Knowledge Base Overview

How to add and manage knowledge sources for your AI agent

Knowledge Base Overview#

Your agent's knowledge base is the foundation of its intelligence. The more relevant content you provide, the better your agent can answer questions.

Source Types#

AlonChat supports 5 types of knowledge sources:

TypeDescriptionBest For
DocumentsUpload PDF, Word, Excel, CSV, or Markdown filesProduct manuals, policies, guides
TextPaste text directlyQuick FAQs, announcements, policies
Q&AAdd specific question-answer pairsCommon customer questions
WebsiteCrawl and import website contentHelp centers, documentation
ConversationsImport past chat historyLearning from real interactions

Adding Sources#

Documents#

  1. Go to Knowledge Base in your agent dashboard
  2. Click Add Source → File
  3. Upload your file (max 10MB per file)
  4. Click Add to queue for processing

Supported formats: PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), CSV, Markdown

Text#

  1. Click Add Source → Text
  2. Enter a name (e.g., "Pricing Policy")
  3. Paste your content
  4. Click Add

Q&A Pairs#

  1. Click Add Source → Q&A
  2. Enter a question and its answer
  3. Optionally add an image
  4. Repeat for more pairs

Website#

  1. Click Add Source → Website
  2. Enter your website URL
  3. Configure crawl settings:
    • Maximum pages to crawl
    • URL patterns to include/exclude
  4. Click Start Crawl

Conversations (Facebook)#

  1. Export your Facebook Messenger data
  2. Click Add Source → Import Conversations
  3. Upload the exported ZIP file
  4. Select conversations to import

Training Your Agent#

After adding sources, you need to train your agent:

  1. Click the Train button in your dashboard
  2. Wait for processing to complete (usually 30-60 seconds)
  3. Your agent is now ready to answer questions

What happens during training:

  • Content is split into smaller pieces
  • Each piece is analyzed for meaning
  • An index is created for fast retrieval

Source Status#

StatusWhat It Means
NewAdded, waiting to be trained
TrainingCurrently being processed
ReadySuccessfully trained and active
ErrorSomething went wrong (check the error message)

Google Drive Integration#

Connect Google Drive to sync files automatically:

  1. Go to Connections → Google Drive
  2. Authorize access
  3. Select files to link
  4. Files will sync when you train

Changes made to linked files in Google Drive are detected automatically.

Best Practices#

Do:

  • Add specific, relevant content
  • Use Q&A pairs for common questions
  • Keep content up-to-date
  • Train after making changes

Don't:

  • Upload irrelevant documents
  • Add duplicate content
  • Forget to train after changes

Next Steps#

Knowledge Base Overview | AlonChat Docs