diff --git a/ui/__tests__/rag-documents.test.ts b/ui/__tests__/rag-documents.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efd29f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ui/__tests__/rag-documents.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+import {
+  DEFAULT_CHROMA_PATH,
+  buildInternalApiUrl,
+  getChromaPath,
+} from '@/utils/server/rag-documents';
+
+import { afterEach, describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+
+describe('rag document helpers', () => {
+  afterEach(() => {
+    delete process.env.CHROMA_PATH;
+  });
+
+  it('uses the Docker Chroma default when no override is configured', () => {
+    expect(getChromaPath()).toBe(DEFAULT_CHROMA_PATH);
+  });
+
+  it('uses CHROMA_PATH when configured', () => {
+    process.env.CHROMA_PATH = 'http://custom-chroma:8000';
+
+    expect(getChromaPath()).toBe('http://custom-chroma:8000');
+  });
+
+  it('builds internal API URLs from the current request origin', () => {
+    expect(
+      buildInternalApiUrl(
+        'https://example.com/api/rag-chat?conversation=abc',
+        '/api/fetch-documents',
+      ),
+    ).toBe('https://example.com/api/fetch-documents');
+  });
+});
diff --git a/ui/pages/api/fetch-documents.ts b/ui/pages/api/fetch-documents.ts
index 9304e48..8dc754e 100644
--- a/ui/pages/api/fetch-documents.ts
+++ b/ui/pages/api/fetch-documents.ts
@@ -1,23 +1,41 @@
-import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from "next";
-import { ChromaClient, TransformersEmbeddingFunction } from "chromadb";
+import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from 'next';
 
-export default async function handler(req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse) {
+import { getChromaPath } from '@/utils/server/rag-documents';
+
+import { ChromaClient, TransformersEmbeddingFunction } from 'chromadb';
+
+export default async function handler(
+  req: NextApiRequest,
+  res: NextApiResponse,
+) {
   try {
+    if (req.method !== 'POST') {
+      res.setHeader('Allow', 'POST');
+      return res.status(405).json({ error: 'Method not allowed' });
+    }
+
     const client = new ChromaClient({
-      path: "http://chroma-server:8000",
+      path: getChromaPath(),
     });
 
     const query = req.body.input;
 
+    if (typeof query !== 'string' || query.length === 0) {
+      return res.status(400).json({ error: 'Missing query input' });
+    }
+
     const embedder = new TransformersEmbeddingFunction();
 
-    const collection = await client.getOrCreateCollection({ name: "default-collection", embeddingFunction: embedder });
+    const collection = await client.getOrCreateCollection({
+      name: 'default-collection',
+      embeddingFunction: embedder,
+    });
 
-  // query the collection
-  const results = await collection.query({
-      nResults: 4, 
-      queryTexts: [query]
-  }) 
+    // query the collection
+    const results = await collection.query({
+      nResults: 4,
+      queryTexts: [query],
+    });
 
     res.status(200).json(results);
   } catch (error) {
@@ -29,4 +47,4 @@ export default async function handler(req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse)
     }
     res.status(500).json({ error: 'An unexpected error occurred :(' });
   }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/ui/pages/api/rag-chat.ts b/ui/pages/api/rag-chat.ts
index ce84d67..eb2079c 100644
--- a/ui/pages/api/rag-chat.ts
+++ b/ui/pages/api/rag-chat.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { DEFAULT_SYSTEM_PROMPT, DEFAULT_TEMPERATURE } from '@/utils/app/const';
 import { OpenAIError, OpenAIStream } from '@/utils/server';
-import { codeBlock, oneLine } from 'common-tags'
+import { buildInternalApiUrl } from '@/utils/server/rag-documents';
 
 import { ChatBody, Message } from '@/types/chat';
 
@@ -9,46 +9,51 @@ import wasm from '../../node_modules/@dqbd/tiktoken/lite/tiktoken_bg.wasm?module
 
 import tiktokenModel from '@dqbd/tiktoken/encoders/cl100k_base.json';
 import { Tiktoken, init } from '@dqbd/tiktoken/lite/init';
+import { codeBlock, oneLine } from 'common-tags';
 
 export const config = {
   runtime: 'edge',
 };
 
 // Function to fetch and format documents
-async function fetchAndFormatDocuments(lastMessageContent: string) {
+async function fetchAndFormatDocuments(
+  lastMessageContent: string,
+  requestUrl: string,
+) {
   try {
-    console.log("fetching documents")
-    const response = await fetch('http://localhost:3000/api/fetch-documents', {
-      method: 'POST',
-      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
-      body: JSON.stringify({ input: lastMessageContent }),
-    });
-    
+    console.log('fetching documents');
+    const response = await fetch(
+      buildInternalApiUrl(requestUrl, '/api/fetch-documents'),
+      {
+        method: 'POST',
+        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
+        body: JSON.stringify({ input: lastMessageContent }),
+      },
+    );
+
     if (!response.ok) {
       throw new Error(`Error fetching documents: ${response.statusText}`);
     }
 
     const data = await response.json();
-    const result = data.metadatas[0].map((metadata: any, index: number) => {
-      return `Source ${index + 1}) Title: ${metadata.title}, Page: ${metadata.page}, Content: ${data.documents[0][index]}\n`;
-    }).join('');
+    const result = data.metadatas[0]
+      .map((metadata: any, index: number) => {
+        return `Source ${index + 1}) Title: ${metadata.title}, Page: ${
+          metadata.page
+        }, Content: ${data.documents[0][index]}\n`;
+      })
+      .join('');
 
     console.log(result);
 
     return result;
-
   } catch (error) {
     console.error('Error fetching and formatting documents:', error);
     throw error; // You may want to throw a more specific error object here
   }
 }
 
-
-
-
-
 const handler = async (req: Request): Promise<Response> => {
-
   try {
     const { model, messages, key, prompt, temperature } =
       (await req.json()) as ChatBody;
@@ -85,8 +90,11 @@ const handler = async (req: Request): Promise<Response> => {
 
     const lastMessage = messages[messages.length - 1];
 
-    const relevantDocuments = await fetchAndFormatDocuments(lastMessage.content);
-    
+    const relevantDocuments = await fetchAndFormatDocuments(
+      lastMessage.content,
+      req.url,
+    );
+
     let temperatureToUse = temperature;
     if (temperatureToUse == null) {
       temperatureToUse = DEFAULT_TEMPERATURE;
@@ -97,22 +105,20 @@ const handler = async (req: Request): Promise<Response> => {
     let tokenCount = prompt_tokens.length;
     let messagesToSend: Message[] = [];
 
-
     encoding.free();
 
     console.log(model, promptToSend, temperatureToUse, key, messagesToSend);
 
-  
-  messagesToSend = [
+    messagesToSend = [
       {
-        role: "user",
+        role: 'user',
         content: codeBlock`
           Here is the relevant documentation:
           ${relevantDocuments}
         `,
       },
       {
-        role: "user",
+        role: 'user',
         content: codeBlock`
           ${oneLine`
             Answer my next question using only the above documentation.
@@ -135,19 +141,18 @@ const handler = async (req: Request): Promise<Response> => {
         `,
       },
       {
-        role: "user",
+        role: 'user',
         content: codeBlock`
           Here is my question:
           ${oneLine`${lastMessage.content}`}
       `,
       },
-    ]
-
+    ];
 
     const stream = await OpenAIStream(
       model,
       promptToSend,
-      0,
+      temperatureToUse,
       key,
       messagesToSend,
     );
diff --git a/ui/utils/server/rag-documents.ts b/ui/utils/server/rag-documents.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8aaf383
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ui/utils/server/rag-documents.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+export const DEFAULT_CHROMA_PATH = 'http://chroma-server:8000';
+
+export const getChromaPath = () =>
+  process.env.CHROMA_PATH || DEFAULT_CHROMA_PATH;
+
+export const buildInternalApiUrl = (requestUrl: string, pathname: string) =>
+  new URL(pathname, requestUrl).toString();