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If your documentation already lives in a supported app, connect it as a knowledge source. Serval syncs the content read-only, keeps it up to date automatically, and the help desk agent searches and cites it — linking users back to the original document.

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Supported sources

Box syncs text documents (Markdown, plain text, reStructuredText, AsciiDoc) plus PDF, Word, and PowerPoint files from the folders you select — nothing is crawled until a folder is explicitly chosen. Selecting a folder makes its contents searchable by the whole team, so treat selection as a sharing decision; Box folder permissions are not yet mirrored per document.GitHub syncs documentation files, not source code. Serval reads the default branch of each repository you select and ingests text formats — .md, .mdx, .markdown, .rst, .adoc, .asciidoc, .txt, .textile, and .org — up to 1 MB each. It skips vendored and generated directories (node_modules, vendor, dist, build, testdata) and dot-directories such as .github.
Content in a system that isn’t listed here? If it has an API, you can still bring it in — see Building Custom Ingestion Workflows.

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Setting up a connected source

1

Connect the app integration to your team

Before you can sync content, the documentation app must be installed as an integration on your team.
  1. In Serval, go to Teams and select your team
  2. Navigate to Integrations → All integrations
  3. Find the app you want to use (for example, Confluence, Notion, or Google Drive) and click Connect
  4. Complete the authorization flow - this typically involves signing in to the app and granting Serval access
For detailed setup instructions, see the integration guide for your app: Notion, Confluence, Google Drive, Microsoft 365, or the full Integrations overview.
You only need to connect each app once per team. If a teammate has already connected the app, you can skip this step.
2

Add the app as a knowledge source

Once the app is connected, add it to your knowledge base:
  1. In the sidebar, open Knowledge and select the Knowledge Sources tab
  2. Click Manage Sources to open the Manage knowledge sources dialog
  3. On the Available tab, find the app and click Connect (already-connected apps appear on the Connected tab)
  4. On the Connected tab, click Choose items to sync for the app and select the folders, spaces, or pages to include
Only sync documentation you want the help desk agent to reference. Exclude drafts, internal notes, or outdated content.
3

Test with sample questions

Before going live, verify the agent finds the right answers:
  1. Open a test ticket or use the Serval chat
  2. Ask questions your users would ask (for example, “What is our PTO policy?”)
  3. Confirm the agent returns accurate answers with links to the source document
  4. Adjust synced content or filters if answers are missing or incorrect
4

Go live

Once testing confirms accurate responses, your knowledge base is ready. The agent searches it automatically when users submit help desk requests.

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Document permissions

Serval respects document permissions from the source app when the integration supports propagating access controls (Google Drive, Confluence, ServiceNow, Zendesk, and GitHub, among others). The agent only surfaces a document to a user who is allowed to see it in the source system. For GitHub, a public repository’s files are readable by everyone on the team. A private or internal repository’s files are readable only by the members of the GitHub teams that hold access to that repository, and by collaborators Serval can match to a Serval user. If Serval cannot resolve who may read a private repository, it hides that repository’s content rather than exposing it.

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Managing connected sources

The Knowledge Sources tab in the sidebar gives you a centralized view of every knowledge source. From here you can:
  • View all sources - Connected apps, custom ingestion sources, and published Serval-authored content in one place
  • Filter by sync status - Find sources that are syncing, up to date, or in an error state
  • Trigger manual syncs - Run an immediate sync instead of waiting for the next scheduled run (connected sources automatically sync every four hours)
  • Cancel an in-progress sync - Stop a sync run that’s currently in progress
  • Pause and resume syncing - Pause a source to stop the current run and hold all scheduled syncs until you resume it
If a sync finishes but couldn’t reach part of a source (often because the connected account hit a rate limit or lacks access to some of the content), that source shows a Some content isn’t searchable yet warning. The sync still succeeded, and everything it reached is searchable. A later sync picks up the rest.
When the connected service permanently refuses access to specific locations (for example, a SharePoint site or Confluence space an administrator has restricted), the source shows a cannot be reached warning that names those locations, such as 2 sites, 1 folder cannot be reached. This won’t clear on its own: to include that content in search, an administrator of the connected service needs to restore Serval’s access.

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Toggle visibility

Control whether each synced document is available to the help desk agent: How to toggle visibility:
  1. Open the Knowledge Sources tab in the sidebar
  2. Click Manage Sources
  3. On the integrated app, click Choose items to sync
  4. Check the sources you want the agent to reference and uncheck the ones you want to hide
This does not remove the sync connection - hidden documents stay synced but are excluded from agent responses. When to hide documents:
  • Seasonal content outside of relevant periods
  • Drafts under review that are not ready for users
  • Deprecated policies you want to keep but not cite
For pages authored in Serval, use the draft/publish model instead — unpublished pages are never searched by the agent. See Drafts, publishing, and versions.

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Review regularly

Outdated information erodes trust. Review knowledge base documents:
  • Quarterly for general accuracy
  • Immediately after major policy changes
  • When users report incorrect answers

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Learn more