Knowledge base

What it does

The knowledge base holds the topics your AI assistant uses to answer customers who message you on WhatsApp.

Each topic is one section of information about your business, with a short title and a body of content — for example About us, Delivery & returns or What we sell. The assistant answers only from the topics you have written and from the conversation itself, so the more complete your topics are, the more questions it can answer without involving your team.

Topics can be Public or Private. Changes take effect for the assistant straight away.

When to use it

• Before turning on AI replies on a channel, so the assistant has something to answer from.
• Whenever a business fact changes: opening hours, delivery areas, minimum orders, contact details, payment or returns policies.
• When customers keep asking something the assistant cannot answer — add it as a topic.
• After a price list, product range or seasonal offer changes, if you describe it in the knowledge base.

Use the knowledge base for facts about your business. Use Channels for behaviour — the tone, the enquiries a channel handles and what to say when it cannot help. Use Tasks for the actions the assistant can take when a customer needs more than an answer, and Submissions to see what it recorded.

Steps

Add a topic

1. Open AI Tools → Knowledge base.
2. Select New topic.
3. In Topic, enter a short title. Each title must be unique in your knowledge base.
4. In Content, write everything a customer might want to know about this topic. Several paragraphs is ideal, and line breaks are kept.
5. Under Visibility, choose Public (Shown to everyone who messages you on WhatsApp) or Private (Only shown to contacts linked to a customer account). New topics are Public unless you change this.
6. Select Create topic.

Edit a topic

1. Open AI Tools → Knowledge base and select the topic title.
2. Select Edit.
3. Change the Topic, Content or Visibility.
4. Select Update topic.

Delete a topic

1. Open AI Tools → Knowledge base and select the topic title.
2. Select Delete.
3. In Delete topic?, confirm with Delete, or choose Cancel to keep the topic.

The topic leaves your list and the assistant stops using it in answers. If you open a deleted topic's page directly, from a bookmark or your browser history, it shows Archived with the original Topic and Content, and the Edit and Delete buttons are gone.

Export your topics

1. Open AI Tools → Knowledge base.
2. Select Export, then choose CSV (.csv) or Excel (.xlsx).

The file contains every topic with TOPIC, CONTENT and VISIBILITY columns. Exporting as CSV (.csv) is the easiest way to make a large change: export what you have, edit it in a spreadsheet, then import it again. Excel (.xlsx) is for reading and sharing only — the importer accepts CSV files.

Import topics from a CSV

1. Open AI Tools → Knowledge base and select Import topics. The Import topics CSV dialog opens on the WhatsApp → Imports page.
2. Under Import mode, choose Add or update or Replace knowledge base (see Import modes below).
3. Check your file against the headers and matching rules shown in the dialog. Select Download under Example CSV if you want a starting file.
4. Select Pick CSV file and choose your file.
5. A confirmation appears and the dialog closes on its own; select Close if it is still open.

What you'll see

Above the list, What to include suggests the topics most businesses need. Before you add anything, the list shows Your knowledge base is empty. with suggested starting topics.

The knowledge base list shows every topic with Topic, Content, Visibility and Updated columns, ordered by when each topic was created, newest first (editing a topic does not move it up the list), with paging when you have many topics. Hover a shortened title or content cell to read the full text, or select the title to open the topic.

A topic page shows Overview with Status (Active, or Archived once the topic has been deleted), Visibility, Created and Updated, followed by the full Topic and Content.

After an upload you are told the import is processing. The file then appears on the WhatsApp → Imports page with a Folder of knowledge and a status of Ongoing, then Success or Failed. Hover a Failed or Stopped status to read the details, or select the Folder value to open Import details. The status refreshes by itself while an import is running. ProConnect does not email you the result of a topic import, so check the page.

If something goes wrong

• A topic with this title already exists: two topics cannot share a title. Change the title, or edit the existing topic instead.
• Please complete both the topic and content: both fields are required, and spaces alone do not count.
• This topic is no longer available: it was deleted while you were editing. Go back to AI Tools → Knowledge base and add it again if it is still needed.
• Unable to save this topic. Please try again: try saving again. If it keeps failing, contact your onboarding manager.
• This topic could not be found or has already been deleted: someone else deleted it. Reload the knowledge base list to see the current topics.
• A topic page shows Archived: the topic was deleted, so the assistant no longer uses it. Recreate it with New topic if you still need it.
• Choose an import mode before selecting a CSV file: pick Add or update or Replace knowledge base in the dialog first.
• Please select a CSV file: the importer only accepts .csv. Save your spreadsheet as CSV and try again; an Excel (.xlsx) export has to be converted first.
• Selecting Import topics takes you to a page about WhatsApp access: importing topics runs from the WhatsApp Imports page, which needs WhatsApp enabled for your company. Add topics with New topic, or contact your onboarding manager.
• We couldn't upload this CSV file, or We couldn't export these topics: try again, and contact your onboarding manager if it happens twice.
• Import fails with a message about the CSV header: a column name is misspelt, in lower case, repeated, or not one of TOPIC, CONTENT and VISIBILITY. Copy the header row from an export and upload again.
• Import shows Failed: hover the Failed status on the WhatsApp → Imports page, or select the Folder value to open Import details, to see which rows were rejected and why. Correct those rows and upload again.
• Import shows Stopped or Ongoing for a long time: upload the file again. If it stops a second time, contact your onboarding manager.
• The assistant gives a wrong or outdated answer: find the topic covering that subject and correct it, then check a conversation again. If the assistant refuses to answer or answers in the wrong tone, check AI instructions on the channel in Channels.
• The assistant tells customers the channel is unmonitored: no topic covered the question and the channel has no tasks to record it against. Add a topic for that subject, make sure a topic holds your phone number, email address and web contact so the assistant can pass them on, and set up a task in Tasks if you want these enquiries recorded for your team.
• A customer was not shown information you expected: check the topic's Visibility. Private topics only reach contacts linked to a customer account, so anyone messaging you anonymously will not get them.

Writing good topics

The assistant can only answer with what you give it, so detail matters more than polish.

• Write in full sentences, with specifics. Include addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, opening hours, lead times, minimum orders and prices where they apply.
• Give each topic a title that makes sense on its own, such as Opening a trade account rather than After submitting the form.
• Keep one subject in one topic. The steps of a single process, or an event with its dates and rules, belong together.
• Split out what stands alone. Contact details, opening hours and your product range are naturally separate topics.
• Keep behaviour out of it. Tone, referrals and what a channel does or does not handle belong in the channel's AI instructions.

Good starting topics for most businesses:

• About us — who you are, your history, and who you serve
• Location and contact — address, phone, email, and opening hours
• What we sell — your product range, brands, and services
• Ordering and delivery — how to order, delivery areas, lead times, and minimum orders
• Policies — returns, payments, and anything customers regularly ask about

Import modes

• Add or update — adds new topics and updates topics whose title matches an existing one. Topics not in the file stay unchanged. If a row fails, the rest can still import.
• Replace knowledge base — makes the file your complete knowledge base: matching topics are updated, new topics are added, and every topic missing from the file is deleted. If any row fails, nothing is changed.

Topics are matched by their title, ignoring surrounding spaces. In both modes, a matching topic whose content and visibility are unchanged keeps its Updated date and still counts as imported.

CSV columns

Read the shared CSV format before preparing your file.

There is no limit on the number of rows or the file size, but larger files take longer to finish.

The first row must contain TOPIC and CONTENT in any order, with VISIBILITY optional. Header names must be exactly TOPIC, CONTENT and VISIBILITY in capitals — unlike other importers, this one does not accept other spellings or letter case. Any other column, a repeated column, or a missing TOPIC or CONTENT column rejects the whole file. The simplest way to get this right is to keep the header row from an export or from Example CSV.

When VISIBILITY is blank or the column is left out, new topics are created as Public and existing topics keep the visibility they already have. A two-column file used with Replace knowledge base therefore preserves the visibility of every matching topic.

A row is rejected when TOPIC or CONTENT is empty, when VISIBILITY is anything other than public or private, or when the same TOPIC appears twice in the file. With Add or update, a row is also rejected when your knowledge base already contains more than one topic with that title; Replace knowledge base keeps the oldest of those topics and deletes the copies.

Example CSV

TOPIC,CONTENT,VISIBILITY
About us,"We are a family-run wholesale bakery in Leeds, supplying cafes and restaurants across Yorkshire since 1998. Find us at 12 Mill Lane, Leeds LS1 4AB, call 0113 496 0000 or email orders@example.com. Open Monday to Friday, 6am to 4pm.",public
Trade ordering,"Trade customers can order Monday to Friday for next-working-day delivery. The minimum order is £50.",private

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