Asking a question and reading the answer
Asking is a chat: you type a question in plain language and get an answer with the sources it was built from. Each answer is scoped to one knowledge base.
- The Knowledge Base module visible in your left-hand navigation.
- A knowledge base with at least one document already indexed — there is nothing to answer from until ingest finishes.
If Knowledge Base isn't in your navigation, your role doesn't have visibility for it — ask a workspace administrator, or see Permissions and module visibility.
Steps
Select Overview in the Knowledge Base navigation, or open a knowledge base and select Open chat in its header.
The scope chip starts on All my KBs. Open it and choose a single knowledge base — asking always runs against exactly one.
Type it the way you would say it, then press Enter; Shift+Enter starts a new line. On an empty chat you can select a suggested question instead. Stop generating halts an answer part-way.
Text streams in as it is written, under a live Thinking then Generating label. A green Curated answer pill means the wording is a verified Q&A pair, not generated.
Select the Sources (3) toggle beneath the answer to expand one chip per citation, then select a chip to read the passage itself. Arrows step through the rest; Back to chat closes it.
Select Helpful or Not helpful under a finished answer. Not helpful also takes an optional reason and note. A rating is final — there is no way to change it.
What success looks like
- The answer streams in, then a sources toggle appears under it with one chip per citation.
- Selecting a chip opens the passage the answer drew on, with a counter for stepping through the others.
- Follow-up question chips appear under an answered turn; selecting one asks it immediately.
When Elie declines to answer
If the retrieved passages are too weak, the answer says so rather than guessing. A declined answer carries no sources at all, and may show a chip reading Stopped at: Relevance gate, Stopped at: Groundedness gate or Stopped at: No matching content — where the pipeline stopped. Rephrase using the wording you expect in the document, or check that document is indexed in this knowledge base.
If something goes wrong
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Choose a knowledge base to ask — cross-KB ask is coming soon. | You sent a question with All my KBs selected while you have more than one. | Pick a single knowledge base in the scope list that reopens, then send again. |
| The answer has no sources. | It is a declined answer — see above. | Rephrase the question, or confirm the document is indexed here. |
| Sorry — something went wrong generating that answer. or Sorry — the connection was interrupted. | The answer stream failed part-way. | Ask again. Using Stop generating or New chat yourself is never reported as an error. |
| A chip reads Source unavailable. | You reopened an earlier conversation and can no longer reach that document. | The count stays honest but the passage is withheld — ask an administrator for access. |
| The pane is replaced by Access Forbidden. | Your role lacks a permission the backend requires — the module is visible to everyone, so it fails at request time. | Ask a workspace administrator, or see Permissions. |
Next
- Curated question and answer pairs — answers returned word for word.
- Reading a retrieval trace — what was retrieved and used.
- Knowledge Base troubleshooting — when answers stay thin.