# Knowledge overview (/knowledge)





Knowledge is what makes an assistant useful. It is the set of sources the
assistant reads to answer questions: your websites, your files, and curated
question and answer pairs. Open an assistant and select **Knowledge** to manage
these sources.

## How knowledge is used [#how-knowledge-is-used]

When the assistant needs to answer from your content, it searches your knowledge,
finds the passages most relevant to the question, and writes an answer grounded in
them. This approach keeps answers tied to your material rather than to general
knowledge.

## Sources and citations [#sources-and-citations]

Every answer built from your knowledge can show the sources it used. A source
points back to a real piece of content, such as a page or a document, so a
visitor can verify the answer and read more. This transparency builds trust and
makes it easy to spot when a source needs updating.

## The source types [#the-source-types]

<Cards>
  <Card title="Websites" href="/knowledge/websites" description="Crawl your site and knowledge base so the assistant learns from your pages." />

  <Card title="Files" href="/knowledge/files" description="Upload documents, spreadsheets, slides, and more." />

  <Card title="FAQs" href="/knowledge/faqs" description="Write exact question and answer pairs to shape specific replies." />
</Cards>

## Keeping knowledge fresh [#keeping-knowledge-fresh]

Good answers depend on current content. Websites can be recrawled so changes on
your site flow into the assistant. Files can be replaced when they change. FAQs
can be edited whenever an answer needs refining. When the [Inbox](/operations/inbox)
or [Improvements](/operations/improvements) show a weak answer, updating the
underlying source is usually the fix.