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

# Custom knowledge

> Upload or write reference material the agent can search and cite — organized in collections.

# Custom knowledge

Custom knowledge is reference material you give an agent directly — policy
documents, how-to guides, FAQs, recordings — organized into **collections** the
agent can search and cite in its answers. It complements
[integrations](/integrations/overview): integrations reach live systems;
custom knowledge covers the documents that don't live anywhere the agent can
already search.

Knowledge is **per agent**: each agent has its own collections, on its
**Capabilities → Knowledge** tab.

## Collections

A collection is a named group of items with a shared purpose ("HR policies",
"IT runbooks"). Create one with a name and optional description.

Two switches control what the agent actually sees:

1. **The collection's Active switch** — collections start **inactive** (draft),
   so you can assemble and review content before any of it goes live.
2. **Each item's Active toggle** — new items also arrive inactive.

An item is searchable only when **both** are on; the page shows a "Live to
agent" / "Draft — hidden" pill so there's never doubt about what's visible.

## Adding content

Two ways to add items:

* **Upload files** — drag and drop PDF, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, and audio or video
  files (MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4, MOV, WebM), up to **200 MB** each. Embedded images
  and audio are extracted automatically, so a slide deck's figures or a
  recording's speech become searchable too. Uploads process in the background —
  you don't have to keep the tab open — through extraction, chunking, and
  embedding, with a live status on each item (and clear failure states if a
  file has no extractable text).
* **Write a document** — author Markdown directly in the console. Authored
  items can be reopened and edited any time.

The corpus table shows every item with its type, size, status, and toggles;
bulk-select to activate, deactivate, or delete many at once. A search bar above
the collections searches the corpus itself — useful for checking what an upload
actually contains.

## Citable vs. background

Each item is either:

* **Citable** — the agent can quote it and shows it as a source (a citation
  chip / source card in the answer, including timestamped links into audio and
  video).
* **Background** — the agent can use it to inform an answer but never quotes or
  cites it. Useful for internal context you want reflected but not surfaced.

Set a per-collection default for new items, and override per item.

## How the agent uses it

When a question touches your material, the agent searches the active corpus
(combining keyword and semantic matching), reads the most relevant passages,
and — for citable items — attaches numbered citations the user can open. If a
snippet isn't enough it can read the full document, and it can pull up embedded
media (an image from a PDF, a moment in a video) when that's the real answer.

## Indexing integration content

Custom knowledge is for material you upload. To make an integration's own
content searchable — SharePoint sites, Confluence spaces, a knowledge base —
use the integration's **Index** tab instead: indexed content is searched
together with the live system and every result is permission-checked against
the source as the asking user, so nobody sees a document they couldn't open
themselves. Each indexed resource shows its sync status, schedule, and history,
with sync-now, pause, and disable controls.

## Related

* [Capabilities overview](/build-agent/capabilities-overview) — where knowledge
  fits among integrations and skillsets.
* [Integrations overview](/integrations/overview) — reaching live systems.