Knowledge bases
A knowledge base is a set of records the AI reads before it answers. Your product catalog, your locations, your FAQs, your policy documents, your brand guidelines.
Open Knowledge in the sidebar to work with them, and Administration → Knowledge Bases to configure them.
Knowledge bases have more effect on output quality than anything else in the product. An agent is only as good as what it can read, and most reports of "the AI got it wrong" turn out to be "the AI was never told".
What your workspace starts with
Your workspace starts with a few general ones, such as About and FAQs, and you can add more for whatever else your organization keeps. Each knowledge base belongs to a category, which decides where it appears in the sidebar:
| Category | Appears under |
|---|---|
general | Knowledge |
studio | Studio |
brand-identity | Brand Identity |
configuration | Administration |
Documents and structured records
Documents are files you upload: a policy PDF, a manual, a report. The AI reads their contents and can cite them.
Structured records are rows with fields: products with names, prices and descriptions, or locations with addresses and hours. These come from a knowledge template that defines the fields. See knowledge templates.
Use structured records whenever the information has a consistent shape. "What are your opening hours in Denver" is answered exactly from a location record, and only approximately from a PDF that mentions Denver.
Add content
There are three ways to fill a knowledge base:
By hand. The + button adds an item. Suitable for a dozen records.
By import. Upload a CSV or XLSX file. The importer detects your columns, proposes a mapping onto the template's fields, and shows it for review before anything is written. If the workbook has several sheets, it asks which one to use. This is the right route for anything with more than a handful of rows.
By connection. Some knowledge stays in a system you already run. See external data for connecting to it rather than copying from it.
Attach knowledge to an agent
Knowledge does nothing until an agent is allowed to read it. On the agent, Knowledge Bases selects which ones it may use. See agents.
Attach what the agent needs and leave the rest off. An agent with everything attached answers more slowly and is likelier to bring the wrong document into an answer.
If the agent is public-facing, everything you attach can be extracted by anyone who talks to it through a website widget or a phone line. Attach only content you would publish.
Keep answers correct
When an answer is wrong, fix the knowledge rather than rephrasing the question. The correction applies to every agent, widget, deck and page that reads it, and to everyone else's questions rather than only yours.
Three habits help:
- One fact, one place. If the refund window appears in three knowledge bases, it will be three different numbers within a year.
- Delete rather than caveat. Out-of-date records that say they are out of date still get cited.
- Watch the widget downvotes. Chat widgets collect the questions where visitors rated the answer unhelpful. Treat that list as a to-do list for your knowledge bases.
History
Every change is recorded. Administration → History shows who changed a record and what it said before, which matters when an answer changes and nobody knows why.