How Relay.app built support-driven documentation with GitBook that powers AI
For Relay.app, an AI automation platform that helps teams build intelligent workflows, documentation serves a dual purpose: supporting customers and powering their AI-driven support system.
With so many possible use cases and a rapidly evolving product, Relay.app needed a way to keep their documentation useful and up-to-date. As an AI automation platform, users can build workflows connecting different apps and services — meaning the potential questions and use cases are nearly endless. GitBook became the foundation for their support-driven documentation approach.
We sat down with Thijs, Founding Head of Product at Relay.app, to learn how GitBook transformed their approach to documentation and customer support.
The challenge: documenting a fast-moving platform
The sheer scope of possible questions creates a unique documentation challenge. As Thijs explains, horizontal tools have a fundamentally different problem than focused products:
“Consider the difference between a focused tool like Calendly and an automation platform. Calendly has a beautifully simple proposition: making scheduling meetings effortless. An automation tool like ours, on the other hand, is more of a Swiss army knife, capable of handling a wide variety of use cases.”
For a lean team of 10, the traditional approach of trying to document everything upfront simply didn't work.
“Early on, I spent multiple days creating very thorough documentation in Notion, but it was outdated the day after I wrote it because our product was evolving so quickly.”
With limited resources and a fast-moving product, they realized they needed a fundamentally different approach — one that could evolve with their product rather than constantly lag behind it.
The solution: support-driven documentation
In spring 2024, Relay.app adopted GitBook and developed a simple but powerful philosophy: every support question becomes a documentation opportunity.
“Whenever we get a question from support that we feel is reasonably generic, we immediately add it to our docs. We started with just one FAQ page, and as it grew, we created sections with more structure.”
The team established a streamlined workflow where whoever is on support duty creates documentation for any frequent, general questions not yet covered. They maintain a low bar for initial content and link directly to new documentation in customer responses.
GitBook’s role in streamlining documentation
GitBook’s simplicity proved essential for Relay.app’s lean team approach:
“It’s a really frictionless, lightweight way to add documentation for us. Anyone on the team can just add something, it will always look the same, the structure is there, and the barrier to add something is really low.”
This low barrier to entry meant documentation became a team responsibility rather than a bottleneck, helping Relay.app to keep pace with product evolution while building comprehensive support resources.
Powering AI support with Git Sync
What makes Relay.app’s implementation unique is how they’ve integrated GitBook into their AI support system using Git Sync. They've developed an intelligent support bot that combines two types of product knowledge: technical understanding from the codebase and user guidance from their GitBook docs.
“We sync our GitBook to a Git repo, and we’re pulling in the markdown files. This means our AI has an understanding of everything we wrote in GitBook.”
When customers submit support requests, Relay.app’s system analyzes questions using both technical product knowledge and GitBook documentation, then generates responses with direct links to relevant articles.
Results: scalable support and knowledge
This approach has transformed Relay.app’s customer support:
Immediate responses: Support replies now include relevant documentation links, creating a self-reinforcing cycle where docs improve based on real customer needs.
Team efficiency: The low-barrier approach prevents documentation from becoming a bottleneck as the team scales.
AI enhancement: GitBook content powers their intelligent support system, providing accurate, contextual responses automatically.
Looking ahead
For Relay.app, GitBook has become infrastructure that enables both human and AI-powered support at scale. As they continue growing, their support-driven approach ensures documentation evolves alongside their product.
Want to see how GitBook can streamline your documentation workflow and enable innovative integrations? Start a free trial or reach out to our sales team to learn more.
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