Getting started

What is Ask Fern?

Ask Fern is Fern’s AI Search feature that indexes your documentation and provides an interface for your end users to ask questions and get answers. It appears as a side panel on your documentation site so users can ask questions without leaving the page.

Ask Fern helps you:

  • Reduce support burden – Enable your users to quickly find answers in your documentation without contacting your support team.
  • Accelerate user onboarding – Help users integrate your product faster by surfacing relevant code samples and guides.
  • Identify documentation gaps – Understand where your docs need improvement through user search patterns and feedback.

Quickstart

Enable Ask Fern in your docs.yml file:

docs.yml
1ai-search:
2  location:
3    - docs
4    - slack # or discord
Setup

Configure locations and additional data sources.

How it works

Learn about Ask Fern’s interface, behavior, and technical architecture.

Features

Custom prompting

Write custom prompts to improve accuracy and tailor responses for your users.

Analytics

View Ask Fern usage metrics and full conversation details on your Fern Dashboard.

Citations

Point users to the exact source of the answer.

Guidance

Use guidance documents to override Ask Fern’s responses to sensitive topics.

Documents

Add custom data sources to broaden Ask Fern’s capabilities.

Role-based access control

Ask Fern enforces your documentation’s role-based permissions.