Skip to main content

Knowledge Sources

Knowledge Sources supplements the public website content you crawl. Use it for approved material that is not yet a public page, then test the resulting answers before relying on them in a visitor experience.

Use crawled public pages when visitors need a source link. Uploaded documents and manual knowledge can ground an answer, but they are not exposed as visitor citations.

Choose the right source

SourceBest forPlans
Crawled website contentPublic documentation, help articles, and pages visitors should be able to openAll plans
Uploaded documentA controlled document that contains selectable textStarter, Pro, and Business
Manual text contextA concise, approved answer or a validated response to a content gapPro and Business

Knowledge Sources is a dashboard workflow. It does not turn uploaded files into public pages or provide configuration-as-code for document content.

Upload a document

On Starter, Pro, or Business, open Knowledge Sources in your project and upload a document. Supported formats are:

  • PDF
  • DOCX
  • TXT
  • Markdown (.md)

Each file must be 10 MB or smaller. The file must contain extractable text. ChattyBox does not perform OCR, so scanned or image-only PDFs are unsupported. Encrypted PDFs are also unsupported.

After uploading, wait for indexing to finish, then use Test Chat to ask questions the document should answer. A successful upload is not proof that every answer is useful or complete.

Replace a document safely

Upload the replacement for an existing document and wait for it to index successfully. The previous active version remains available to answer questions while the replacement is indexing. ChattyBox switches to the new version only after successful indexing, so a failed replacement does not remove the active knowledge.

Test changed facts, policies, dates, and terminology after the replacement is active. If a public citation is required for any of those facts, update and re-scrape the public page too.

Add manual text context

On Pro and Business, use manual text context for short, approved information that should guide answers. Keep it direct, current, and specific to the question it needs to answer. It is not a substitute for publishing durable public documentation when visitors need to verify the answer.

Manual context is especially useful for a reviewed Content Gap:

  1. Open the gap in Analytics and confirm the question represents missing or unclear information.
  2. Add concise, approved text context that answers it.
  3. Return to Content Gaps, click Test answer, and review the generated reply.
  4. Click Looks good — resolve only when the tested answer is acceptable.
  5. Publish and scrape a public source as well when the answer should include a visitor-facing citation.

Citations and visitor visibility

Citations in the widget link to retrieved public website pages. ChattyBox does not reveal uploaded document names, contents, or manual text context as visitor citations. This lets you supplement answers without presenting a private source as a public link, but it also means a citation-dependent workflow needs an appropriate public page.

Launch checks

Before launch, confirm that every uploaded file is supported, text-based, and under 10 MB; that any replacement has become active; and that representative questions pass in Test Chat. Then use the launch checklist and continue the content-gap loop after real visitor questions arrive.

We use optional analytics and tag-management tools to understand site use. Choose whether to allow PostHog and Google Tag Manager. Turning analytics off reloads this page so the change takes effect cleanly. Essential site functionality and error monitoring are not controlled by this choice. Read our privacy policy.