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You can author knowledge bases directly in Serval — no external wiki required. You write pages in a rich block editor, publish them when they’re ready, and the help desk agent searches and cites them like any other knowledge source. Knowledge bases you author live in the Knowledge Bases tab of the Knowledge section, alongside the Knowledge Sources tab that manages synced content.
Knowledge bases are in beta.

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Creating a knowledge base

  1. In the sidebar, open Knowledge, then select the Knowledge Bases tab
  2. Click New knowledge base and give it a name (for example, “IT Handbook”)
  3. Add pages and folders to build out your content
Each knowledge base has a name and an icon you can customize. Your team can create as many knowledge bases as it needs — for example, one per department or per topic area.

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Pages and folders

Content is organized as a tree:
  • Pages are documents you write in the block editor. Pages can nest under other pages, so a page is also a container for its children.
  • Folders are pure grouping containers for pages.
Drag items in the sidebar to reorder or move them.

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Copy an external page into a knowledge base

To turn read-only synced content into a page you can edit, open a page (or folder) under External Connections in the sidebar and choose Copy to Serval. Pick which authored knowledge base the editable copy should live in. Copying a folder brings everything inside it, and the original stays connected to its source, so the synced version keeps updating alongside your editable copy. Copies can only land in a knowledge base you author in Serval, not in another connected source’s tree.

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Writing content

Pages use a block editor with the formatting you’d expect from a modern wiki:
  • Paragraphs and headings (H1–H3)
  • Bulleted, numbered, and checklists
  • Quotes, code blocks, and dividers
  • Tables
  • Images — paste, drag-and-drop, resize, and caption
Two inline shortcuts speed up writing:
  • Type [[ to link to another page in the same knowledge base
  • Type @ to mention a teammate
Everything autosaves as you type — a “Saving…” indicator appears while a write is in flight.

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Drafts, publishing, and versions

Pages follow a draft → publish model:
  • Every page starts as a draft. Only published pages are indexed for agent retrieval — you can iterate freely without half-finished content reaching users.
  • Clicking Publish (or Publish changes) snapshots the current content as a new version. The version pill in the header (for example, v3) shows a green dot when the live version is published and current, and an amber dot when there are unpublished changes.
  • Version history shows the timeline of published revisions — autosaves don’t create versions, so history stays meaningful.
  • Restore a previous version from version history: Serval brings it back as a draft, so you can review it and publish to make it live.
  • Unpublish retracts a page: the agent stops searching it and read-only viewers lose access.
After you publish, an indexing status badge shows where the page is in the search pipeline: Synced & searchable, Indexing, or Index failed (with a retry option for publishers).

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Organizing and finding content

  • Search — full-text search across pages from the sidebar
  • Favorites — star pages for yourself; favorites are personal
  • Pinned — pin pages for the whole team; everyone sees the same pinned set
  • Archive — archiving moves a page to Trash, where it can be restored; deleting is permanent
Pages also support duplicate, move (to another parent or knowledge base), and copy link from the page actions menu.

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Access control

Knowledge bases authored in Serval have two independent layers of access control:
Workspace access controls who can view and edit pages inside Serval. Help desk audience controls who the agent surfaces a page to when answering requests.

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Workspace access

Team roles govern who can view, create, edit, publish, archive, and delete authored knowledge content. Members with read-only access see published pages with a read-only banner — they never see drafts or version history.

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Help desk audience

Each page has a Visibility control (“Who can find this in the help desk”) that scopes which users the agent will surface the page to:
  • Leave it empty for anyone in the org
  • Select access profiles to restrict the audience
Child pages inherit their parent’s audience automatically. Restricting the help desk audience does not change who can view or edit the page in the workspace — the two layers are separate.

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AI-context-only knowledge bases

A knowledge base can be marked AI context only: its content is indexed for agent retrieval but hidden from human-facing surfaces. Use this for internal reference material the agent should know without exposing it as browsable documentation.

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How the agent uses authored knowledge

When a user submits a request, the help desk agent searches your published pages together with all other knowledge sources. Answers cite the page with a View in Serval link that deep-links straight to it.

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Learn more