Knowledge bases: uploading and managing documents

The knowledge library holds the reference documents your workspace has uploaded: policies, product sheets, handbooks and similar material. A knowledge base is a named group of those documents. You attach a knowledge base, or single documents, to a simulation or coach so that it answers from your material. This page covers the library itself: uploading, statuses, limits, and organizing and deleting. Attaching knowledge is covered in Grounding simulations and coaches in a knowledge base.

Before you start

• The library is available on the Core, Team, Enterprise plans. On other plans the Knowledge tab shows a message that starts with "Knowledge bases are available on" and names the plan, with an upgrade button, and uploads are refused.
• Every member of the workspace can upload, organize and delete. None of the actions on this page needs the owner or admin role.
• The library belongs to the active workspace. Switching workspace shows that workspace's knowledge bases and documents.
• A document is stored once and can sit in several knowledge bases, or in none. Documents in no knowledge base are listed under Unfiled documents.

Steps

1. Open Studio → Knowledge.
2. Select + Create Knowledge Base, type a name, and select Create. The name can be up to 120 characters. (The Create button at the top of Studio also offers Knowledge base as a type.)
3. Select the new knowledge base to expand it. Under Add documents to this knowledge base, drop files on the area that reads "Drag files here, or choose files", or select it to pick files. You can add up to 20 files at a time.
4. Wait while each file shows "Uploading…" and then "Reading…". The document appears in the knowledge base with a status badge, and the list refreshes on its own while documents are being processed.
5. When the badge reads Ready, the document has been processed. Attach the knowledge base to a simulation or coach as described in Grounding simulations and coaches in a knowledge base.

To upload without choosing a knowledge base, use Add documents under Unfiled documents. You can file the document later.

Result

The knowledge base lists its documents with a count under its name, and each document shows its status. A longer document also shows a line about its summary under its title, described in Summaries on document rows below. The line at the top of the tab shows how much of your plan's allowance the workspace is using.

What you can upload

• The file picker accepts PDF, Word (.docx), PowerPoint (.pptx), Excel (.xlsx), plain text (.txt), Markdown (.md) and HTML (.html, .htm) files.
• Text is extracted from the file. A PDF needs selectable text: a scanned PDF with no text layer ends as Unsupported.
• For an Excel file, at most the first 500 rows and 30 columns of each sheet are read.
• Select or add a link to read a public web page into the library instead of a file. Pages behind a sign-in cannot be read. Links are explained in Source materials.
• The document's title is the file name. The library has no control for renaming a document or downloading the original file.
• A source you added while creating a simulation or coach and chose to save to the library also appears here.

Files go from your browser straight to storage, so large files upload without passing through the page. Keep the tab open until the row leaves "Uploading…".

Uploading the same file twice

devlin.ai recognizes a file by its content, not its name. When you upload a file whose content is already in the workspace:

• No second copy is stored and the existing document is used. It is not indexed again. An older document that has never been summarized can be read again at this point. If it is in the middle size range it is then summarized, which uses credits. If it is very large, its row then offers Summarize, and nothing is charged unless you select it.
• If you uploaded it into a knowledge base, the existing document is added to that knowledge base.
• If the existing document is Failed or Unsupported, uploading the file again runs processing again. This is how you retry a failed document.
• A file you upload here is a library document for good. When you later add the same file while creating a simulation or coach, it reads In library there and cannot be set to This build only.

Processing statuses

Some failures are retried automatically a limited number of times, so a Failed document can become Ready later without any action. Unsupported is a final result for that file: upload a corrected version.

A Queued document whose badge shows a note on hover has reached the workspace's daily processing limit. Each plan has a limit on how much text is processed per day. The document is not lost: processing resumes after midnight UTC. A document that was already partly indexed stays at Embedding until then. Deleting documents does not give back that day's allowance.

Summaries on document rows

Longer documents are summarized so that a simulation or coach draft can be built from them. Source materials explains the size groups and what a draft receives. In the library, a document in the middle or the largest size group shows a line under its title once it is Ready. Shorter documents show no such line.

A very large document added before these summaries were available, with no summary and no offer on its row, gets its offer when its row is shown in the library. The estimate and the Summarize button can take a moment to appear after the tab loads. Nothing is charged for this.

A document in the middle size group is summarized automatically. A very large document is summarized only when you select Summarize. Starting it needs more credits available than the estimate, because the most the summary could cost is set aside while it runs. You are charged only for what it uses. If a message appears above the list after you select the button, it gives the reason the summary did not start, for example a message that starts with "Summarizing this source needs" when the workspace is short of credits.

Failed and unsupported documents

The reason is shown when you hover over the badge. These are the most common messages and what to do:

A file can also be refused during upload. The reason then appears on the file's row in the upload area, not on a badge:

• A message that starts with "File exceeds the" means the file is over your plan's size limit for one file.
• "This file is larger than the maximum upload size." means storage rejected the file as too large.
• "That file is empty." means the file has no content.
• A message that starts with "Your account has reached its" means the library is at its document limit.
• A message that starts with "This upload would exceed your account's" means the library is at its storage limit. On this tab a full library always refuses the upload. Only the simulation and coach create forms add the source for that build instead, as Source materials explains.
• A message that starts with "This knowledge base is at its" means the knowledge base you uploaded into is full. Nothing is added to the library. Make room in the knowledge base, or choose another one, and upload the file again.
• "Too many uploads. Please slow down." means you added many files in a short time. Wait, then add the rest.

A refused file's row stays in the upload area with its reason until you remove the row or add more files. Rows for files that uploaded clear on their own once every file in the batch has finished, because those documents are then in the list.

Limits and the usage line

The line at the top of the tab reads, for example, how many documents out of your allowance, roughly how many pages, and how many GB the workspace stores. The limits depend on the plan:

• These are totals for what the workspace currently stores, not monthly allowances. Deleting a document frees its share at once.
• The document and storage figures count library documents, including unfiled ones.
• The pages figure is an estimate worked out from the amount of text in every source that has finished processing. Unlike the other two figures, it also counts sources that were added for a build and not saved to the library, until those expire. It is not a count of real pages.
• The limit on documents in one knowledge base is checked when you upload a file or add a link into that knowledge base, and when you add or move a document into it. A document that is already in the knowledge base does not count again.

Does processing cost credits?

Uploading and processing a document does not use credits. Two things related to documents do:

• Simulation and coach turns cost more when knowledge is attached. See Grounding simulations and coaches in a knowledge base and Credits, usage and low-credit alerts.
• A document in a middle size range is also summarized automatically once it is Ready, and that summary is charged credits. This happens for library uploads too. If the workspace does not have enough credits, the summary is skipped and the document stays Ready.
• A very large document is not summarized automatically. Its row shows an estimate and a Summarize button, and credits are used only if you select it. Summaries are explained in Source materials.

Organize documents

Each document row has these controls:

• Move to… moves the document from this knowledge base to another one.
• Also add to… keeps it here and adds it to another knowledge base as well. On an unfiled document the menu reads Add to….
• Remove takes the document out of this knowledge base. If the document is in another knowledge base, or something has it attached directly, it is removed straight away with no confirmation. If this is its only knowledge base and nothing has it attached directly, a dialog offers Keep in library (the document becomes unfiled and still counts toward your limits) or Delete document.
• Delete deletes the document everywhere, as described below.

The move and add menus appear only when there is another knowledge base to choose. If the knowledge base you choose is full, the document is not added or moved, and a message that starts with "This knowledge base is at its" appears above the list.

Rename a knowledge base

Select Rename on the knowledge base, change the name, and select Save. Renaming changes nothing for the simulations and coaches that use it.

A knowledge base also has an optional description of up to 2,000 characters. The app has no field for it. An AI tool connected over MCP can set it, as described below.

Delete a document

Select Delete on the document's row. The dialog tells you how many knowledge bases the document is in and how many places use it, and lists the simulations, coaches and evaluators that use it by name under "Used by:" (the first of them when there are many). Select Delete document to confirm.

• The file, its extracted text and its search index are deleted permanently. There is no undo.
• The document is removed from every knowledge base it was in.
• Simulations, coaches and evaluators that used it no longer have it.
• Its share of the document and storage limits is freed.

Delete a knowledge base

Select Delete on the knowledge base and confirm the prompt "Delete this knowledge base? Documents stay in your library; only this collection is removed."

• The documents are not deleted. A document that was only in this knowledge base becomes unfiled.
• Every simulation, coach and evaluator that had this knowledge base attached loses it. The prompt does not list them, so check before you delete. Documents that were attached to them individually stay attached.
• There is no undo. To restore it, create a new knowledge base, add the documents again, and attach it again.

If the workspace leaves the plan

When a workspace moves off the Core, Team, Enterprise plans, the Knowledge tab shows the upgrade message instead of the library, and the documents and the knowledge bases are permanently deleted after 30 days unless the workspace returns to one of those plans first. The details are in Change or cancel a subscription.

AI tools over MCP

An AI tool connected through the MCP server can manage knowledge bases. The workspace must be on the Core, Team, Enterprise plans for the tools that change something.

• get_kb_status lets the tool list the workspace's knowledge bases with, for each, how many documents it holds and how many are ready, still processing, or failed (unsupported documents count as failed). It needs read access only. The other four tools need write access.
• create_knowledge_base lets the tool create an empty knowledge base with a name and an optional description. It applies at once.
• rename_knowledge_base lets the tool change a knowledge base's name, its description, or both. An empty description clears it. It applies at once.
• remove_kb_document lets the tool take one document out of a knowledge base. The document stays in the library. The tool has to confirm the call explicitly, and when the workspace requires approval for live changes the removal waits for an owner or admin to approve it.
• delete_knowledge_base lets the tool delete a knowledge base permanently, with the same effects as deleting it in the app. It also needs explicit confirmation and waits for approval when the workspace requires it.

None of these tools uploads a file. Upload documents in the app, or see Source materials for adding sources through an AI tool. The description a tool sets is returned to the tool when it creates or renames the knowledge base. It is not part of what get_kb_status returns.

Related

• Grounding simulations and coaches in a knowledge base
• Source materials
• Plans and features
• Change or cancel a subscription
• Credits, usage and low-credit alerts
• MCP server and AI tool connectors