> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.serval.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Knowledge Base

> The knowledge the help desk agent searches and cites — synced from your documentation apps, ingested from any system, or authored in Serval

Your knowledge base is the information the help desk agent draws on to answer requests. When a user asks a question, the agent searches every knowledge source on the team, answers from the best matches, and cites its sources with links. It's also a browsable home for your team's documentation inside Serval.

<Info>
  Knowledge is **information** — policies, facts, and reference material. If you're telling the agent how to *behave*, that's a [Skill](/sections/documentation/skills-vs-knowledge).
</Info>

## When to use knowledge base

Knowledge base works best for information that already exists (or belongs) in written form:

| Scenario               | Why knowledge base works                          |
| :--------------------- | :------------------------------------------------ |
| **Company policies**   | Agent quotes directly from official documentation |
| **FAQs**               | Common questions get consistent, accurate answers |
| **Reference material** | Technical specs, contact lists, and lookup tables |
| **Onboarding info**    | Benefits, office locations, and team structures   |

***

## Three ways to get knowledge into Serval

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Connect to external sources" icon="plug" href="/sections/documentation/knowledge-base/connected-sources">
    Sync content from Notion, Confluence, Google Drive, Microsoft 365, ServiceNow, Zendesk, or Freshservice.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Build custom ingestion workflows" icon="gears" href="/sections/documentation/knowledge-base/custom-ingestion">
    Pull content from any API or internal system with a knowledge ingestion workflow.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Author knowledge in Serval" icon="pen-to-square" href="/sections/documentation/knowledge-base/authoring">
    Write knowledge directly in Serval with a block editor, drafts and publishing, version history, and access controls.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

| Path                                                                                     | Best for                                                                    | Content is…                               |
| :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------- |
| **[Connected source](/sections/documentation/knowledge-base/connected-sources)**         | Content that already lives in a supported documentation app                 | Synced read-only from the app             |
| **[Custom ingestion workflow](/sections/documentation/knowledge-base/custom-ingestion)** | APIs, internal wikis, or systems without a first-party connector            | Extracted by a workflow, synced read-only |
| **[Authored in Serval](/sections/documentation/knowledge-base/authoring)**               | Knowledge that doesn't live anywhere yet, or that you want to own in Serval | Written and edited in Serval              |

You can combine all three — multiple sources feed the same knowledge base, and the agent searches across everything.

***

## How the agent uses knowledge

Whatever the path, content flows through the same pipeline: Serval chunks each document, indexes it for semantic search, and searches it on every relevant request. Answers cite their sources — synced documents link back to the original app, pages authored in Serval deep-link straight to the page.

If internal sources can't answer, the agent may search the web as a last resort when **Help Desk Agent Web Search** is enabled in [Team settings](/sections/documentation/platform/team-settings#capabilities).

### Permission-respecting answers

The agent only surfaces content a user is allowed to see:

* **Connected sources** — Serval respects document permissions from the source app when the integration supports propagating access controls; see [Document permissions](/sections/documentation/knowledge-base/connected-sources#document-permissions).
* **Knowledge authored in Serval** — each page has a help-desk audience you control with access profiles; see [Access control](/sections/documentation/knowledge-base/authoring#access-control).

***

## Best practices

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Write clear titles" icon="heading">
    Help the agent match documents to questions. Use "Remote Work Policy 2025" not "Policy."
  </Card>

  <Card title="Structure for search" icon="magnifying-glass">
    Use headings that match how users ask. Put key info in the first paragraph of each section.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Include term variations" icon="list">
    Add synonyms users might search: "PTO," "paid time off," and "vacation days" in the same doc.
  </Card>

  <Card title="One topic per doc" icon="file">
    Focused documents perform better than 50-page handbooks. Split by policy or topic.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Keep content current" icon="arrows-rotate">
    Review quarterly and after policy changes. Outdated answers erode trust.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Know what belongs elsewhere" icon="arrow-right-arrow-left">
    Use workflows for automated actions, skills for troubleshooting, access requests for provisioning.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>