---
title: Knowledge Assistant
description: Give readers a cited assistant that answers questions from your published docs and approved context.
---

Knowledge Assistant turns your docs into a natural-language answer surface.
Readers can ask questions from your published docs site and get answers grounded
in the context you make available to Radiant.

Use the assistant when you want readers to find the right answer without knowing
the exact page title, navigation label, or API endpoint name.

<Callout type="info" title="Knowledge Assistant and the writing agent are different">
The Knowledge Assistant answers reader questions from published docs and
approved context. The writing agent helps your team edit docs content in the
dashboard.
</Callout>

## What the assistant can answer from

The assistant uses context that belongs to the active docs site:

- Published MDX docs pages.
- Generated API reference pages from OpenAPI sources.
- Public web pages you add as assistant context sources.
- Custom notes you add in the dashboard.

The assistant uses available context only. If the answer is not supported by the
docs or approved context sources, it should say that it could not find the
answer in those sources.

## Why it exists

Docs navigation is great when readers know where to look. Natural-language
questions are better when readers know what they want, but not where the answer
lives.

The assistant helps with questions like:

- How do I publish a dashboard edit?
- Why is my custom domain still pending?
- What does this API endpoint require?
- Where do I configure the assistant button?
- What should I do after adding a new page?

Good docs still matter. The assistant is strongest when the source pages
explain prerequisites, plan limits, permissions, steps, expected status
changes, and common questions in clear text.

## Availability

Knowledge Assistant is available on Pro plans. The assistant appears only when
the docs site has an active assistant index and the feature is available for the
organization.

After a successful deployment, Radiant indexes the published docs. The dashboard
activity table can also show assistant indexing status for Pro sites.

## Sources and citations

The assistant includes links to supporting docs pages, API reference pages, and
web pages within its answers. Links can appear naturally in a sentence or after
the statement they support, and can point to a specific section of a page. A
small website icon appears beside citation links.

Custom notes can inform an answer, but they do not have a public link.

This makes the assistant a guide into your documentation, not a replacement for
clear source material.

## What to configure

There are two parts to configuring the Knowledge Assistant:

- **Assistant context** controls what the assistant can answer from.
- **Assistant appearance** controls how the assistant appears on the published
  docs site.

Use the dashboard Knowledge Assistant page to add web pages and custom notes.
Use dashboard Settings or `docs.json` to configure the public button, navbar
button, heading, suggested questions, and icon.

## Next steps

<Columns columns={3}>
  <Column>

  <Card title="Add context sources" href="/knowledge-assistant/add-context-sources" icon="lucide:database-zap">
    Expand what the assistant knows.
  </Card>

  </Column>
  <Column>

  <Card title="Customize the assistant" href="/knowledge-assistant/customize-assistant" icon="lucide:sliders-horizontal">
    Configure the public UI.
  </Card>

  </Column>
  <Column>

  <Card title="Write docs for better answers" href="/knowledge-assistant/write-docs-for-better-answers" icon="lucide:file-search">
    Make pages easier to retrieve.
  </Card>

  </Column>
</Columns>