Sources and citations
What Knowledge can read — workspace files, attachments, Slack, Jira, Gmail and the public web — how each source is kept private and permission-checked, and how citations work.
On this page
Knowledge only knows what you let it read. Each conversation, and each expert, has an explicit set of sources.
Source types#
| Source | What it covers | How to add it |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace files | PDFs, Word documents, Markdown, text and images uploaded to the workspace. | Files |
| Attachments | Files and images added to one question. | + Files in the composer |
| Slack | Channels and threads the connection can see. | Slack |
| Jira | Issues, comments and statuses in the connected site. | Jira |
| Gmail | Messages in a connected mailbox, private to its owner. | Gmail |
| Web | Public web pages and PDFs, read when needed. | Web toggle in the composer |
| Memory | Facts and preferences you asked Ysra to keep. | Memory |
Repository sources for Knowledge are coming; they appear as Soon in the composer.
Choosing sources#
- In the composer, toggle Files and Web and pick connected sources.
- On an expert, set default sources; conversations with that expert start with them.
- By default, a conversation uses the expert's sources plus the workspace's ready mailboxes.
Knowledge searches company context only when your question needs it. Ask a general question and it simply answers.
Privacy and permissions#
- Only ready, connected sources you own or were given can be searched.
- Each document keeps its access rules. A private message stays visible only to the people allowed to see it.
- Mailboxes are owner-private. One person's connected Gmail isn't searchable by others.
- Ysra does not mirror every permission in your organisation. It searches the specific sources selected for the conversation or expert.
How citations work#
- Every source Knowledge reads during a conversation gets a number.
- The answer may cite only those numbers.
- If an answer cites something that wasn't retrieved, it is rejected rather than shown to you.
- The Sources panel lists each source with provider, excerpt, link and the time it was read.
For the web, a search result is only a lead: the page must be fetched and read before it can be cited. Public PDFs are read as documents.
Files and attachments#
- Uploaded files are parsed and indexed so their content can be searched — see Files.
- Images you attach are analysed and bound to the question you asked with them.
- If a file fails to process, retry it from the Files page.
Sources are data, not instructions#
Everything Knowledge reads — a Slack message, an email, a web page — is treated as information to reason about. Instructions inside a source are never followed.