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Use this page when your first question is not “which tool do I call?” but “what kind of source do I have?” If you prefer to browse by job to be done, start at Capabilities.

Capabilities

Browse Nia by what it does: index, search, read, research, sync, and share context.

API Reference

Need endpoint details and schemas? Jump straight to the API reference.

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At a Glance

Code & Repositories

GitHub repositories, package source code, file trees, grep, and code search workflows.

Documentation Sites

Crawl public docs, honor llms.txt when available, and search pages semantically or with regex.

PDFs & Research Papers

Structured PDF parsing, section-aware retrieval, and paper search for technical documents.

HuggingFace Datasets

Index dataset rows and schema-like structure for semantic retrieval.

Google Drive

Connect Drive, browse files and shared drives, select content, and keep it synced.

Spreadsheets & Tables

CSV, TSV, XLSX, and XLS ingestion with row-aware indexing.

Slack & Conversations

Index Slack history and search conversations with org-scoped isolation.

Local Knowledge

Local folders, databases, and chat history via direct folder indexing or continuous sync.

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Source-Type Matrix

Source typeBring it in withBest tools after thatNotes
Code & repositoriesindex, Tracer, get_github_file_treesearch, nia_read, nia_grep, nia_explorePackage source code also works without indexing via nia_package_search_hybrid
Documentation sitesindexsearch, nia_read, nia_grep, nia_explorellms.txt aware, supports crawl filters
PDFs & research papersindex, PDF Indexingsearch, nia_readTree-guided retrieval for long documents
HuggingFace datasetsindex, HuggingFace Datasetssearch, nia_read, nia_exploreLarge datasets are sampled intelligently
Google DriveGoogle Drive Integrationsearch, nia_read, nia_grep, nia_exploreSupports selected files, folders, shared drives, and incremental sync
Spreadsheets & tablesindex with CSV, TSV, XLSX, or XLSsearch, nia_read, nia_exploreRow and header aware
SlackSlack Searchsearch, nia_grepWorkspace data stays org-scoped
Local folders, databases, chat historyindex(folder_path=...), Local Syncsearch, nia_read, nia_grep, nia_exploreBest fit for continuously changing personal or team knowledge

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Code & Repositories

Best for source code, implementation patterns, architecture exploration, and exact file reading. Use when:
  • you want to index a GitHub repository and search it semantically
  • you need grep-style matching across a repo
  • you want public package source code without indexing first
  • you want GitHub code search without maintaining an index
Start with:
  • index for repositories you want in your own workspace
  • nia_package_search_hybrid for package source code
  • Tracer for public GitHub repo search without indexing
  • get_github_file_tree for quick structure inspection
Typical prompts: 
"Index https://github.com/vercel/ai"
"Search the indexed repo for how streaming responses are implemented"
"Use Tracer to find how auth middleware works in the Next.js repo"
"Search the fastapi package for authentication examples"

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Documentation Sites

Best for framework docs, product docs, API docs, and structured technical websites. Use when:
  • you want grounded answers from official docs
  • you need a source your agents can cite and revisit
  • you want to crawl a docs site with include or exclude patterns
Start with:
  • index on the docs URL
  • search to find relevant pages
  • nia_read and nia_grep for deeper inspection
Typical prompts: 
"Index https://nextjs.org/docs"
"Search the docs for cache invalidation"
"Read the page about route handlers"

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PDFs & Research Papers

Best for long technical documents where section structure matters. Use when:
  • you have PDFs, papers, filings, manuals, or legal docs
  • you need section-aware retrieval instead of flat chunk search
Start with:

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HuggingFace Datasets

Best for row-level search, schema discovery, and agentic retrieval over dataset contents. Use when:
  • you need to search examples, records, or splits
  • you want natural-language access to a dataset instead of manual browsing
Start with:

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Google Drive

Best for cloud-hosted files and folders you want to browse selectively, index deeply, and keep in sync over time. Use when:
  • your working knowledge already lives in Drive instead of a repo or docs site
  • you need selected files or folders rather than a full bucket import
  • you want shared drives and incremental sync support
Start with:

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Spreadsheets & Tables

Best for CSVs, TSVs, Excel files, and structured business data. Use when:
  • your source is tabular
  • you want row-aware retrieval and header-aware indexing
  • you need a lighter-weight alternative to database sync
Start with:
  • index on CSV, TSV, XLSX, or XLS files
  • search for semantic lookup
  • nia_read and nia_explore to inspect rows and structure

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Slack & Conversations

Best for operational knowledge, team decisions, support threads, and internal discussion history. Use when:
  • important context lives in Slack instead of docs
  • you want semantic and keyword retrieval over conversations
Start with:

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Local Knowledge

Best for internal notes, local folders, private documents, databases, and saved chat history. Use when:
  • the knowledge lives on disk or in a local database
  • you want a continuously fresh private index
  • you want to sync chat history and local project context into Nia
Start with:
  • index(folder_path=...) for one-off folder indexing
  • Local Sync for continuous synchronization

Capabilities

Browse the platform by what it can do.

Explore & Chat

Search and chat across pre-indexed knowledge without setting up everything yourself.

Pre-indexed Sources

Subscribe to sources the community has already indexed.

Local Sync

Keep private local knowledge fresh over time.