Examples

Integration Examples

Examples for integrating Cortex with popular frameworks, AI tools, and automation platforms.

AI Coding Agents (Cortex Skills)

The fastest way to integrate is to let your AI agent do it. Cortex Skills (source) serves curated, always-current SKILL.md files over plain HTTP — one per subsystem — so agents work from ground truth instead of stale training data:

Code
 
https://cortexskills.org/SKILL.md            # index: how to build on Cortex
https://cortexskills.org/upload/SKILL.md     # document ingestion
https://cortexskills.org/search/SKILL.md     # hybrid search
https://cortexskills.org/ask/SKILL.md        # RAG Q&A + streaming
https://cortexskills.org/cortex/SKILL.md     # use Cortex as agent long-term memory
https://cortexskills.org/hermes/SKILL.md     # long-term memory for Hermes agents (recommended)
https://cortexskills.org/openclaw/SKILL.md   # the same memory skill on OpenClaw
https://cortexskills.org/mcp/SKILL.md        # MCP server setup (Claude, Cursor, ...)
https://cortexskills.org/llms.txt            # machine-readable skill listing

Example prompt:

Fetch https://cortexskills.org/upload/SKILL.md and use it to write a Python script that batch-uploads a folder of PDFs to my Cortex instance.

Next.js / React Integration

API Route Handler

Create a backend route to proxy requests to Cortex:


Code
 
// app/api/search/route.ts
import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from 'next/server';

const CORTEX_URL = process.env.CORTEX_API_URL!;
const CORTEX_KEY = process.env.CORTEX_API_KEY!;

export async function POST(request: NextRequest) {
  try {
    const { query, limit = 10 } = await request.json();
    
    const response = await fetch(`${CORTEX_URL}/api/search`, {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'X-API-Key': CORTEX_KEY,
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({ query, limit }),
    });
    
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`Cortex API error: ${response.status}`);
    }
    
    const data = await response.json();
    return NextResponse.json(data);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Search error:', error);
    return NextResponse.json(
      { error: 'Search failed' },
      { status: 500 }
    );
  }
}

React Hook


Code
 
// hooks/useCortex.ts
import { useState, useCallback } from 'react';

interface SearchResult {
  id: string;
  content: string;
  score: number;
  document_title: string;
}

interface SearchResponse {
  results: SearchResult[];
  total: number;
}

export function useCortexSearch() {
  const [results, setResults] = useState<SearchResult[]>([]);
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
  const [error, setError] = useState<string | null>(null);

  const search = useCallback(async (query: string) => {
    setLoading(true);
    setError(null);
    
    try {
      const response = await fetch('/api/search', {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
        body: JSON.stringify({ query }),
      });
      
      if (!response.ok) throw new Error('Search failed');
      
      const data: SearchResponse = await response.json();
      setResults(data.results);
    } catch (err) {
      setError(err instanceof Error ? err.message : 'Unknown error');
    } finally {
      setLoading(false);
    }
  }, []);

  return { search, results, loading, error };
}

// Usage in component
function SearchComponent() {
  const { search, results, loading, error } = useCortexSearch();
  const [query, setQuery] = useState('');

  return (
    <div>
      <input
        value={query}
        onChange={(e) => setQuery(e.target.value)}
        placeholder="Search..."
      />
      <button onClick={() => search(query)} disabled={loading}>
        {loading ? 'Searching...' : 'Search'}
      </button>
      
      {error && <p className="error">{error}</p>}
      
      <ul>
        {results.map((r) => (
          <li key={r.id}>
            <strong>{r.document_title}</strong>
            <p>{r.content.slice(0, 200)}...</p>
          </li>
        ))}
      </ul>
    </div>
  );
}

Streaming Chat Component


Code
 
// components/ChatWithCortex.tsx
'use client';

import { useState, useRef } from 'react';

export function ChatWithCortex() {
  const [messages, setMessages] = useState<Array<{role: string, content: string}>>([]);
  const [input, setInput] = useState('');
  const [streaming, setStreaming] = useState(false);

  const askQuestion = async () => {
    if (!input.trim() || streaming) return;
    
    const question = input;
    setInput('');
    setMessages(prev => [...prev, { role: 'user', content: question }]);
    setStreaming(true);
    
    try {
      const response = await fetch('/api/ask', {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
        body: JSON.stringify({ 
          query: question,
          conversation_history: messages 
        }),
      });
      
      const reader = response.body?.getReader();
      const decoder = new TextDecoder();
      let answer = '';
      
      while (reader) {
        const { done, value } = await reader.read();
        if (done) break;
        
        const chunk = decoder.decode(value);
        answer += chunk;
        
        // Update the last message in real-time
        setMessages(prev => {
          const updated = [...prev];
          const lastIdx = updated.length - 1;
          if (updated[lastIdx]?.role === 'assistant') {
            updated[lastIdx].content = answer;
          } else {
            updated.push({ role: 'assistant', content: answer });
          }
          return updated;
        });
      }
    } catch (error) {
      console.error('Ask error:', error);
    } finally {
      setStreaming(false);
    }
  };

  return (
    <div className="chat-container">
      <div className="messages">
        {messages.map((msg, i) => (
          <div key={i} className={`message ${msg.role}`}>
            {msg.content}
          </div>
        ))}
      </div>
      <input
        value={input}
        onChange={(e) => setInput(e.target.value)}
        onKeyDown={(e) => e.key === 'Enter' && askQuestion()}
        placeholder="Ask a question..."
        disabled={streaming}
      />
    </div>
  );
}

LangChain Integration

Custom Retriever


Code
 
from langchain.schema import BaseRetriever, Document
from typing import List
import requests


class CortexRetriever(BaseRetriever):
    """LangChain retriever that uses Cortex for search."""
    
    base_url: str
    api_key: str
    collection_id: str = "default"
    k: int = 5
    
    class Config:
        arbitrary_types_allowed = True
    
    def _get_relevant_documents(self, query: str) -> List[Document]:
        """Retrieve relevant documents from Cortex."""
        response = requests.post(
            f"{self.base_url}/api/search",
            headers={"X-API-Key": self.api_key},
            json={
                "query": query,
                "limit": self.k,
                "collection_id": self.collection_id
            }
        )
        response.raise_for_status()
        
        results = response.json()["results"]
        return [
            Document(
                page_content=r["content"],
                metadata={
                    "source": r["document_title"],
                    "doc_id": r["document_id"],
                    "score": r["score"]
                }
            )
            for r in results
        ]


# Usage with LangChain
from langchain.chains import RetrievalQA
from langchain.chat_models import ChatOpenAI

retriever = CortexRetriever(
    base_url="http://localhost:8000",
    api_key="your-key",
    collection_id="research",
    k=5
)

llm = ChatOpenAI(model="gpt-4o-mini")
qa_chain = RetrievalQA.from_chain_type(
    llm=llm,
    retriever=retriever,
    return_source_documents=True
)

result = qa_chain({"query": "What are the key findings?"})
print(result["result"])

LangChain Tool


Code
 
from langchain.tools import Tool
import requests


def cortex_search(query: str) -> str:
    """Search the Cortex knowledge base."""
    response = requests.post(
        "http://localhost:8000/api/search",
        headers={"X-API-Key": "your-key"},
        json={"query": query, "limit": 5}
    )
    results = response.json()["results"]
    return "\n\n".join([
        f"**{r['document_title']}**: {r['content'][:500]}"
        for r in results
    ])


cortex_tool = Tool(
    name="Cortex Search",
    func=cortex_search,
    description="Search the company knowledge base for information about products, processes, and documentation."
)

# Use with an agent
from langchain.agents import initialize_agent, AgentType
from langchain.chat_models import ChatOpenAI

agent = initialize_agent(
    tools=[cortex_tool],
    llm=ChatOpenAI(model="gpt-4o-mini"),
    agent=AgentType.ZERO_SHOT_REACT_DESCRIPTION
)

response = agent.run("What does our documentation say about authentication?")

Slack Bot Integration


Code
 
from slack_bolt import App
from slack_bolt.adapter.socket_mode import SocketModeHandler
import requests
import os

app = App(token=os.environ["SLACK_BOT_TOKEN"])

CORTEX_URL = os.environ["CORTEX_API_URL"]
CORTEX_KEY = os.environ["CORTEX_API_KEY"]


@app.command("/ask")
def handle_ask(ack, respond, command):
    """Handle /ask slash command."""
    ack()
    
    question = command["text"]
    if not question:
        respond("Please provide a question: `/ask What is X?`")
        return
    
    respond(f"Looking up: _{question}_...")
    
    try:
        response = requests.post(
            f"{CORTEX_URL}/api/ask",
            headers={"X-API-Key": CORTEX_KEY},
            json={"query": question}
        )
        response.raise_for_status()
        
        data = response.json()
        answer = data["answer"]
        sources = data.get("sources", [])
        
        # Format response
        blocks = [
            {
                "type": "section",
                "text": {"type": "mrkdwn", "text": f"*Answer:*\n{answer}"}
            }
        ]
        
        if sources:
            source_text = "\n".join([
                f"• {s['document_title']}"
                for s in sources[:3]
            ])
            blocks.append({
                "type": "context",
                "elements": [
                    {"type": "mrkdwn", "text": f"*Sources:*\n{source_text}"}
                ]
            })
        
        respond(blocks=blocks)
        
    except Exception as e:
        respond(f"Error: {str(e)}")


@app.command("/search")
def handle_search(ack, respond, command):
    """Handle /search slash command."""
    ack()
    
    query = command["text"]
    if not query:
        respond("Please provide a search query: `/search topic`")
        return
    
    try:
        response = requests.post(
            f"{CORTEX_URL}/api/search",
            headers={"X-API-Key": CORTEX_KEY},
            json={"query": query, "limit": 5}
        )
        response.raise_for_status()
        
        results = response.json()["results"]
        
        if not results:
            respond("No results found.")
            return
        
        blocks = [
            {
                "type": "section",
                "text": {"type": "mrkdwn", "text": f"*Search results for:* _{query}_"}
            }
        ]
        
        for r in results:
            blocks.append({
                "type": "section",
                "text": {
                    "type": "mrkdwn",
                    "text": f"*{r['document_title']}*\n{r['content'][:200]}..."
                }
            })
        
        respond(blocks=blocks)
        
    except Exception as e:
        respond(f"Error: {str(e)}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    handler = SocketModeHandler(
        app, 
        os.environ["SLACK_APP_TOKEN"]
    )
    handler.start()

Webhook Integration

Configure Webhooks

Set a webhook URL to receive notifications:

Code
 
WEBHOOK_URL=https://your-app.com/webhooks/cortex

Webhook Handler (Flask)


Code
 
from flask import Flask, request, jsonify
import hmac
import hashlib

app = Flask(__name__)
WEBHOOK_SECRET = "your-webhook-secret"


def verify_signature(payload: bytes, signature: str) -> bool:
    """Verify webhook signature."""
    expected = hmac.new(
        WEBHOOK_SECRET.encode(),
        payload,
        hashlib.sha256
    ).hexdigest()
    return hmac.compare_digest(f"sha256={expected}", signature)


@app.route('/webhooks/cortex', methods=['POST'])
def handle_webhook():
    """Handle Cortex webhooks."""
    # Verify signature
    signature = request.headers.get('X-Cortex-Signature', '')
    if not verify_signature(request.data, signature):
        return jsonify({"error": "Invalid signature"}), 401
    
    event = request.json
    event_type = event.get('type')
    
    if event_type == 'document.processed':
        doc_id = event['document_id']
        doc_title = event['document_title']
        print(f"Document processed: {doc_title} ({doc_id})")
        # Trigger your workflow
        
    elif event_type == 'document.failed':
        doc_id = event['document_id']
        error = event.get('error', 'Unknown error')
        print(f"Document failed: {doc_id} - {error}")
        # Send alert
        
    elif event_type == 'community.detected':
        count = event['community_count']
        print(f"Communities detected: {count}")
        # Update dashboard
    
    return jsonify({"status": "ok"})


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(port=5000)

n8n / Make.com

HTTP Request Node

Configure an HTTP Request node in n8n:

Method: POST
URL: {{$env.CORTEX_URL}}/api/ask
Headers:


Code
 
{
  "X-API-Key": "{{$env.CORTEX_API_KEY}}",
  "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

Body:


Code
 
{
  "query": "{{$node.previous.json.question}}"
}

Example n8n Workflow

Webhook Trigger - Receive incoming questions
HTTP Request - Call Cortex API
Set Node - Format the response
Respond to Webhook - Return the answer

Zapier Integration

Use Zapier's Webhooks to integrate with Cortex:

Trigger: New row in Google Sheets
Action: Webhooks by Zapier → POST
URL: https://api.your-domain.com/api/search
Headers: X-API-Key: your-key
Data: {"query": "{{Sheet Row Data}}"}

Last modified on July 28, 2026

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