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

# Knowledge

> The written knowledge of your organisation, kept in one place and handed to the agents and assistants that need it.

**Knowledge** is where Devic keeps what your agents and assistants need to *know* — procedures, policies, product catalogues, tone-of-voice guides, internal glossaries.

It is deliberately separate from the agents themselves. A document is written once and attached wherever it is needed, so updating a return policy fixes every assistant that quotes it, in the same edit.

![Knowledge overview](https://mintcdn.com/devic/TaMbtKJRXl9eU5LD/images/knowledge/overview.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=TaMbtKJRXl9eU5LD\&q=85\&s=ff77260ac5aa5ba994657234be40f1a6)

***

## Two kinds of document

> [card] Markdown documents
>
> Written and edited inside Devic. Versioned on every change, linkable to each other, and organised in folders. This is the format to prefer for anything your team maintains.

> [card] Uploaded files
>
> `.pdf`, `.docx`, `.txt` and `.md` files, up to 25 MB each. Devic extracts the text, summarises it and indexes it for retrieval.

Both end up in the same place and are attached the same way. The difference is who maintains them: a markdown document is a living page you edit in Devic, an uploaded file is a snapshot of something authored elsewhere.

> [!NOTE]
>
> A third thing lives here too. A document or a folder can be marked as a **skill** — packaged instructions an agent loads only when it needs them, rather than knowledge it searches. Same editor, same versions, different way of reaching the model. See [Skills](https://docs.devic.ai/devic/knowledge/skills.md).

***

## What happens when you add a document

Every document goes through the same pipeline before an agent can use it:

**1. Text extraction**

The content is read out of the file — PDF, Word, plain text or markdown.

**2. Summarisation**

Devic writes a summary of the document. The summary is what an agent reads first when deciding whether a document is worth opening, so it is worth reviewing and editing.

**3. Indexing**

The text is split into fragments and indexed for semantic search, each document into its own index.

While this runs, the document shows as `pending`; agents ignore it until it is `ready`. Progress appears live in the interface — you can close the upload dialog and it keeps going in the background.

> [!NOTE]
>
> Each document is indexed on its own rather than merged into a single per-agent index. That is why attaching and detaching are instant, and why editing a document only re-indexes that one document.

***

## Giving a document to an agent

Attach it. Open the agent or assistant, go to its context section and pick the documents or folders it may read.

![Attaching knowledge to an agent](https://mintcdn.com/devic/TaMbtKJRXl9eU5LD/images/knowledge/attach-to-agent.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=TaMbtKJRXl9eU5LD\&q=85\&s=35358f33a57a1d054cf87d375fc34af0)

A document can be attached to:

| Target | What it means |
| - | - |
| **Agent** | The agent can search this document during a run. |
| **Assistant** | The assistant can search it during a conversation. |
| **Environment** | Every agent and assistant connected to that environment inherits it. See [Environments](https://docs.devic.ai/devic/environments/index.md). |

Attaching a **folder** attaches everything inside it, including documents added later — the useful shape when a team keeps writing into the same place.

Retrieval follows the hierarchy: attaching a document also gives the agent its subdocuments, all the way down. See [Organising knowledge](https://docs.devic.ai/devic/knowledge/organising.md).

***

## Where it fits

> [card] [Writing documents](https://docs.devic.ai/devic/knowledge/documents.md)
>
> The editor, frontmatter, links between documents and subdocuments.

> [card] [Organising knowledge](https://docs.devic.ai/devic/knowledge/organising.md)
>
> Folders, hierarchy, the document graph and search.

> [card] [Versions](https://docs.devic.ai/devic/knowledge/versions.md)
>
> Every change kept, compared and revertible.

> [card] [Skills](https://docs.devic.ai/devic/knowledge/skills.md)
>
> Instructions an agent loads on demand — and what that costs in tokens.

> [card] [Skills from GitHub](https://docs.devic.ai/devic/knowledge/skills-from-github.md)
>
> A skill that lives in a repository and is read live.

> [card] [RAG in agents](https://docs.devic.ai/devic/agents/rag.md)
>
> How an agent decides what to retrieve, and when.


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