Online help bot
Web Client provides a searchable Online help bot for both MechWorks Web Client and MechWorks PDM.
The bot combines the packaged help content with normalized release notes so that answers can include both procedural guidance and version-specific details that are often more recent or more complete than the standard help alone.
Architecture
The solution follows a file-first approach. It searches and ranks local material from the packaged help and release notes corpus without requiring an external vector database.
Only after the local retrieval phase does the system use OpenAI to generate the final answer from the selected local sources. This keeps deployment simpler and reduces the need for continuous paid API usage.
Deployment notes
oBefore using the bot, extract the help package from help.zip.
oConfigure config/openai.config.json with the OpenAI API key provided by the customer.
oOpenAI is used only for the final answer generation step after local retrieval.
Operational notes
Response times are typically slower than a simple keyword lookup because the bot prioritizes local retrieval and controlled API usage. In practice this is an intentional tradeoff aimed at keeping the solution self-contained and easier to maintain on customer environments.
The bot can also be extended as a customization service by integrating customer-specific procedures, configuration notes and support knowledge.