLink from 'virtual:starlight/components/EditLink';
import LastUpdated from 'virtual:starlight/components/LastUpdated';
import Pagination from 'virtual:starlight/components/Pagination';
import config from 'virtual:starlight/user-config';
---

<footer class="sl-flex">
    <biel-button project="<YOUR_PROJECT_ID>" 
        header-title="Biel.ai chatbot"
        button-position="bottom-right"
        modal-position="bottom-right"
        button-style="dark">
            Ask AI
    </biel-button>

    <div class="meta sl-flex">
        <EditLink {...Astro.props} />
        <LastUpdated {...Astro.props} />
    </div>
    <Pagination {...Astro.props} />

    {
        config.credits && (
            <a class="kudos sl-flex" href="https://starlight.astro.build">
                <Icon name={'starlight'} /> {Astro.locals.t('builtWithStarlight.label')}
            </a>
        )
    }
</footer>

<style is:global>
    .right-sidebar-container{
        z-index: -1;
    } 
</style>

<style>
    footer {
        flex-direction: column;
        gap: 1.5rem;
    }
    .meta {
        gap: 0.75rem 3rem;
        justify-content: space-between;
        flex-wrap: wrap;
        font-size: var(--sl-text-sm);
        color: var(--sl-color-gray-3);
    }
    .meta > :global(p:only-child) {
        margin-inline-start: auto;
    }

    .kudos {
        align-items: center;
        gap: 0.5em;
        margin: 1.5rem auto;
        font-size: var(--sl-text-xs);
        text-decoration: none;
        color: var(--sl-color-gray-3);
    }
    .kudos :global(svg) {
        color: var(--sl-color-orange);
    }
    .kudos:hover {
        color: var(--sl-color-white);
    }
</style>

This code snippet shows how to integrate the PushFeedback widget. Pay special attention to the lines:

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

Replace <YOUR_PROJECT_ID> with your project's ID from the PushFeedback dashboard.

And the global style:

<style is:global>
    .right-sidebar-container{
        z-index: -1;
    } 
</style>

This is required to make sure the button is placed on top of the right sidebar.

Load the dependencies in your Astro configuration file (astro.config.mjs):

import starlight from '@astrojs/starlight'
import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config'

export default defineConfig({
  integrations: [
    starlight({
      head: [
        {
          tag: 'link',
          attrs: {
            rel: 'stylesheet',
            href: 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/biel-search/dist/biel-search/biel-search.css',
          },
        },
        {
          tag: 'script',
          attrs: {
            type: 'module',
            src: 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/biel-search/dist/biel-search/biel-search.esm.js',
          },
        },
      ],
      (...)
    }),
  ],
})

Load the custom component you've created by overriding the default footer with CustomFooter.astro:

import starlight from '@astrojs/starlight'
import { defineConfig } from 'astro/config'

export default defineConfig({
  integrations: [
    starlight({
      (...)
      components: {
        Footer: './src/components/CustomFooter.astro',
      },
      (...)
    }),
  ],
})

Start your Starlight project by running npm run dev in your terminal. Once it compiles successfully, verify that the chatbot widget appears and functions correctly on your site.

Prerequisites​

Installation​

Prerequisites

Installation