PHPKB Integration — Practical Implementation Guide

Introduction

This guide provides a narrative walkthrough for integrating PHPKB with the RAIA agent. The primary goal of this integration is to synchronize knowledge base articles from your PHPKB instance directly into the AI Agent's knowledge base. This ensures the agent has access to your official repository of articles, enabling it to provide accurate, consistent answers and support automated workflows.

The Integration Process Overview

The integration is structured around a streamlined Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process. It begins with the extraction of articles from your PHPKB instance using its API. The content of these articles is then transformed into a structured JSON format, a process that includes leveraging the Manus API to generate a derivative knowledge base for enhanced context. Finally, the processed information is loaded into a PostgreSQL data lake hosted on Supabase. The RAIA agent accesses this data, and the entire workflow is automated to run monthly, ensuring the agent's knowledge remains current.

Roles and Responsibilities

Two key roles are vital for a successful integration. The n8n Workflow Developer is responsible for configuring and deploying the n8n workflow that handles the ETL process. The RAIA Agent Engineer provides support by assisting with the agent's configuration and ensuring the synchronized data is correctly ingested and utilized by the AI.For more technical details on the n8n-PHPKB connection, you can refer to the native n8n integration documentation at https://n8n.io/integrations/phpkb/.

Phase 1: Planning and Preparation

The initial phase, typically requiring 2-4 hours, is dedicated to planning the integration. The Workflow Developer will start by identifying your PHPKB instance URL and generating the necessary API credentials. A crucial step in this phase is to define the scope of the synchronization, determining which article categories to include. The developer then maps the PHPKB article fields to the target schema of the data lake. This planning stage concludes with the creation of an integration architecture diagram, a list of required APIs and credentials, and a risk mitigation plan.

Phase 2: Data Extraction and Transformation

This phase, estimated to take 3-5 hours, focuses on the technical implementation of the data extraction and transformation. The Workflow Developer will configure a single, comprehensive PHPKB Articles ETL workflow. This workflow is responsible for fetching the specified articles from the PHPKB instance. Within the workflow, data shaping logic is applied to convert the raw article content into a structured JSON format, and the Manus API is used to generate a derivative knowledge base. The deliverable for this phase is the completed n8n workflow and a sample of the transformed JSON data for validation.

Phase 3: Loading, Automation, and Synchronization

The final phase, requiring approximately 3-5 hours, involves loading the data and activating the automated synchronization. The PHPKB Articles ETL workflow is configured to orchestrate the entire process. It uses an "upsert" operation to efficiently load the transformed data into the PostgreSQL database. Once the data is loaded, the Raia API is triggered to process the new information and add it to its vector store. The process concludes by scheduling the workflow to run automatically each month. The final deliverables include the completed workflow, confirmation of a successful data load, and the configured monthly execution schedule.