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What is Dewey?

Dewey is a backend service that handles document ingestion and AI-powered search without requiring you to build the infrastructure yourself. You upload documents, and Dewey processes them into a searchable format, then returns answers backed by citations to specific sections of your files. It's designed for developers building AI applications that need to work with documents, whether that's customer support tools, research assistants, or internal knowledge systems. Rather than assembling separate components for document parsing, vector storage, and embeddings, Dewey provides these as a single integrated service.

Key Features

Real-time document ingestion

upload files and have them processed immediately without managing batch jobs

Section-aware retrieval

returns answers tied to specific sections or pages rather than whole documents

Semantic search

finds relevant content by meaning, not just keyword matching

Cited answers

AI responses include references to source material for verification

Pre-built backend

eliminates the need to configure vector databases, embedding models, and parsing pipelines separately

Pros & Cons

Advantages

  • Saves development time by handling document infrastructure out of the box
  • Answers come with citations, which reduces hallucinations and builds user trust
  • Section-level retrieval is more precise than document-level results
  • Freemium pricing lets you test before committing to a paid plan

Limitations

  • Limited control over embedding models or vector database configuration if your needs are unusual
  • Depends on a third-party service, so you're tied to their uptime and rate limits
  • Pricing details for paid tiers aren't clearly published, making cost planning difficult

Use Cases

Building a chatbot that answers questions about a company's internal policies and procedures

Creating a research tool that cites academic papers or reports when answering queries

Developing a customer support assistant that references product documentation

Building a legal or compliance tool that requires answers to be traceable to source documents

Making existing PDFs or documents searchable and queryable through natural language