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

# Create a Knowledge Base

> Train your voice agent with domain knowledge, custom documents, FAQs, and guardrails

A Knowledge Base (KB) equips your voice agent with proprietary domain knowledge and custom guidelines. By connecting a knowledge base, your agent can answer customer inquiries accurately from your documents, handle complex sales objections, follow curated FAQs, and adhere to strict safety guardrails.

## Video Walkthrough

<div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 62.7906976744186%; height: 0;">
  <iframe src="https://www.loom.com/embed/74edda24a2eb4e5e995fc7358c846983" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;" />
</div>

## What is in a Knowledge Base?

Training your agent consists of two primary components:

1. **Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Knowledge Base** — Ingested documents (PDFs, DOCX, text) or crawled website URLs. When a caller asks a question, Vaani searches your knowledge base in real time to fetch the most relevant answers.
2. **Know-How & Guardrails** — Explicit guidance for specific interactions:
   * **FAQs**: Direct question-and-answer pairs the agent uses verbatim.
   * **Objection Handling (Pain Points)**: Specific responses to common customer concerns and sales objections.
   * **Guardrails**: Safety constraints and trigger words (e.g. steering away from political topics or sensitive queries) with pre-set polite deflections.

***

## Create and Train Your Knowledge Base

<Steps>
  <Step title="Navigate to Knowledge Bases">
    In the dashboard sidebar, go to **Knowledge Base** and click **Create Knowledge Base**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Name Your Knowledge Base">
    Enter a unique, descriptive name (e.g. `product-faq-v1` or `real-estate-listings`).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add Content Sources">
    Choose your ingestion method:

    * **Upload Files**: Upload documents such as PDFs, DOCX, or plain text `.txt` files containing product manuals, pricing sheets, or company info.
    * **Website URL**: Enter your website or help center URL to automatically crawl and extract documentation pages.
    * **Paste Text**: Enter raw text or custom notes directly.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Wait for Embedding Processing">
    Once uploaded, Vaani parses, chunks, and creates vector embeddings for your documents.

    Wait for the status indicator to turn to **Ready** (or **Embedded**).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Configure Know-How & FAQs">
    Add curated question-response pairs for common customer inquiries:

    * Add FAQs to ensure consistent responses to critical questions like hours, return policies, or pricing tiers.
    * Add objection-handling templates so your agent knows exactly how to respond when customers push back.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set Safety Guardrails">
    Define safety parameters to protect your brand:

    * Choose a guardrail strictness level (`basic`, `medium`, or `strict`).
    * Enable protection against inappropriate topics.
    * Add custom trigger keywords or sensitive topics with fallback responses (e.g., redirecting callers back to your core topic).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Attach the Knowledge Base to Your Agent">
    Go to **Agent Config** → select your agent → navigate to the **Training** or **Knowledge Base** tab:

    * Toggle **Enable RAG / Knowledge Base**.
    * Select your newly created knowledge base from the list.
    * Save your agent configuration.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Info>
  Once attached, your agent will immediately begin using the knowledge base on all new outbound and inbound calls without requiring any prompt re-engineering.
</Info>

***

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The agent isn't answering questions from my uploaded PDF">
    Verify that the knowledge base has finished processing. If the status is still "Embedding" or "Processing", the agent cannot query the documents yet. Once the status shows "Ready", make sure the knowledge base is selected in your agent's **Training** settings and saved.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I attach multiple documents or websites to one knowledge base?">
    Yes. You can upload multiple PDFs, documents, or website URLs into a single knowledge base. All sources are indexed and unified into your agent's retrieval pool.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="When should I use Prompt instructions vs. Knowledge Base?">
    * Use the **Prompt** for tone, persona, role, call flow, and dynamic call variables (like `{customer_name}`).
    * Use the **Knowledge Base** for large amounts of information, catalogs, policy documents, and specific FAQs that would otherwise overload the prompt window.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do changes to the knowledge base apply to existing agents?">
    Yes. Updating documents, adding FAQs, or tweaking guardrails takes effect on all new calls as soon as the embeddings finish updating.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

***

## Next Step

<Card title="Set Up Telephony" icon="phone" href="/getting-started/setup-telephony">
  Connect a phone number so your agent can make and receive real calls
</Card>


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