FAQ | Dosu

Common questions about using Dosu, grouped by topic. New to Dosu? Start with the Quick Start. For definitions of terms like Library, Source, and Agent, see the Glossary.

General#

Short answers to the questions teams ask most when getting started with Dosu. For step-by-step setup, see the Quick Start.

What is Dosu, and what does it do?#

Dosu is the AI-powered knowledge base for engineering teams and the coding agents they work alongside. Dosu connects to the tools your organization already uses, turns the activity there into clear, up-to-date documentation, and serves that knowledge back when people and agents need it.

In practice, Dosu does four things across the life of your knowledge:

Connects to Sources like GitHub and Slack and learns from them.
Generates and maintains Documents so your knowledge stays current as code and conversations change.
Answers questions in GitHub and Slack, triages and labels issues, and sends a weekly digest.
Serves the same knowledge to coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Copilot) through the MCP Server and CLI, so agents stop re-researching the codebase on every run.

You stay in control of what gets posted. Dosu drafts, and your team approves, edits, or declines on the Review page before anything publishes.

How do I add Dosu to a GitHub repository?#

Sign in to the Dosu app with your GitHub account.
Install the Dosu GitHub App and grant access to all repositories or just the ones you choose. The app has read access to repository contents and read and write access to issues, pull requests, and discussions. Forked repositories cannot be selected.
Open or create a Library and add your repository as a Source. This is what Dosu indexes (code, issues, discussions, and existing docs) to build its knowledge.
Create an Agent for the repository so Dosu can respond there.

Installing the GitHub App alone grants read access but does not post anything. Dosu only comments once you add a Source and create an Agent. For the full walkthrough, see the Quick Start and the GitHub integration page.

How do I use Dosu once it is set up?#

In GitHub, mention @dosu in an issue, pull request, or discussion to ask a question or get help. Depending on your Agent settings, Dosu can also reply automatically (see Issue Triage and Q&A).
In Slack, mention @Dosu in a channel where it is active, or send it a direct message. See the Slack integration page.
In the app, ask questions directly at Chat, browse your Documents, and approve or edit drafts on the Review page.
From a coding agent perspective, connect Dosu's MCP Server so tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and VS Code Copilot can pull up current knowledge as they work.

Why does Dosu sometimes not reply when I tag it?#

A direct @dosu mention is always evaluated, so a missing reply usually points to one of these:

The repository or channel is not connected yet. Dosu only responds where it has an Agent. Confirm the Agent exists under Agents.
The repository is a fork. Dosu cannot be installed on forks (they show a "Forked repo" badge and cannot be selected), so it will not respond there. Set Dosu up on the upstream repository instead. For open source projects, the upstream project's public Library can still answer questions.
Dosu decided it could not add value. It skips when the message is not a help request, lacks Sources or tools to answer, or the issue already looks resolved.
The Agent is in Auto Draft mode. Auto-triggered replies are saved as drafts on the Review page rather than being posted. (A direct @dosu mention still posts immediately.)
A response was held for review. Even in Auto Reply mode, Dosu can hold a reply that appears speculative or generic, or one intended for a specific person or team. Check Review for held drafts.
The thread is stale or was generated by a bot. Auto-replies skip these unless someone explicitly mentions @dosu.

If you tagged Dosu directly and still see nothing, check the Review page first, then the Agent's reply mode in its settings.

Which integrations and connectors does Dosu support?#

Generally available and selectable today:

GitHub
Slack (requires the Teams plan)
Notion (requires the Teams plan)
Web, which Dosu accesses in real time at the time of querying. Dosu does not crawl, index, or store website content.

Additional connectors (GitLab, Confluence, Coda, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Discord) are not yet generally available in the app. For the current list and setup details, see Connecting Knowledge: Overview. Sources are added and managed inside a Library.

Can Dosu work across a separate code repo and documentation repo?#

Yes. A Library can hold more than one Source, so you can add your code repository and a separate documentation repository to the same Library. Dosu searches across them together and can write updates back to the docs repo as your code changes. See Working with Multiple Libraries.

How Dosu Works#

Common questions about how Dosu produces answers, where those answers come from, and what to do when one is wrong.

How does Dosu come up with its answers?#

Dosu answers a question by searching the Sources connected to the relevant Library, then writing a response grounded in what it finds. When someone asks a question, Dosu retrieves the most relevant context from your indexed material (code, documentation, past issues and pull requests, Slack threads, and other connected Sources) and synthesizes an answer from that context rather than from memory alone.

A few things follow from this:

Answers reflect your connected Sources. The more relevant knowledge Dosu can reach in a Library, the more complete and specific its answers tend to be. If something is not in a connected Source, Dosu may not know it.
Web Sources are read at query time. Dosu does not crawl or store website content. When a Library includes Web as a Source, Dosu searches the web while answering.
Dosu can answer questions about Dosu itself (features, setup, and integrations) by searching Dosu's own product documentation.
Very long conversation threads can run past the model's context window, which may push earlier messages out of context. If answers start to drift, start a fresh thread.

For more on what Dosu pulls from, see Sources and Connecting Knowledge: Overview.

Does Dosu cite its sources?#

Yes. Dosu responses include citations that link back to the source material the answer was built from, so you can open the underlying issue, file, page, or thread and check the claim yourself. Research-style answers can also include a confidence indicator alongside the citations.

Citations are part of how Dosu keeps answers verifiable. In the documentation-update workflow, Dosu validates the references it proposes and strips citations it cannot back with a real artifact before anything is posted. Tracing an answer to its Sources is the fastest way to judge whether to trust it.

What AI model does Dosu use?#

Dosu uses large language models from leading model providers, and it routes different parts of its work to different models depending on the task (for example, fast single-step calls versus multi-step research that uses tools). Dosu evaluates and updates the specific models it relies on over time as better options become available, so the underlying model is not a fixed setting you choose.

What stays constant is the approach. Dosu grounds answers in your connected Sources and cites them, and it gives your team review controls (see below) so model output is checked before it becomes published knowledge or a public response. If you have a model, data-handling, or security requirement for your organization, contact Dosu or your account contact to confirm current details.

What should I do if a Dosu answer is wrong?#

Correct it in Review. Dosu is built to keep your team in control, so a wrong or incomplete answer is something you edit or decline rather than something that ships unchecked.

Where you act depends on what Dosu produced.

For a draft reply to an issue, discussion, or Slack message: open the Review page. Drafts queue there with a confidence badge, and each one offers Accept to post it, Edit to fix it before posting, and Decline to drop it. Running an Agent in preview mode keeps drafts on the Review page so nothing posts publicly until you approve it.
For a documentation update on a pull request or merge request: Dosu posts its suggestion as a Knowledge Review comment with the same Accept, Edit, and Decline actions. Edit to adjust the proposed change, or Decline if the update is not right. Accepted changes flow to where the documentation lives.

A few ways to keep answers accurate over time:

Start in Mention mode (Dosu responds only when you mention it) or Auto Draft mode until you trust response quality, then open up automation gradually.
Fix the knowledge, not just the answer. If Dosu was wrong because a Source was missing or out of date, connect or update that Source so future answers improve.
Use Monitors to catch documentation that has gone stale as code changes.

Plans, Billing, and Access#

Answers to the questions teams ask before rolling Dosu out: what it costs, how usage is measured, whether you can run it yourself, and how Dosu treats your code and data.

What does Dosu cost?#

Dosu has a free tier and paid plans. The free tier is meant for trying Dosu on public GitHub repositories and includes a small monthly usage allowance. Paid plans add private repositories, more Sources (including Slack and Microsoft Teams), more team members, and a larger monthly usage allowance. Larger organizations that require governance and scale adopt a custom plan.

Prices and the exact contents of each plan change, so this page does not list dollar amounts. For current pricing and a side-by-side comparison, see the pricing page. For a custom or large-scale plan, talk to the Dosu team.

You can see your current plan and usage in Settings, Organization, Billing.

How is usage measured? What is an interaction or credit?#

Paid self-serve plans include a set number of credits each month. Credits are consumed by two kinds of work:

Interactions. An interaction is a billable AI response from Dosu. Each message Dosu posts counts as one, whether that is an answer on a GitHub issue, a reply in Slack, a response in the app, or a generated Document.
Knowledge reviews. When a pull request or merge request is opened or merged, a Monitor can check your published Documents for content that has gone stale. Each pull or merge request triggers one review check. Reviews are tracked and counted separately from interactions.

Some activity does not count against your usage:

Auto-labeling issues and pull requests
Preview-only drafts that are never posted (Review and preview mode let you approve work before it spends anything)
Failed or canceled workflows

Your remaining credits and a running count of interactions are shown in Settings, Organization, Billing.

What happens if I run out of credits?#

This depends on your plan. The free tier stops at its monthly allowance. Paid self-serve plans can be configured to allow overage so Dosu keeps working past the included credits, billed per credit up to a monthly cap. Custom plans are sized to your usage. Check the pricing page for the current overage terms and confirm your settings in Settings > Organization > Billing.

Can I self-host Dosu?#

Dosu is a managed service by default, so most teams do not run any infrastructure. Self-hosted deployments are available for enterprise customers who need Dosu to run in their own environment.

If self-hosting is a requirement, schedule a call with the Dosu team to discuss options.

Do you train AI models on my code?#

No. Dosu does not train AI models on your data.

Dosu uses enterprise AI providers to generate responses, and those providers do not use API data to train their models. Your code and content are used to answer questions and produce Documents for your organization, and nothing more. You keep full ownership of all source code and content you connect to Dosu.

A few details worth knowing:

Data processed by Dosu's AI features may be cached for a short period to improve performance, then dropped.
When coding agents use the MCP server, Dosu logs request metadata (such as request IDs, timestamps, tool names, and inputs and outputs) to operate and improve the service, similar to standard web server request logging.
Your questions and Dosu's answers, including web app chats, are stored as part of your organization's content so the service can run and improve. To request a change to how long your data is kept, email privacy@dosu.dev.

For the full and authoritative wording, see the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service.

How do I change or cancel my plan?#

Manage your subscription, view invoices, and change plans in Settings > Organization > Billing. For enterprise agreements, work with your Dosu contact or reach out to the team.

Configuration#

Short answers to common questions about tuning how Dosu behaves, where settings live, and what changes when your role limits what you can see. Most behavior is configured on an Agent, and most account-wide controls live in Settings.

How do I change Dosu's response behavior?#

Response behavior is configured per Agent, so you can tune each platform (GitHub, Slack, Microsoft Teams) separately. Open Agents, select the Agent you want to change, and adjust two things.

Reply behavior. This controls when Dosu replies. The options are Mention (Dosu replies only when you @ mention it), Auto Draft (Dosu drafts a reply and holds it for Review), and Auto Reply (Dosu posts automatically when it finds relevant information).
Response Guidelines. These are style and formatting rules Dosu follows when it replies and when it generates or updates Documents. Use them to set tone, structure, audience, and any content the team wants Dosu to include or avoid. Response Guidelines take priority over Dosu's defaults.

If you want Dosu to draft but never post on its own, set the Agent to Auto Draft and approve replies on the Review page. For broader rules that shape what Dosu engages with across an Agent, see Custom guidelines.

How do I configure or turn off the labels Dosu applies?#

Auto-labeling is configured on the GitHub Agent. Open Agents, select the GitHub Agent for the repository, and find the Auto-Label Issues and Auto-Label Pull Requests fields.

Choose which labels Dosu may apply. Dosu only applies labels you select from the repository's existing labels, so you stay in control of the label set. It learns from the repository's labeling history, so consistent labels lead to better predictions.
Turn it off. Disable the Auto-Label Issues or Auto-Label Pull Requests field, or remove every selected label. With no labels selected, Dosu will not auto-label.
Correct a single prediction in GitHub. To reject a label, remove it from the issue or pull request. To accept one, leave it in place. To add a missing label, apply it yourself as usual. Dosu treats these corrections as signal.

For how this fits into triage, see Auto-labeling and Issue triage and Q&A.

I only see Organization and General in Settings. Where is everything else?#

Settings sections are gated by your role, so the navigation shows only what your role can use. Dosu has three organization roles.

Owner. Full control, including the ability to delete the organization.
Admin. Can manage members, edit organization settings, manage Agents and Sources, and view billing.
Member. Can use Dosu and view connected work, but cannot manage members or billing or edit organization settings.

If you only see a limited view, you are most likely a Member. Sections like Members and Billing are reserved for Owners and Admins, which is why they do not appear for you. To get access, ask an Owner or Admin in your organization to change your role on the Members page.

A few things every role can reach regardless. Your personal account settings, including API keys, live under your account. You can still open Settings home to see what is available to you. For the full breakdown of who can do what, see Roles and RBAC.

Where do I manage Sources and knowledge settings?#

Sources and most knowledge settings live inside a Library, not in account Settings. Open or create a Library at Libraries to add Sources, set library style guidelines, and control review behavior. For more, see Working with multiple Libraries.

Documentation and Coding Agents#

Answers to common questions about feeding Dosu knowledge to coding agents and keeping your Documents current. For deeper guides, follow the links under each answer.

How do I use the Dosu MCP Server with Claude Code or other coding agents?#

The Dosu MCP Server exposes your organization's knowledge base to AI coding assistants, so agents like Claude Code, Cursor, and VS Code Copilot can search your Documents, code, and conversations without leaving the editor. When you create an organization, Dosu sets up a default MCP server linked to your data automatically.

The quickest path is the Dosu CLI, which detects your editor and writes the right config:

npx @dosu/cli setup

You can also wire up Claude Code directly with its native MCP support, using the deployment ID shown on the MCP servers page:

claude mcp add --transport http dosu https://api.dosu.dev/v1/mcp/deployments/<your-deployment-id>

To create additional MCP servers scoped to specific Sources (for example, one per team), open MCP servers and add a new server. The page lists connection instructions for each supported client.

See Dosu MCP Server and Dosu CLI.

What is a Library, and can I connect multiple repositories to it?#

A Library is a knowledge base for a project, team, or product area. Sources, Documents, Topics, Templates, and settings all live inside it. Libraries were previously called Spaces.

Yes, you can connect multiple repositories to a single Library and mix Source types. A single Library can hold several GitHub repos alongside a Slack workspace and other connected Sources, enabling teams to build one shared source of truth across many repos. Add or remove Sources from inside the Library at Libraries.

One thing to keep in mind: access is scoped at the Library level, not per Source. If a Library is public, every Source connected to it is reachable by anyone, so keep private repos in a private Library.

See Sources, Libraries, and Working with multiple Libraries.

How does Dosu keep documentation from getting outdated?#

Dosu watches your Sources and flags Documents that a code change may have made out of date. Two features work together:

Monitor is a per-Source toggle in the Library. When on, Dosu watches that Source for changes that could affect published Documents.
Knowledge Review runs on pull requests and merge requests. When a change affects a published Document, Dosu posts a comment under the Knowledge review heading with Accept, Edit, and Decline actions, so your team can approve updates rather than Dosu publishing silently. You can trigger a check on demand by commenting /dosu-refresh on a PR.

The Monitor must be on for Knowledge Review to run, and a Document must be published (not a draft) for Dosu to watch it. You can also point Monitor at specific paths so only changes in those directories trigger a review.

See Monitors, Knowledge reviews, and Self-documenting PRs.

Can I generate Documents with Dosu and use Templates?#

Yes. With Generate Docs, you give Dosu a topic and instructions, Dosu researches your connected Sources (code, issues, pull requests, conversations), and produces a draft Document with citations. You stay in control: review the draft before it publishes.

Templates shape the result. A Template defines a reusable structure (title, description, body). When you have published Templates, Dosu checks them after gathering context and applies the one that best matches the topic, so generated Documents follow your house style. Generate Documents from Documents.

See Generate Docs and Templates.

Can I publish a Dosu Document to Confluence or Notion and keep it in sync?#

Yes. You can publish a Document to Confluence or Notion as a child page, and Dosu keeps that page synced as the underlying knowledge changes rather than treating publish as a one-time export. The destination Source has to be connected and fully indexed first. Connect Sources from inside a Library at Libraries.

Availability: Confluence and Coda are in Beta and are not yet generally available in the app for self-serve setup. If you do not see them, reach out to Dosu to get access.

See Confluence, Notion, and Import docs.

Can I embed Dosu on my website?#

Dosu meets people and agents where they already work rather than as a chat box on your marketing site. The main ways Dosu shows up are:

Agents on GitHub, Slack, and Microsoft Teams answer questions and take action in those tools.
The MCP Server and CLI feed Dosu knowledge to coding agents in the editor.
A public Library gives teams a shareable, hosted knowledge base that anyone can browse and search without an account.

A drop-in website chat widget is not a documented, generally available feature today. If you need Dosu answers on your own site or in your own app, talk to Dosu about the public API and your options.

See Agents, Public Libraries, and Dosu MCP Server.