Knowledge bases

A knowledge base in Drop Cowboy® is a set of documents and articles an AI can search for answers. Your AI agents search Public knowledge bases only. Internal ones are for your team's dashboard and automation AI.

Give your agent knowledge

Do this when callers or chat visitors ask questions your agent should answer from your own documents, such as FAQs, service lists or policies.

1. Open AI Agents in the left menu and click the agent. In the Manage panel, click Re-run setup wizard and go to the Knowledge step. A new agent reaches this step during setup. If you don't see AI Agents, ask your account owner for access.
2. Under Give it knowledge, pick a base in Attach existing knowledge bases. Or type a Knowledge base name and click Create. A base you create here is Public.
3. Under Add content to a knowledge base, pick the base in Choose a knowledge base..., then add content:
   • Paste text: type an Article title, paste the text, and click Add article.
   • Upload file: pick a file and click Upload. Any document format up to 25MB works.
4. Check Documents in this knowledge base. A document shows indexing until it's ready. You can move on while it finishes.
5. If you see Not yet connected, click the link to turn on Knowledge Base Search in the Tools step.
6. Click Add those facts if the warning appears, and put your hours, location and what you do in Facts it should always know.
7. Click Continue through the remaining steps and Finish Setup.

The agent searches a knowledge base only when a question matches, and only a few snippets come back. Facts every caller might need belong in Facts it should always know, so the agent has them even when search finds nothing.

To attach a base without the wizard, open the agent's Capabilities tab and the Tools pill. Pick bases in Knowledge bases to search, check that Knowledge Base Search says "On, because a knowledge base is attached below.", and click Save changes.

To let chat visitors browse articles from a public base, add them to the chat widget's Help tab. See Add help articles to the chat widget.

If it doesn't work:

• The agent ignores a knowledge base. The base is probably Internal, which is the default for bases made on the Knowledge tab. Open it in Knowledge, set AI audience on the Overview tab to Public, and click Save changes.
• A document shows failed. Remove it and upload it again, or use Paste text instead.
• The agent still misses an answer. Test the question on the base's Search tab. If nothing comes back, add an article that answers it in plain words.
• The upload is refused. Keep each file under 25MB. Split a large document into smaller files.

Create an internal knowledge base

Do this when your team's own AI tools, such as the dashboard assistant, should know your processes. No customer-facing agent searches an internal base.

1. Open AI Agents in the left menu and click the Knowledge tab at the top. Click New.
2. In New knowledge base, type a Name and an optional Description.
3. Leave AI audience on "Internal - automation and dashboard AI", the default. Click Create.
4. Open the Documents tab and add content:
   • Click Upload and pick a file. Any document format up to 25MB works.
   • Or click Compose article, fill in Title and Article body, and click Create article.
5. Watch the status column. Documents move from Pending to Processing to Ready.
6. Open the Search tab. Under Test search, type a question in "Ask a question..." and click Search to see what comes back.

Use the All, Internal and Public filters to find a base in the list. To edit an article, open Documents and click Edit. To change who can use a base, open Overview, change AI audience, and click Save changes. To retire one, open Settings and use Archive or Delete under Danger zone.

For what the dashboard assistant can do with this knowledge, see Dashboard assistant.

If it doesn't work:

• "No matching chunks yet. Upload documents and wait for ingest to complete." Wait until the documents show Ready, then search again.
• A document shows Failed. Click Remove and upload it again, or paste the content with Compose article.
• You need the same content for an agent. Create a separate base and pick "Public - chat widget and voice agents" in AI audience. Keep internal notes out of anything an agent searches.