Documents

Uploading catalogues, size charts and manuals for the assistant to quote, and what to do when the file can't be read.

Not everything the shop knows fits in an answer written by hand. The supplier's catalogue, the size chart, a product manual, the frequently asked questions that already live in a document: copying all that into text boxes is work nobody does, and the knowledge base would end up with the opening hours and nothing else.

In Search → Documents you upload the file and that's it. It accepts PDF, Word, text, markdown, CSV and HTML, up to 20 MB per file, and there's no limit on how many.

What happens after uploading

1. The file is read and the text extracted. A large document takes a while, so the work runs in the background: the Status column says where it stands, and the table refreshes on its own while there's reading going on.
2. The text is split into passages. This is what makes it possible to upload a two hundred page manual without filling up the conversation: the assistant reads the passage that answers, not the whole file. When it needs more context, it also reads what's around it.
3. It becomes searchable by the same meaning as the answers written by hand.

The field that pays off most

What this document is deserves a second of attention. It's read as the subject of every passage the assistant quotes, and it's half of what makes a question find the right passage: "Size chart" is worth far more than catalogue_v3_final.

Two things that go wrong

Warning A scanned PDF doesn't have a single letter inside it. It's a photograph of each page, and there's no text to extract. The status says so, with the reason next to it; the way out is to get hold of the version with text, or to write out by hand what matters in an answer.

The search service may not respond at the moment the document is ready. The file isn't lost: the text has already been read and is stored, and the Try again button repeats only the part that failed, without opening the file again.

Deleting and switching off

Deleting a document takes it out of the index at the same time as it takes it off the screen, and it deletes the file too. Switching it off takes it out of the index and keeps everything, as with the answers written by hand.

Before uploading a document you didn't write

A supplier catalogue or a manufacturer's manual bring text you don't control. Two notes:

• Everything that comes from here reaches the assistant as information and not as instructions; the explanation is in the knowledge base.
• Prices and conditions from a supplier catalogue are not yours. If the document has price tables, expect the assistant to quote figures your shop doesn't charge. In that case, it's better to upload the technical part and write the commercial conditions by hand.