WebChatAgent data sources: every control explained

Select Source Control Center in the left sidebar and open Data Sources in the assistant navigation. The page heading, sidebar selection and source list must belong to the same assistant.

Read the information banner before adding content: sources are split into searchable passages and count toward the plan’s content-character allowance. Changes here affect future answers, so never work from an ambiguous browser tab.

Open Add Data Source. Website crawls approved public pages; Documents uploads PDF, TXT, Markdown, Word or Excel; Text Input stores a short maintained fact directly. Confluence and Notion connect approved workspace content.

For example, use Website for a public help center, Documents for a signed policy PDF, Text Input for one temporary service notice, and a connector when the content owner already maintains the source in that workspace. Close the dialog without creating duplicates.

The usage card compares indexed characters with the plan limit. Source counters separate websites, documents, text and connectors, while the table shows each item’s indexing status.

Treat Pending or Processing as a wait state. Failed or Error needs details and a correction. Re-index required means the current vectors are unavailable or outdated, often after a provider change. Completed or Indexed means the job finished, but you still need the answer test in step ten.

Search accepts a source name or website URL. Use the type filter to isolate websites, files, text or connectors, and the category filter to narrow ownership or topic. Reset both filters before concluding that a source is missing.

Source Control Center uses the category Support for the Northstar PDF. In production prefer durable labels such as Support, Products or Legal. Do not encode temporary status such as new or needs review in a category; status and ownership should remain separate.

Open the website row’s edit action. Verify the canonical start URL, crawl depth and automatic re-index interval. Expand Advanced only when selectors or exclusion patterns are necessary.

A depth of zero indexes only the entered page; a greater depth follows links. Exclude checkout, account and duplicate-language paths before increasing depth. Save only intentional changes, then wait for the new indexing job instead of testing immediately.

Open Indexed URLs for the website. Search the page list, compare character counts and use View Content to spot navigation noise, cookie text or duplicate pages.

Delete removes only the selected indexed page until the next crawl may discover it again. Exclude adds a durable exclusion for future crawls. Use the confirmation dialog, then verify the total-character count changed as expected.

Open Edit on Northstar Knowledge Base. The editor shows the extracted text used for indexing, plus Document Name, Category and Search Priority. Correct a small extraction error only when you can compare it with the approved original.

Search Priority influences ranking relative to other sources; it is not a quality score. Keep zero unless repeatable questions justify a boost. For a changed policy or larger revision, upload the approved new file, verify it, then remove the obsolete source instead of maintaining a hidden fork in the extracted text.

Open Content Search and enter the unique value NORDSTERN-42. The result should point to Northstar Knowledge Base and show the matching indexed passage.

This is the quickest way to separate a source problem from an answer-generation problem. No result means the fact is not in the current index. A matching result with a poor chatbot answer means you should inspect the question wording, source overlap, Search Priority and model behavior.

Use the row action to re-index one source, or Re-index All only after a provider change or a deliberately coordinated refresh. Large bulk jobs consume time and can make troubleshooting harder, so record what changed first.

Before Delete, identify every unique fact that lives only in that source. The confirmation warns that removal affects future answers. Cancel during a review, or delete only after a replacement is completed and its fixed regression questions pass.

Open Conversations and select the Source Control Center test session. Exact input: “What is the unique verification code in the uploaded tutorial PDF?” Expected result: the reply names NORDSTERN-42 and does not invent a different code.

Observed result: the real assistant replied, “The unique verification code is NORDSTERN-42.” This example is verified end to end. Keep one known-answer question per critical source and repeat it after file replacement, re-indexing, model changes or source deletion.