Context Providers

What a Context Provider Is

A Context Provider is a component that knows how to:

• Retrieve relevant documents or records (from MODX, a search index, or an external service).

• Convert them into chunks of text and/or metadata suitable for AI consumption.

• Optionally work with a vector database or other retrieval mechanism.

Agents call Context Providers when they need grounded, site‑specific information instead of relying only on the base model.

Typical Data Sources

Examples of what a Context Provider might expose:

• MODX Resources (e.g., content pages, knowledge base articles)

• MODX Elements (Snippets, Chunks, Templates) and their descriptions

• Indexed documentation, FAQs, or release notes

• External knowledge bases or search APIs

Registering Context Providers

To add a new provider:

• Implement a PHP class that follows the \modAI\Tools\ToolInterface interface.

• Register the tool with modAI:

  • Create a plugin that will run on modAIOnContextProviderRegister event and will return the class name of the Context Provider or an array of multiple context providers you wish to register.

• Create the context provider from Context Providers tab:

  • Select the Context Provider class

  • A unique name.

  • Set the internal description explaining what the Context Provider does

Once registered, the context provider appears in the Context Provider tab and you’ll be able to attach it to agents.

Configuring Context Providers in the Manager

From the Context Providers tab you can:

• Enable or disable providers.

• Attach providers to specific Agents so only the right agents can access a given data source.

Design tips:

• Use separate providers for very different datasets (e.g., “Public Docs”, “Internal Runbooks”, “Developer API Docs”).

• Keep provider scopes narrow so retrieval stays relevant and efficient.

Performance and Cost

Context providers may rely on:

• Full‑text search queries

• Vector database lookups

• External API calls

Be mindful of:

• Token usage when passing large chunks of context into prompts.

• Rate limits and pricing for external services.

• Caching strategies to reduce repeated work.