Overview
The Knowledge Base, integral to BoltAI, is divided into two distinct repositories: public and private. As you contribute various sources of knowledge, the Knowledge Base expands, directly enhancing BoltAI's capabilities. The richness and quality of the information added are pivotal in maximizing the effectiveness of BoltAI's tools.
Public vs. Private
Public Repository
This repository is utilized by both BoltBot and Copilot.
BoltBot: It learns from this repository to deliver round-the-clock support to students and families, becoming more adept at handling a wide range of student inquiries and engaging in more natural conversations.
Copilot: It taps into this repository for assistance in creating and writing content, such as campaigns and pages.
Private Repository
Exclusive to Copilot, this repository is a specialized, secure, and tailored resource designed to meet the unique needs of your institution. It significantly enhances Copilot's functionality, making it a powerful tool for your internal users.
Tailored Information Access: The private repository allows for the inclusion of information specific to the departments/teams using Element451, such as internal policies and processes.
Enhanced Efficiency: By providing quick and accurate responses to specialized queries, the private repository cuts down the time staff spend searching for information, thereby boosting productivity.
Consistency in Information: With a centralized private repository, you ensure that all staff have access to the same information, leading to consistent responses and policies across the institution.
Continuous Improvement: The private repository evolves into a dynamic repository of institutional knowledge as it is utilized and expanded, thereby continually enhancing Copilot's effectiveness.
📙 Note: The information added to your knowledge base should be factual, clear, and from authoritative sources of truth. Our website loader (more on that below) makes capturing lots of information at once easy, but be sure you are only capturing correct and relevant information.
Adding Knowledge Sources
Navigate to Data + Automations > Knowledge.
Select Public or Private from the left menu to add a source to the appropriate repository.
Click on + New Source in the header.
Add a title to the source at the top of the dialogue box.
💡Pro Tip: Give each Knowledge source a meaningful title, whether added as text or content from a URL/website. Not only does this assist human staff with maintaining your school's knowledge, but it also helps BoltAI identify the best content to use when assisting you or your students.
Select the type of source.
You can optionally tag a Knowledge Source with one or more categories to help organize your knowledge.
Once you've completed the fields for your Source, click Save.
After you add a knowledge base article, Element will take a few minutes to "learn" the information, which will become available when prompted on Conversations.
💡 Pro Tip: Though machine learning can parse dense blocks of text, you may want to make it legible so a human editor can maintain it. Additionally, you should regularly review the content in this section for accuracy, as important deadlines and other information may change over time.
Viewing + Editing Knowledge Sources
Navigate to Data + Automations > Knowledge and select the appropriate repository from the left menu to view or edit a source.
In the Knowledge Base module, a list of your sources is provided in a table format, displaying the following information:
Title: The title of your source
Type: The type of your source (Text, URL, Website, or Custom Answers)
Categories: The assigned categories of your source
State: The current learning state of the source
Learning: The source is in the process of being learned by BoltBot.
Learned: The learning process has been completed by BoltBot.
Failed to learn: There was an error with the learning process by BoltBot. Note: This may happen with websites outside your domain with protective firewalls preventing us from collecting and learning the information. If this happens, you can click the three vertical dots to open the menu and delete this source.
Description: The description of your source.
To edit a source:
Locate the source you wish to edit.
Click the more icon (three vertical dots) to the right of the source description.
Select Edit.
In this menu, you can also:
Learn: Manually force BoltBot to re-learn the source
Preview: Take a quick glance at the source's information
Delete: Permanently remove the source from the knowledge base
Types of Sources
Text: Knowledge can be added to the text box. When copying and pasting text, there are a few things to remember:
Text does not retain any rich formatting (such as links, bold, styles, etc.)
When pasting in data from a table or similar source, be sure it is clear which data relates to what other data.
URL: Add knowledge from a single webpage via the URL option. Simply add the URL (including the protocol, such as https://)
📙 Note: When you add a URL source, BoltBot reads and learns the content but will not return the actual URL as the answer. If you want BoltBot to return a URL for an answer, we suggest adding a Text source with relevant links.
Website: Add knowledge from a collection of URLs. The URL you select should point to a main page/directory folder. Using the main page URL, our website loader generates a sitemap. You can then select multiple pages to teach BoltBot. This allows broader website knowledge.
In order to load Websites the selected website must have a sitemap.xml entry to provide the content of the website to the Knowledge Base.
We recommend keeping individual Website Knowledge sources to 20-30 pages.
📙 Note: For both URL and Website types, BoltBot will relearn your URL daily to capture any website updates if the ‘Daily Sync’ option is enabled; otherwise, it will sync only once during load.
File Upload: Directly upload files with any of the following formats to the Knowledge Base: .eml, .html, .json, .md, .msg, .rst, .rtf, .txt, .xml, .jpeg, .png, .csv, .doc, .docx, .epub, .odt, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .tsv, .xlsx.
📙 Note: When using the File Upload type, if the upload fails on a PDF file, it could be because it is too large and complex. We suggest trying a smaller file or, if you have one available, upload the .doc or .docx version.
Custom Answers
Create predetermined question-and-answer pairs for your most frequently asked and important questions. BoltBot + Copilot will prioritize custom answers before creating its response from other Knowledge Base sources.
To add a new custom answer or group of customer answers, click the + sign.
💡Pro Tip: You do not need to add each custom answer as a separate source. Once the side sheet opens after clicking the + sign, you can add as many relevant questions and answers to this "group" as you would like.
Give this source a title at the top of the page. For example, if you add questions about the application process, you can title it "application process."
Type your question (e.g., How do I apply?)
Type your answer (e.g., You can apply to Training University by completing a common application or using the TU application at apply.training.edu.)
You can add additional Q&A pairs to this "group" of custom answers by clicking the + sign again, or if you are finished, click Save.
Importing and Downloading Custom Answers:
You can import an existing list of questions and answers via CSV file. Click the upload button and attach your file (it must contain two columns: question and answer). If you are editing an existing group of custom answers, importing a CSV file will overwrite the current data with the questions and answers from the imported file.
To export or download this group of custom answers, click the download button to initiate a CSV file download.
If you need to update an existing group of custom answers, we recommend using the download feature, editing the CSV provided, saving your changes, and importing the CSV back into Element451.
📙 Note: While custom answers will be prioritized before other knowledge, BoltBot may paraphrase the response when appropriate. BoltBot may also provide additional information from other relevant knowledge sources.
FAQ + Troubleshooting
Best Practice: Follow the 3 C's
Curated knowledge is the best knowledge. The large language models that power BoltBot and Copilot are reasoning engines. While LLMs can utilize a large volume of content when responding, following the three C's will provide the best results.
Curated: Use knowlege sources you know is relevant and correct.
Concise: Don't use 10 words when 5 will do. BoltBot and Copilot can take those facts and make them conversational.
Clear: Ensure knowledge well written to convey its meaning and conflicting information is not provided.
Following the 3 C's (good for bots and poeple alike) will ensure that your new AI-powered team members provide the best results and answer possible.
I want to get up and running fast! Can I index my entire .edu site using a single website knowledge source?
I want to get up and running fast! Can I index my entire .edu site using a single website knowledge source?
It's important to note that having accurate and up-to-date information in your knowledge base. While it is technically possible to index entire websites (although larger sites may reach our rate limit), there are downsides to this approach. One of these is that many college and university websites suffer from outdated or contradictory information being listed on different pages. By adding an entire site, we may inadvertently include information that could confuse BoltBot.
Using the Website loader, you can start at a path you are most confident in. For example, if you work in admissions like elementuniversity.edu/admissions. You can also select/deselect one or more pages/paths to include/exclude from your website knowledge source.
We recommend keeping individual website knowledge sources to at most 20-30 webpages.
I want the BoltBot to know my Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, and other social platforms.
I want the BoltBot to know my Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, and other social platforms.
You can easily add your Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social handles to a text or custom knowledge source. Do not use the URL or Website loader to read your social media content for various reasons.
BoltBot is returning the wrong answer based on what I have in the Knowledge Base.
BoltBot is returning the wrong answer based on what I have in the Knowledge Base.
A possible reason could be if you have a mix of sources in your knowledge base. If BoltBot finds both a text and a custom answer source to match the question asked, the custom answer will be given priority.