Context & Agents · Knowledge Bases
Knowledge base detail
Add documents to a knowledge base, check they are ready for agents, and share it with other workspaces.
A knowledge base’s page shows what it is, whether it leaves your workspace, which applications it belongs with, and every document inside it. It is also where you upload new documents and keep existing ones in good order.
When you upload a document, Next pulls out its text, splits it into short pieces and prepares each piece so it can be found by meaning. Agents then search those pieces and quote the ones they need. This page lets you watch that happen and check the result.
Before you start
- Open Context & Agents → Knowledge Bases and select a knowledge base. See Knowledge Bases.
- You need permission to change knowledge bases to upload, re-index, remove documents or delete the knowledge base. Sharing needs permission to manage knowledge bases.
- A knowledge base shared with you by another workspace shows a Read-only badge. You can read it, but not change it.
Understanding the page
What this knowledge base is
The top of the page shows:
- its name
- the embedding model it uses – the AI model that turns each piece of text into a form that can be searched by meaning. This is set for your workspace in AI & Models.
- the group it sits under, or Ungrouped. If you can edit it, select the group to choose Move to group.
- its description
A group is only a heading. It does not change what any agent can read.
Does it leave this workspace?
The line under the description tells you whether the knowledge base is shared:
| Message starts with | What it means |
|---|---|
| Not shared. | Only this workspace uses it. |
| Shared as a copy with N workspace(s). | Each of those workspaces holds its own copy, as it was when it was sent. |
| Shared without copying. | Other workspaces send questions here and get passages back. They always see the current version and store none of it. |
Used by applications
Used by N application(s) lists the applications that link this knowledge base, either for every version or for one. Links are added and removed on the application’s own page. They describe where the material belongs; they do not give any agent access, and they never stop you deleting the knowledge base. See Application detail.
Documents
The Documents table lists everything uploaded.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Document | The document’s name and a short summary. Select it to see it as the agents read it. Only documents that have finished processing can be opened; a failed one shows its error here. |
| Version | The document’s version. not searchable means it is not the current version, so searches skip it. |
| Ingest | Getting the text in: pending, processing, completed or failed. A document is searchable as soon as this reaches completed. |
| Enrichment | An extra pass that runs after ingest and adds summaries. pending here does not mean the document is unusable. |
| Units | How many sections the document’s text was split into. |
| Chunks | How many smaller pieces the text was cut into for searching. |
| Tokens | Tokens spent on this document in total, split underneath into enrich and embed. A token is the unit AI models count text in. |
While any document is still processing, the table refreshes itself and says Refreshing while documents are still processing…
Add documents
-
Select Choose files under Add documents and pick one or more files.
The files are listed with their sizes.
-
Select the upload button, which shows how many files you chose and their total size.
The files are uploaded and processed in one step.
-
Check the result beside each file:
| Result | What it means |
|---|---|
| indexed | Added and being prepared for search. |
| stored, but not indexed | The file was saved, but its text was not added for searching. |
| already here — identical bytes are indexed once | An identical file is already in this knowledge base, so nothing new was added. |
If any files were refused, a message says how many and gives the reason for each.
Re-index or remove a document
To re-index a document, for example after a processing failure:
-
Select Re-index on its row.
-
Confirm in the dialog.
The same version is refilled, so anything that quotes it keeps working. It returns to pending while it runs.
To remove a document:
-
Select Remove on its row.
-
Confirm in the dialog.
The document and its chunks leave this knowledge base. The uploaded file itself is kept.
Share with other workspaces
Sharing lets other workspaces’ agents use this knowledge base. There are two ways to share, and a knowledge base is shared one way or the other, never both.
| Option | How it works | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Send a copy | Each workspace gets its own copy, prepared there and theirs to keep. | Fast for them, but it stops matching yours the moment you change it. |
| Share without copying | They send questions here and get passages back. | They always see the current version and store none of it, but lose access whenever this workspace is unreachable. |
- Select Sharing in the top-right corner.
- Choose Send a copy or Share without copying.
- Tick the workspaces under Which workspaces.
- Select Save.
If your change would delete copies that other workspaces already hold, the dialog lists them and the button reads Save and delete those copies. Their documents and files go with them, and anything already read from them cannot be recalled.
If the dialog says This workspace is not allowed to share with any other., an administrator needs to add sharing rules first. See Governance: Knowledge base sharing.
Delete the knowledge base
- Select Delete in the top-right corner.
- Decide whether to tick Also delete the files this knowledge base owns.
- Select Delete to confirm.
Deleting removes the knowledge base and every document in it permanently. If an agent is still allowed to read it, the delete is blocked and the dialog lists those agents. Their access must be removed first.
What to expect
- A new document usually moves from pending to processing to completed in Ingest, then Enrichment catches up afterwards.
- If nothing has been uploaded yet, the table says Nothing has been uploaded into this knowledge base yet.
Good to know
- Identical files are only processed once, however many times they are uploaded.
- Take the tour. The help (?) menu in the top bar replays this page’s guided tour.