chatgpt-retrieval-plugin

A self-hosted Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) backend that exposes a FastAPI service for semantic search over user-provided documents. It chunks documents, creates embeddings via OpenAI, stores/query them in a chosen vector database provider, and serves query/upsert/delete endpoints intended to be used as a ChatGPT Retrieval Plugin backend (and for custom GPT actions/function calling).

Evaluated Mar 29, 2026 (23d ago)
Repo ↗ Ai Ml ai-ml retrieval rag vector-database fastapi semantic-search self-hosted python
⚙ Agent Friendliness
37
/ 100
Can an agent use this?
🔒 Security
58
/ 100
Is it safe for agents?
⚡ Reliability
21
/ 100
Does it work consistently?

Score Breakdown

⚙ Agent Friendliness

MCP Quality
0
Documentation
75
Error Messages
0
Auth Simplicity
70
Rate Limits
0

🔒 Security

TLS Enforcement
90
Auth Strength
55
Scope Granularity
20
Dep. Hygiene
55
Secret Handling
70

Security guidance is present at least conceptually (authentication methods, bearer token setup). However, the provided content does not show fine-grained scopes/authorization, token rotation policies, or explicit rate-limit/error security semantics. Deployment should ensure HTTPS termination, protect the server from public exposure, and securely manage environment variables containing API keys and vector DB credentials.

⚡ Reliability

Uptime/SLA
0
Version Stability
50
Breaking Changes
0
Error Recovery
35
AF Security Reliability

Best When

You want a self-hosted, configurable RAG retrieval layer with pluggable vector database backends and metadata filtering, and you can manage hosting/operations and API authentication for your environment.

Avoid When

You cannot guarantee secure deployment of the FastAPI server (auth, network controls) or you need strong multi-tenant/least-privilege authorization semantics beyond the provided token-based approaches.

Use Cases

  • Semantic search over personal or organizational documents using natural-language queries
  • RAG pipelines where you want control over chunking, embedding dimensions/models, and vector DB provider
  • Building ChatGPT custom GPTs that can retrieve relevant snippets from documents
  • Automating document ingestion/updating via webhooks into upsert/delete endpoints
  • Enterprise internal knowledge retrieval (self-hosted) with metadata filtering (e.g., author/date/source)

Not For

  • Serving as a general-purpose document storage service without a vector-search focus
  • Use cases requiring multi-tenant isolation with fine-grained per-user authorization unless additional controls are implemented
  • High-availability systems without operational readiness (monitoring, backups, vector DB scaling)

Interface

REST API
Yes
GraphQL
No
gRPC
No
MCP Server
No
SDK
No
Webhooks
Yes

Authentication

Methods: None API key (Basic) API key (Bearer) OAuth (per README) Bearer token via BEARER_TOKEN environment variable (for local/server setup)
OAuth: Yes Scopes: No

Auth methods are described at a high level (None/Basic-Bearer/OAuth). Scopes/granularity are not evident from the provided excerpt; the quickstart indicates a shared BEARER_TOKEN for access to the API.

Pricing

Free tier: No
Requires CC: No

As an open-source self-hosted service, direct subscription pricing is not specified in the provided content; costs depend on hosting and upstream APIs (notably embeddings/completions via OpenAI or Azure OpenAI) and your chosen vector database.

Agent Metadata

Pagination
none
Idempotent
False
Retry Guidance
Not documented

Known Gotchas

  • Shared-token auth can complicate agent workflows in multi-tenant contexts if you need per-user separation.
  • The service relies on external vector database configuration and correct environment variables; misconfiguration may cause failures that agents can’t automatically remediate.
  • No explicit guidance is provided (in the excerpt) about pagination, rate-limit response headers, or safe retry/idempotency semantics for upsert/query operations.

Alternatives

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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-29.

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