Introducing Cats Guru on Gurubase.io

[kursataktas]

Hello team,

I'm the maintainer of Anteon. We have created Gurubase.io with the mission of building a centralized, open-source tool-focused knowledge base. Essentially, each "guru" is equipped with custom knowledge to answer user questions based on collected data related to that tool.

I wanted to update you that I've manually added the Cats Guru to Gurubase. Cats Guru uses the data from this repo and data from the docs to answer questions by leveraging the LLM.

In this PR, I showcased the "Cats Guru", which highlights that Cats now has an AI assistant available to help users with their questions. Please let me know your thoughts on this contribution.

Additionally, if you want me to disable Cats Guru in Gurubase, just let me know that's totally fine.

[henryxparker]

While there is an interesting discussion to be had about how llms can be leveraged to improve the learning curve for libraries like cats, I don't think this is the best way to start that conversation.

I don't represent cats or typelevel, but I have a feeling that linking to this closed source project which is unaffiliated with typelevel is never going to fly. It's presumptive at best and malicious spam at worst.

If you truly want to help the open-source scala community with a tool that can make it easier to learn about complex libraries like cats, then if I were you I would at a bare minimum start a discussion and ask permission before including it. This kind of tool will probably be useful at some point, but this AI boom brings a lot of grifters out of the woodwork. The only way I would be comfortable endorsing a project like this is with the transparency that comes from open-source. Otherwise it just appears to me like another start-up cash grab that won't stand the test of time regardless of its utility or intent.

TL;DR. Start an actual discussion and talk with people before you spam PRs at projects promoting your app

[rossabaker]

If I were to endorse a RAG search to present alongside official channels, it would need to have the observability to see where the documentation could improved, and to monitor for misinformative and abusive generated responses.

I would want one that covered the breadth of Typelevel's ecosystem instead of isolated repositories.

We would also need to have an organizational debate whether such tools are consistent with the license, consistent with the contributors' wishes, and environmentally responsible. I anticipate all three would be vigorous discussions.

Finally, I would look for a partner who understands that this technology is still controversial and needs to be opt in, or at the barest minimum courtesy, is transparent about what crawlers it uses and how to opt out.

This fails on every count. Hard pass.

[Edit: I hadn't seen Henry's post yet, but agree with all that, too.]

[samspills]

I agree with both Ross and Henry above.

@kursataktas to be explicit, please disable the cats functionality. Deciding to implement this kind of tooling requires a discussion that includes our whole community and that has not happened here.

[kursataktas]

Hello,

I have removed Cats Guru as requested.

I understand that integrating Cats Guru without prior discussion didn’t align with community expectations, and I appreciate the feedback. The intent of this PR was to start the conversation, gather feedback, and seek permission—not to bypass community consent or transparency.

I had hoped to discuss the goals and potential of Gurubase here, but I realize now this wasn’t the right place, time, or approach for such a discussion.