Environment Setup Guide

Environment Setup Guide

Step 1: Get OpenAI API Key

  1. Go to https://platform.openai.com/api-keys
  2. Sign up or log in
  3. Click “Create new secret key”
  4. Copy the key (starts with sk-)
  5. ⚠️ Save it immediately - you won’t see it again!

Step 2: Create Vector Store (First Time)

  1. Navigate to the backend directory: 
    cd rag-backend
  2. Install dependencies: 
    npm install
  3. Create .env file: 
    cp .env.example .env
  4. Add your API key to .env: 
    OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-actual-key-here
  5. Run ingestion script: 
    npm run ingest
  6. The script will:
    • Upload all PDFs from ../files/
    • Create a vector store
    • Print a VECTOR_STORE_ID (starts with vs-)
  7. Add the vector store ID to .env: 
    VECTOR_STORE_ID=vs-your-store-id-here

Step 3: Set Up GitHub Secrets (for GitHub Actions)

If you want automatic PDF ingestion when you add new papers:

  1. Go to your GitHub repo → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions
  2. Click “New repository secret”
  3. Add these secrets:
    • OPENAI_API_KEY: Your OpenAI API key
    • VECTOR_STORE_ID: The vector store ID from step 2

Step 4: Update Chatbot Widget

Edit _includes/chatbot.html and change this line:

const API_URL = "https://your-backend.onrender.com/api/chat";

Replace your-backend.onrender.com with your actual backend URL after deployment.

Step 5: Deploy Backend

See README.md for deployment instructions (Render, Railway, etc.)

Cost Monitoring

Monitor your usage at: https://platform.openai.com/usage

Set up billing alerts to avoid surprises!