An apparatus and method are provided to support the provision of context-sensitive help functions in a back-end HTML/XML server. The apparatus provides partner-sensitive help functions to users that have been redirected from a plurality of partner sites to the back-end server. The apparatus has a data base and a context-sensitive help engine. The data base stores general help data, as well as partner-specific metadata corresponding to the plurality of partner sites. The context-sensitive help engine is coupled to the data base. The context-sensitive help engine receives a help transaction request that has been redirected from a specific one of the plurality of partner sites. The context-sensitive help engine provides specific help functions in response to the help transaction request, where the specific help functions correspond to the specific partner site.