> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.autocampaign.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Knowledge base

> Give your AI Employees source material — files, text, and websites — to answer from.

## Overview

A [knowledge base](/getting-started/glossary#knowledge-base) is a collection of
sources your [AI Employees](/automation/ai-employees) search to answer accurately.
You add files, pasted text, or websites. Autocampaign AI breaks them into
searchable passages so the employee can find the right one. Find them under
**Knowledge Bases** (`/knowledge-bases`).

<Info>
  **Time to complete:** \~10 minutes  ·  **Difficulty:** Beginner
</Info>

## Create a knowledge base

<Steps>
  <Step title="New knowledge base">
    Click **New knowledge base**, give it a **Name** and optional **Description**,
    and create it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add sources">
    Open the knowledge base and click **Add source**. Choose a source type (below).
    Content is processed and made searchable automatically.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Wait for processing to finish">
    Each source shows an ingestion status (how far along the processing is). Once it
    reads **Completed**, your AI Employee can search the content.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Source types

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="File">
    Upload a document — **PDF, DOCX, XLSX, Markdown, or plain text** — up to **20 MB**.
    (Older `.xls` files aren't supported; re-save as `.xlsx`.)
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Text">
    Paste text directly, with a title. Up to **1 MB** of content.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Website">
    Crawl (automatically read) a site starting from its root URL, such as your home
    page address. Set **max pages** (up to 200) and **crawl depth** (how many links
    deep it follows, up to 5). Optionally include or exclude parts of the site by
    path.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Check whether a source is ready

Sources move through **Queued → Extracting → Processing → Completed** (or
**Completed with errors**, **Failed**, or **Cancelled**). The detail page shows how
many sources, documents, and passages (chunks) it holds, plus the AI model used to
make them searchable. Use **Re-sync** on a source to fetch it again and re-process
it — unchanged content is skipped.

## Link a knowledge base to an AI Employee

Attach knowledge bases on the employee wizard's **Knowledge** step, and tick the
**Search Knowledge Base** skill on the **Skills** step so the employee actually
searches them. You can attach several knowledge bases to one employee.

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="What file types are supported?">
    PDF, DOCX, XLSX, Markdown, and plain text, up to 20 MB per file. Text paste is
    capped at 1 MB.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How does the AI Employee use it?">
    When the **Search Knowledge Base** skill is on, the employee searches the
    attached knowledge bases for relevant passages and answers from them. It may
    also cite the source.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="My website has many pages — will it all be crawled?">
    Crawling is limited by your **max pages** (up to 200) and **crawl depth** (up to
    5\). Use include/exclude paths to focus on the right sections.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I updated a source document. How do I refresh it?">
    Use **Re-sync** on the source. Autocampaign AI processes it again and skips
    unchanged content.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="A source shows 'Failed' or 'Completed with errors'">
    Check the file type and size (20 MB max), and that a website URL starts with
    `https://`. Re-sync after fixing.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The AI Employee isn't using my knowledge base">
    Confirm the knowledge base is attached to the employee, the **Search Knowledge
    Base** skill is ticked, and processing finished (**Completed**).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<Card title="Hire an AI Employee" icon="user-robot" href="/automation/ai-employees">
  Attach this knowledge base to an employee.
</Card>