Knowledge Base

What the Knowledge Base is

Every conversation you have with an agent starts fresh — but the things worth remembering shouldn't have to be re-explained every time. The Knowledge Base is how Obvious fixes that.

It's a persistent memory layer for your workspace. You add knowledge manually — preferences, decisions, processes, facts — and agents can draw on it during future sessions without you having to re-explain things.

Scopes: Personal, Team, and Workspace

Every item in the Knowledge Base has a scope that controls who can access it. The scope dropdown at the top of the Settings → Knowledge Base page lets you switch between views.

Workspace scope — Visible to all agents across your entire workspace. Use this for facts, preferences, and patterns that apply broadly to your organization. This is the default.

Team scope — Shared with members of a specific team. Agents working in sessions for any member of that team can retrieve it. Good for team-specific decisions, configurations, and processes. This option appears only if you belong to at least one team.

Personal scope — Private to you. Only agents working in your sessions can retrieve it. Useful for personal preferences and working styles that shouldn't affect other people's sessions.

Agents filter by scope at retrieval time, so the right knowledge surfaces in the right context automatically.

Managing your Knowledge Base

Your Knowledge Base lives in Settings → Knowledge Base. From there you can browse, create, and delete knowledge items across all three scopes.

The layout

The page uses a single-panel inbox-style layout. At the top, a scope dropdown lets you switch between Workspace, Team, and Personal views — Team scope appears if you're a member of at least one team. Below that, folders and items appear in a flat list. When you're inside a folder, a breadcrumb trail shows your current location and lets you navigate back up.

Selecting an item opens a file preview panel alongside the list. You can close the preview at any time to return to the full-width list.

Creating items

To add knowledge:

1. Open Settings → Knowledge Base.
2. Select the scope you want to add to using the dropdown at the top of the page.
3. Click Add to open the Add to Knowledge Base modal.
4. Choose a tab: Upload Files to drag and drop files or click to browse, or Text Document to give the item a name and write content in markdown.
5. Save the item.

Supported file types for uploads: .txt, .md, .pdf, .doc, .docx, .csv, .json, .xml, .html.

Creating folders

Folders keep items organized within each scope.

1. In the filter bar, click New Folder.
2. Give it a name that reflects a category (e.g., "preferences," "processes," "decisions").
3. Click Create.

Deleting items and folders

Hover over any item or folder to reveal the delete option. You can also right-click for a context menu. Deletion is immediate — there's no undo.

How agents use the Knowledge Base

Agents can search the Knowledge Base during a conversation when they need context. They only see items within the appropriate scope — Personal items stay private to you, Team items are shared with your team, and Workspace items are available to everyone.

The more specific and well-organized your entries, the more useful they are. Vague or outdated items don't surface reliably.

What's worth putting in the Knowledge Base

The Knowledge Base works best when it captures the things that would take time to explain again — and that a reasonable agent wouldn't already know from context.

Good candidates:

• Preferences — "Always use squash merges." "Summaries should be three bullets, not five."
• Facts — IDs, endpoint URLs, account numbers, the name of the person who owns a process.
• Decisions — "We decided to use X approach in April because Y. We're not revisiting this."
• Processes — Step-by-step workflows that work, especially ones that aren't obvious.
• Patterns — Approaches that apply across multiple situations.
• Failure modes — Things that look like they should work but don't. Gotchas. Workarounds.

Less useful: things that are obvious from context, things that change frequently, or general knowledge the agent already has.

If you have questions about the Knowledge Base, reach out to help@obvious.ai.