KnowledgeOps AI

A Laravel knowledge assistant that combines cited RAG answers, an MCP server, and a guarded agent workflow. The agent can propose a support ticket, but it cannot execute the tool until a human approves the stored action.

Why this project

Many AI demos stop at a chat box. KnowledgeOps AI demonstrates the backend concerns needed for a safer production system:

• workspace-scoped document ingestion and retrieval;

• deterministic local embeddings for a zero-cost demo;

• optional OpenAI embeddings and generated answers;

• PostgreSQL with pgvector search and an SQLite fallback;

• JSON-RPC MCP tools with typed input schemas;

• human approval before state-changing agent actions;

• queues, audit records, API-key protection, and automated tests.

Related MCP server: MCP Knowledge Base Server

Architecture

flowchart LR
    Client[API or MCP client] --> Laravel[Laravel API]
    Laravel --> Ingest[Queued ingestion]
    Ingest --> Chunk[Chunk + embed]
    Chunk --> Vector[(PostgreSQL + pgvector)]
    Laravel --> Retrieve[Hybrid retrieval]
    Retrieve --> Vector
    Retrieve --> LLM[LLM or local fallback]
    LLM --> Answer[Cited answer]
    Answer --> Agent[Guarded agent]
    Agent --> Pending[(Pending action)]
    Pending --> Approval{Human approval}
    Approval -->|approved| MCP[MCP tool registry]
    MCP --> Ticket[(Support ticket)]

Stack

• PHP 8.3 and Laravel 13

• OpenAI Responses and Embeddings APIs, or a local deterministic fallback

• PostgreSQL 17 with pgvector; SQLite is supported for quick local development

• Redis queues and cache in Docker

• MCP-compatible JSON-RPC endpoint

• PHPUnit feature and unit tests

Quick start with SQLite

cp .env.example .env
composer install
php artisan key:generate
touch database/database.sqlite
php artisan migrate --seed
php artisan serve

Open http://localhost:8000. The default API key is local-demo-key.

The local provider needs no external service. To use OpenAI, update .env:

AI_PROVIDER=openai
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key
OPENAI_CHAT_MODEL=gpt-4.1-mini
OPENAI_EMBEDDING_MODEL=text-embedding-3-small

Never commit the real .env file.

Docker with pgvector and Redis

docker compose up -d postgres redis
docker compose run --rm app php artisan migrate --seed
docker compose up -d app worker

The Docker environment enables pgvector retrieval and runs ingestion through Redis.

API walkthrough

All API requests accept X-API-Key: local-demo-key.

1. Ingest a document

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/documents \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: local-demo-key" \
  -d '{
    "workspace_id": "demo",
    "title": "Remote Work Policy",
    "source": "handbook://remote-work",
    "content": "Employees may work remotely three days per week. Manager approval is required for fully remote arrangements."
  }'

2. Ask a cited RAG question

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/rag/ask \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: local-demo-key" \
  -d '{"workspace_id":"demo","question":"How many remote days are allowed?"}'

The response contains an answer plus source labels, document IDs, excerpts, and retrieval scores.

3. Run the agent

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/agent/run \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: local-demo-key" \
  -d '{"workspace_id":"demo","question":"Create a ticket for a company-wide payment outage"}'

The agent returns requires_approval: true and stores a pending action. It does not create a ticket yet.

4. Approve the proposed action

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/agent/actions/1/approve \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: local-demo-key" \
  -d '{"workspace_id":"demo"}'

Approval is single-use. A repeated approval returns HTTP 409 and cannot create a duplicate ticket.

MCP endpoint

The MCP endpoint is POST /api/mcp. It supports initialize, ping, tools/list, and tools/call.

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: local-demo-key" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}'

Available tools:

• knowledge_search searches only within the supplied workspace.

• support_ticket_create requires an explicit approved flag. The built-in agent supplies it only after the approval endpoint locks and updates a pending action.

Tests and code style

php artisan test
./vendor/bin/pint --test

The suite covers API-key protection, ingestion, workspace isolation, cited retrieval, MCP discovery and calls, and the approval-based ticket workflow.

Repository layout

app/
├── Http/Controllers       API and MCP transport
├── Jobs                   queued document ingestion
├── Models                 documents, chunks, actions, tickets
└── Services
    ├── Ai                 chunking, embeddings, retrieval, RAG, agent
    └── Mcp                tool definitions and execution
database/
├── migrations             workspace-scoped schema and pgvector setup
└── seeders                runnable support-handbook example

Push to GitHub

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Build KnowledgeOps AI Laravel RAG and MCP agent"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/knowledgeops-ai.git
git push -u origin main

Create the empty knowledgeops-ai repository in your GitHub account before the last two commands.

Deliberate safety choices

• Workspace ID is applied to every retrieval and action query.

• The LLM receives retrieved passages, not unrestricted database access.

• State-changing tools require approval, which is recorded and locked in a transaction.

• Tool inputs are validated again at execution time.

• Local mode makes tests deterministic and prevents accidental external AI calls.

License

MIT