What to put in your AI agent's knowledge base, and what to leave out
An AI agent is only as good as what it has been given to read. Give it your whole website including the blog and it drowns in noise; give it nothing and it answers every question with "let me check". The right knowledge base is small, specific and current. Here is what goes in, in what form, and what stays out.
Quick answer
Start with your website's services, prices, FAQ, about and contact pages, add your price list and any policy documents as PDFs, then write plain text for everything a new employee would be told on day one but that is not written anywhere. Add taught answers as customers ask new questions. Leave out marketing fluff, internal documents, personal data and anything you would not want quoted back to a customer.
How the agent uses knowledge
Retrieval-based agents like ReplyKit do not memorise your documents. On every message they search the knowledge base for the few passages most relevant to what the customer just asked, and answer from those. Two consequences follow. First, clarity beats volume: one clean price list outperforms twelve pages that mention prices in passing. Second, the agent only knows what is written. If your parking arrangement lives in the receptionist's head, the agent cannot answer it. ReplyKit also tells you: every question it could not answer from knowledge appears in an unanswered-questions list, and you can teach the answer in a click.
The four sources and what each is for
Website crawl
Best for services, prices, about, contact and FAQ pages. ReplyKit reads up to 100 pages, follows links two levels deep, reads useful pages first and blog posts last, and skips login, cart and legal pages. After a crawl you see the page list and can remove any page that adds noise.
PDFs
Best for price lists, menus, timetables, brochures and policy documents. Upload the current version; when it changes, upload the new one and delete the old. Scanned image-only PDFs have no text to read, so export them again with text.
Plain text
Best for the unwritten rules: parking, deposits, what to bring, who does what, holiday hours, "we do not do X". Write it the way you would brief a new hire. Short headed paragraphs work better than one long block.
Taught answers
Best for the long tail. When the agent could not answer something, the question appears in the unanswered list. Type the answer once and it is knowledge from then on. Review the list weekly for the first month, then monthly.
The day-one checklist
- Services, what each includes, and who it is for.
- Prices, packages, deposits, and what is not included.
- Hours, public holidays, and any seasonal changes.
- Location, landmarks, parking, public transport.
- How to book, cancel and reschedule, and the fees for late changes.
- Preparation and what to bring.
- The ten questions you are most tired of answering, with the answers you give.
- The things you do not do, so the agent can say so instead of improvising.
- Team names and roles, if customers ask for people by name.
- Payment methods and delivery or collection options.
If your website already covers half of these, the crawl handles it. Write the other half as plain text; it usually takes twenty minutes and it is the highest-value twenty minutes of the setup.
What should never go in
- Personal data about customers or staff. Under Malaysia's PDPA you must have a lawful basis for processing it, and a customer-facing agent has no need for it.
- Internal documents: staff handbooks, supplier prices, margins. Anything in the knowledge base can, in principle, be quoted to a customer.
- Marketing copy full of superlatives. It teaches the agent to make claims. Facts only.
- Outdated versions. Two price lists in the knowledge base means the agent may quote either. Delete the old one the day you upload the new one.
- Clinical, legal or financial advice. Front-desk facts are fine; guidelines are not, because the agent cannot judge when to stop. Our Acceptable Use Policy and the instructions you write should keep regulated advice with a professional.
- Other people's content you have no right to use.
Keeping it current
A knowledge base decays. Prices change, a stylist leaves, holiday hours arrive. Three habits keep it honest: re-crawl the website after you change it, replace PDFs rather than adding to them, and check the unanswered-questions list on a schedule. In ReplyKit, each WhatsApp agent and each website assistant has its own knowledge base, so a branch or a product line can be updated without touching the others. The test chat lets you ask the new question yourself before a customer does.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages should I crawl?
As many as are useful, up to 100. ReplyKit reads services, prices, FAQ, about and contact pages first and blog posts last, and shows you the page list so you can remove noise.
Does the agent read scanned PDFs?
Only PDFs with real text. A scanned image has no text to read; export the document again with text, or paste the content as plain text.
What happens when a customer asks something not in the knowledge base?
The agent says it is not sure and offers a handover, and the question is added to the unanswered list so you can teach the answer once.
Can I keep separate knowledge for different agents?
Yes. Each WhatsApp agent and each website assistant in ReplyKit has its own knowledge base and instructions; nothing is shared between them unless you upload it to both.
Is my knowledge base used to train AI models?
No. Your content is used to answer your customers and is not used to train shared models. See the privacy policy for the providers involved.
Paste your website and see what it learned
The page list shows exactly what was read. The test chat shows what it answers. 7-day free trial.
Sources and further reading
- Personal Data Protection Department, Malaysia (PDPA 2010)
- ReplyKit Acceptable Use Policy · what we refuse to automate
- ReplyKit Privacy Policy · how customer content is processed and which providers see it
ReplyKit is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Meta or WhatsApp. This article is general guidance for running a small business, not legal, financial or regulatory advice.