# Knowledge Base

URL: https://docs.assistantcore.com/en/knowledge-base

What the knowledge base is, how your assistant searches it when answering, and who can add documents.



The knowledge base holds the documents your assistant answers from: product sheets, FAQs, policies, price lists, help-center pages. When a question needs them, the assistant searches the knowledge base and answers from the passages it finds.

## How the assistant uses it [#how-the-assistant-uses-it]

<Mermaid
  chart="`graph LR
  A[&#x22;Owner or Admin adds a document&#x22;] --> B[&#x22;Text is extracted and split into passages&#x22;]
  B --> C[&#x22;Knowledge Base&#x22;]
  D[&#x22;User asks a question&#x22;] --> E[&#x22;Assistant searches the knowledge base&#x22;]
  C --> E
  E --> F[&#x22;Answer based on the passages found&#x22;]`"
/>

* Documents belong to the assistant, so every user and every channel (Web App, Web Widget, Messaging, devices, Developer API) uses the same knowledge base.
* The assistant searches only when it decides a question needs your documents. It can search by meaning, list the documents, or find a document by name.
* Searching uses the built-in `knowledge_base` tool. If that tool is turned off in **Tools**, the assistant cannot read your documents. See [Built-in tools](/en/tools-mcp/built-in-tools).

## Who can manage it [#who-can-manage-it]

| Task                                      | Who                                      |
| ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Upload, download, and delete documents    | Assistant Owner and Admin                |
| Ask questions answered from the documents | Everyone who can chat with the assistant |

The number of documents an assistant can hold depends on the owner's plan. See [Plans and pricing](/en/billing/plans-pricing). Reading and indexing a document uses credits; see [Credits](/en/billing/credits).

## Ways to add knowledge [#ways-to-add-knowledge]

| Source                                                  | Where                                                                                                                                          |
| ------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Files (PDF, Word, Excel, and more)                      | **Knowledge Base** in the Admin Panel                                                                                                          |
| A web page, a file link, or up to 20 pages of a website | **Knowledge Base → Add web page** in the Admin Panel, or [Assistant Core MCP](/en/assistant-core-mcp) from an AI app such as Claude or ChatGPT |
| Text you paste                                          | Assistant Core MCP                                                                                                                             |

<Cards>
  <Card title="Upload documents" description="Supported files, limits, and how to update a document." href="/en/knowledge-base/upload-documents" />

  <Card title="Add web pages" description="Add a page or crawl a website into the knowledge base." href="/en/knowledge-base/web-crawling" />

  <Card title="Best practices" description="Prepare documents so the assistant finds the right answer." href="/en/knowledge-base/best-practices" />
</Cards>