---
title: "Slate AI Knowledge Sources"
slug: "knowledge-sources"
updated: 2026-05-14T14:17:33Z
published: 2026-05-14T14:17:33Z
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://knowledge.technolutions.net/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Slate AI Knowledge Sources

**Knowledge sources** let you provide Slate AI with hand-picked online information to prioritize its search.

If Slate AI finds an answer in your sources, it can return an answer faster. If it can’t find an answer in the sources you give it, it expands its search to the wider web (assuming you haven’t told it not to as part of its prompt).

You can add knowledge sources to AI-enabled chat bots (specifically, to an [agent](/v1/docs/agents) or an [AI chat bot](/v1/docs/ai-chat-bots)) and to Slate AI (the [general-purpose tool](/v1/docs/slate-ai) accessible from the user menu sidebar on any Slate page).

## Ensuring crawlers can access your knowledge source

If your institutional website blocks bot traffic, you may find that it isn’t being crawled as a knowledge source. Your website’s administrator must [include the Technolutions IP addresses in your allowed networks](/v1/docs/sftp-technical-details-for-network-administrators#allow-lists).

## Creating a new knowledge source

To create a knowledge source:

1. Go to **Database → Bots**.
2. Select **New Knowledge Source**.
3. Configure the following settings:
  - **Status:**Active
  - **Name:**Enter a name for the knowledge source.
  - **URL Patterns:** Enter a list of URLs, one per line. You can use wildcards `*` to match all sub-directories as follows:
    - **Include only an exact URL:**`https://technolutions.com/about `
    - **Include all URLs under a folder:** `https://technolutions.com/slatest-news/*`
    - **Include all URLs on a domain:** `https://technolutions.com/*`

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/cd8ea7a6-07f3-4846-a554-627ac016d3e3/Images/Documentation/Create new knowledge source.png)
4. Select **Save**.

The knowledge source is created pending its initial crawl.

When Slate crawls the URLs you’ve provided, it indexes their contents and prepares it for access by associated, AI-enabled bots (covered in the [next section](/v1/docs/knowledge-sources#associating-a-knowledge-source-with-an-aienabled-chat-bot)).

To preview the HTTP response the bot will receive:

1. Select **Test URL**
2. Enter one of the URLs included in your source’s allowed URL patterns
3. Select **Crawl**.

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/cd8ea7a6-07f3-4846-a554-627ac016d3e3/Images/Documentation/Test URL.png)

## Source crawling frequency

Knowledge sources are periodically re-crawled to ensure the most up-to-date content is available. Crawling currently occurs at least monthly, with plans to increase this frequency over time. Knowledge sources will index only HTML files that contain the content directly.

## Associating a knowledge source with an AI-enabled chat bot

1. Return to **Database → Bots**.
2. Select an existing AI-enabled bot (an [agent](/v1/docs/agents) or [AI chat bot](/v1/docs/ai-chat-bots)), or create a new one.
3. Select **Edit**.
4. Select as many knowledge sources as required.

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/cd8ea7a6-07f3-4846-a554-627ac016d3e3/Images/Documentation/Select knowledge sources to which a bot should have access.png)
5. Select **Save.**

The bot can now answer questions about the information contained in its associated knowledge sources.

Use **Preview Bot**to test it out.

## Granting Slate AI internal access to a knowledge source

You can associate knowledge sources with users, permissions, or roles.

When those individuals use [the general-purpose internal Slate AI tool](/v1/docs/slate-ai), accessible from any Slate page in the user menu sidebar, their requests pass through their associated knowledge sources first. If Slate AI finds an answer there, it returns it. If it doesn’t, it expands its search to the wider Internet.

1. Go to an existing knowledge source, or create a new one.
2. Select the arrow next to **Edit.**
3. Select **Edit Permissions**.
4. Select **Add Grantee**.
5. Configure the following settings:
  - **Active:**Active
  - **Type:**Select the type of access being applied to the knowledge source.
    - **User**: A User field appears. Enter the user’s name.
    - **Role**: A select list appears. Choose the desired role.
    - **Permission**: A select list of permissions appears. Select the desired permission.
  - **Permission:**Select *Slate AI Searchable*

![](https://cdn.us.document360.io/cd8ea7a6-07f3-4846-a554-627ac016d3e3/Images/Documentation/Add grantee to a knowledge source.png)
6. Select **Save**.