--- title: Knowledge library: answer from your own material description: Upload documents, write Q&A that must always get the same answer, choose which teams can retrieve each one, and pick the assistants that use them. url: https://agentlab.cresclab.com/docs/en/studio/knowledge language: en updated: 2026-11-06 --- # Knowledge library: answer from your own material Upload documents, write Q&A that must always get the same answer, choose which teams can retrieve each one, and pick the assistants that use them. ## What the knowledge library holds Open **Knowledge** in the console. The page holds two kinds of material: - **Documents**: Markdown, plain text or PDF that you upload. When answering, an assistant finds the sections relevant to the question and quotes from them. - **Q&A**: questions and answers you write yourself. An assistant that uses them sees them on every reply, so use them for questions that must always get the same answer. The library belongs to the whole workspace. Nothing in it is used automatically: an assistant only draws on a document or Q&A once you pick it in that assistant's settings (see [Use knowledge in an assistant](https://agentlab.cresclab.com/docs/en/studio/knowledge.md#use-in-assistants)). ## Who can do what | Action | Who | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | See documents and Q&A | Every workspace member (which ones depends on the [audience](https://agentlab.cresclab.com/docs/en/studio/knowledge.md#audience)) | | Add and delete documents; add, edit and delete Q&A; change the audience | Workspace owners and admins | | Make an assistant use a document or Q&A | Workspace owners and admins | Members who open **Knowledge** see "Changing this is available to workspace owners and admins. You can read what is here; ask one of them to make a change." at the top, and the forms for adding documents and Q&A don't appear. ## Add a document 1. Open **Knowledge** and scroll to **Add a document**. 2. Enter a **Document title**, up to 200 characters. 3. Paste text into **Content**, or select **Choose file** and pick a `.md`, `.markdown`, `.txt` or `.pdf` file. If the title is still empty, the file name fills it. 4. Under **Who it is for**, choose **Everyone in this workspace** or **Only the teams I name** (see [Audience](https://agentlab.cresclab.com/docs/en/studio/knowledge.md#audience)). 5. Select **Add to the knowledge base**. Pasted text that contains a Markdown heading (a line starting with `#`) is treated as Markdown and split into sections at its headings. Text without one is treated as plain text. The document then appears in the **Documents** table. Its **Status** moves from **Queued** to **Indexing**, and ends at **Ready** or **Failed**. Assistants only use documents that are **Ready**. When indexing fails, the reason appears under the title, with a **Retry** button beside it. A common cause is a PDF with no extractable text, such as a scan or an image-only PDF. Export it as a PDF with selectable text, or paste the text instead. Each row shows: - **Title**, with who uploaded it ("Uploaded by …") - **Type**: Markdown, Plain text or PDF - **Status** - **Who can retrieve it**: **Everyone**, **Restricted** or **Only you** - **Size** - **Used by**: how many assistants use it. Select it to list those assistants and who attached the document to each. ## Formats and limits | Item | Limit | | ---------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | Formats | Pasted text, `.md`, `.markdown`, `.txt`, `.pdf` | | One document (text) | 2 MB | | One PDF file | 5 MB, and the text extracted from it must also fit in 2 MB | | Documents in a workspace | 500 | | Documents one assistant uses | 50 | | Q&A in a workspace | 500 | | Question | 500 characters | | Answer | 4,000 characters | At a document limit you'll see "This is full: an assistant holds up to 50 documents, a workspace 500, and your own files 50. Remove one first." "Your own files" are the files you add to your own private assistants; see [Files only you can see](https://agentlab.cresclab.com/docs/en/studio/knowledge.md#personal-files). ## Q&A Q&A is for questions that must always get the same answer, such as a return window, opening hours or a pricing rule. 1. On the **Knowledge** page, find **Write a Q&A** in the **Q&A** section. 2. Fill in **Question**, phrased the way someone would actually ask it. 3. Fill in **Answer**, written the way the assistant should say it. 4. Choose **Who it is for** and select **Add Q&A**. Each entry shows who wrote it, who last edited it, and **Used by N assistants**. Select that chip to see which assistants. Use **Search questions and answers** to find an entry. Q&A and documents are used differently. A document goes through retrieval, and only the sections relevant to the question are used. A Q&A entry an assistant uses goes in front of the model on every reply, with no relevance contest. If one assistant uses more than 50 entries, each reply carries the 50 most relevant to the question. ## Audience: who can retrieve it Every document and Q&A entry has an audience, which decides whose questions the assistant can answer from it: - **Everyone in this workspace**: the default. Any member's question can draw on it. - **Only the teams I name**: only questions from members of the named teams can. When anyone else asks the same assistant, it answers as though the material isn't there. Workspace owners and admins can always retrieve everything, so they can audit what assistants read. If you choose **Only the teams I name** and name no team, only owners and admins can retrieve it, and the form warns you before you save. Create teams first under **Team & access**. If the workspace has no teams yet, the form says so. To change the audience of something already in the library: 1. Select **Everyone** or **Restricted** in the **Who can retrieve it** column of the documents table, or under the Q&A entry. 2. In the **Who can retrieve "…"?** dialog, change **Who it is for** and pick teams if needed. 3. Select **Save**. Only owners and admins can open this dialog. Other members just see the label. > [!NOTE] > The audience depends on who is asking, not on which assistant answers. The same assistant can draw on different material for different people. ## Use knowledge in an assistant Material in the library takes effect once you pick it in an assistant's settings. The **Data sources** section of an assistant's page has a **Knowledge base** part and a **Q&A** part: - **Documents**: pick one under **Use a document from the knowledge base** and select **Use it**. To stop, select **Stop using** on its row. You can also add a document right there with **Upload**: it goes into the library and this assistant uses it. - **Q&A**: pick one under **Pick a Q&A from the library** and select **Use it**. To stop, select **Stop using**. For the rest of an assistant's settings, see [Assistants](https://agentlab.cresclab.com/docs/en/studio/assistants.md). ### Retrieval test Below the assistant's **Knowledge base** part is **Retrieval test**. Enter what a user would ask in **A question to test** and select **Test**. It lists the sections and Q&A the assistant actually retrieves, in the order it reads them. This is the same retrieval a real reply runs. **Whose view** has two options: - **As me**: retrieves as you. Owners and admins can retrieve every restricted item, so you may see more than a colleague would. - **As someone Agent Lab cannot identify**: as a person who can't be matched to a member of the workspace. ## How assistants use knowledge On every reply, an assistant: 1. Retrieves the sections most relevant to the question from the documents it uses. 2. Adds the Q&A it uses (the 50 most relevant, if it uses more than 50). 3. Filters both by [audience](https://agentlab.cresclab.com/docs/en/studio/knowledge.md#audience), keeping only what the person asking can retrieve. Things to know: - Only documents with status **Ready** are retrieved. **Queued** and **Indexing** documents are not. - When the person asking is someone Agent Lab cannot identify, meaning they can't be matched to a member of this workspace, the assistant uses no documents and no Q&A. It answers from its instructions and skills alone. The retrieval test's **As someone Agent Lab cannot identify** option shows this. - If reading the knowledge fails, the reply still goes out, without the knowledge. ## Files only you can see Files you add to your own private assistant are visible only to you. They appear in the **Knowledge** documents table marked **Only you**. They don't count toward the workspace's 500 documents; they count toward your own 50. You can delete or retry them yourself without admin rights. Sharing that private assistant shares its files with whoever you share it with. ## Update and remove - **Update a document**: a document's content can't be edited after upload. To replace it, upload the new version, switch each assistant that uses the old one to the new one, then delete the old one. The **Used by** column shows which assistants to switch. - **Edit a Q&A entry**: select **Edit** under it, change it, and select **Save**. Every assistant that uses it gets the new answer right away. - **Delete a document**: select **Delete** on its row. The dialog lists the assistants that cite it; select **Delete document** to confirm. Those assistants can no longer cite it, and their existing conversations are unaffected. This can't be undone. - **Delete a Q&A entry**: select **Delete**. The dialog says how many assistants use it; select **Delete** to confirm. Uploads, attaching and detaching documents, and audience changes are recorded in the audit log under **Team & access**. ## Next - [Assistants](https://agentlab.cresclab.com/docs/en/studio/assistants.md): Create an assistant and choose its knowledge and skills. - [Skills](https://agentlab.cresclab.com/docs/en/studio/skills.md): Write down how work gets done, as skills assistants follow. - [Conversations](https://agentlab.cresclab.com/docs/en/studio/conversations.md): Use assistants in conversations.