---
title: "Knowledge base"
slug: workspace/kb
url: https://projectri.com/docs/workspace/kb
section: workspace
audience: workspace
app_route: "/[slug]/[user]/kb"
permissions: [kb.view, kb.create]
mobile: "/kb"
updated: 2026-09-08
source: Projectri documentation
---

# Knowledge base

The workspace's written answers, searched by meaning rather than keywords, with a reader and a helpful/not-helpful vote.

![Knowledge base](https://projectri.com/docs-shots/workspace-kb.png)

## What it is

The knowledge base is what this workspace has already worked out, written down
once so the answer does not have to be retyped into a third ticket. This screen
reads and votes. Writing, publishing and deciding who may read an article happen
in the [admin console](/docs/admin/kb).

## How to get there

Knowledge base is in the main navigation. Reading needs `kb.view`, which every
role that can view anything holds. **Write an article** appears only if you hold
`kb.create`, and links across to the admin screen. There is no plan gate.

What you can see depends on your keys. If you hold none of `kb.create`,
`kb.update` or `kb.publish` you see published articles only. Writers also see
drafts and articles in review; archived articles need `kb.update` or
`kb.publish`.

## How to use it

### Search

1. Type the problem into the box — *"How do I reset a customer's two-factor
   device?"* is the placeholder, and it is the right shape. Search understands
   meaning, not just keywords.
2. Results are ranked by combining a meaning-based search and a keyword search.
   Where both agreed, the row is badged **Strong match**.
3. The snippet shown is the passage that matched, not always the article's
   summary.

### Browse

1. **Everything** shows all articles you can see.
2. Each top-level category is a chip carrying its published article count.
   Clicking one reveals its subcategories as a second row.
3. Tags on a result or in the reader are clickable and filter the list; the
   active tag appears as a chip you can clear.

### Read an article

1. Click a result. The article opens in a panel from the side; **Close** or
   Escape shuts it.
2. Under the title you get the author, when it was updated, whether it came from
   a support ticket, and how many times it has been read.
3. The summary sits in its own card above the body.
4. An article you opened has a stable address — the panel can be linked to
   directly.

### Say whether it helped

At the bottom of the reader, **Did this answer it?** with **Yes** and **No**.
Pressing the one you already chose clears your vote. One vote per person per
article; the counts on the search results come from these.

## What it affects

- **Article counts and "found this helpful"** on the search rows come straight
  from these votes.
- **View counts are only recorded on published articles**, so an author
  previewing their own draft does not inflate the figure.
- **A published article can reach customers.** Its visibility decides: **Internal
  only** is staff in this workspace; **Customers** adds people signed in to the
  client portal; **Public** is anyone with the link, without signing in. The
  portal help centre only ever shows the last two, and only published ones.
- **Nia reads the knowledge base by searching it**, not by holding it. She is
  told how many published articles exist and what the categories are called, and
  nothing of their text, so she has to look an article up before quoting it.
- **A resolved support ticket can become an article.** On a resolved ticket,
  **Turn into an article** drafts one from the conversation — problem and
  resolution, with the internal messages left out — always as an internal draft
  for somebody to check.

## On mobile

The phone has a **Knowledge base** screen for reading and voting, with no
authoring. Two things it does differently on purpose: an article you have opened
recently stays readable for a week without signal, and it says plainly when what
you are reading may be out of date rather than hiding it. Search is debounced
harder than on the web, because every query costs a lookup.

## Limits and gotchas

- **Meaning-based search can be unavailable.** When it is, a banner says so —
  *"Meaning-based search is unavailable right now — these are literal keyword
  matches only. An article may exist that this misses."*
- An article body is Markdown, and the reader supports headings, lists, code
  fences, quotes, horizontal rules, links, bold, italic and inline code. **No
  images and no tables.**
- Categories nest one level deep, and an article does not need one. Deleting a
  category leaves its articles unfiled.
- **Global search is broader than this screen.** Anyone holding `kb.view` can
  reach drafts and archived articles through global search, because that index
  does not filter on status. Treat a draft as visible to the workspace.
- An article's web address is fixed at the moment it is first published; editing
  the title afterwards does not change it.
- There is no route from **Archived** back to **Published** — an archived article
  has to go back to draft first.

## Related

- [Managing the knowledge base](/docs/admin/kb) — writing, publishing and categories.
- [Support](/docs/workspace/support) — where an article is often born.
- [Portal help centre](/docs/portal/help) — what customers see.
- [Search](/docs/features/search) — the global search that also finds articles.

## Related

- [Knowledge base](https://projectri.com/docs/admin/kb.md): Write, file, publish and index this workspace's articles, and decide whether each one is internal, visible to customers, or public.
- [Support](https://projectri.com/docs/workspace/support.md): The internal ticket queue — raise, triage, reply to and resolve support tickets, with SLA state, escalations, work orders and a route into the knowledge base.
- [Help centre](https://projectri.com/docs/portal/help.md): The articles your supplier has published to customers, searchable, with a one-press route to a ticket when nothing answers your question.
- [Search](https://projectri.com/docs/features/search.md): One box over eight kinds of thing, how the ranking works, the operators you can type, and the one thing search can never find.
