27  Searching Your Knowledge Base

Nous exposes connected content through Knowledge Search in the chat composer’s Tools menu. Knowledge Search starts enabled over All sources in every chat. The model decides whether that ambient search is useful, so users do not need to enable it before asking a knowledge question. The same menu can turn search off or narrow a message to document sets and connector source types.

27.1 Choose a search scope

Open a chat and use the composer:

  1. Click Tools.
  2. Confirm Knowledge Search is enabled. Turn it off only when the current chat should not use connected knowledge.
  3. Open Scope on the Knowledge Search row.
  4. Choose All sources, one or more Document sets, one or more connector Sources, or a combination of sets and sources.
  5. Type the question and send it.

All sources is selected when no narrower scope is active. It authorizes ambient search across every eligible source the current user and agent can access, while the model decides whether to search. A selected document set or source makes Knowledge Search the first ordered tool step for that message. The Document sets section lists reusable curated scopes. The Sources section lists connected source types directly, including connectors that are not part of a document set. A non-default agent may show a smaller list based on the knowledge assigned to that agent.

Create a document set when users or agents need a stable, named scope. A document set is optional for broad search: content from a searchable connector remains available through All sources or its connector source.

Tip

For verification after a new connector goes live, select its connector source or a document set that contains it. A narrow scope removes unrelated results and gives you a cleaner signal.

You can change the scope mid-thread. Earlier messages keep the citations they were generated with; later messages use the updated scope. Knowledge Search and its scope remain active for later messages in the current chat. Starting or switching chats, assistants, or projects, and refreshing the page reset Knowledge Search to its default enabled All sources state.

Deep Research runs alone for its message. It temporarily suppresses Knowledge Search without changing the saved Knowledge Search switch or scope, which returns after Deep Research finishes or is turned off.

Note

The composer supports at most eight ordered tool steps. Ambient Knowledge Search over All sources does not consume a step. A narrowed Knowledge Search scope consumes one step because search must run first.

27.2 Citation reveal

Every answer that consumed indexed content shows citations inline. Click a citation chip in the answer to open the Cited Sources panel.

Cited Sources panel open beside the chat answer, displaying the indexed source filename, source label, and raw text excerpt passed to the model

Cited Sources panel showing the indexed text filename, source label, and retrieved excerpt.

Each citation shows:

  • the source filename and connector
  • available page or chunk metadata, such as a page number or source label
  • the raw text excerpt when content was retrieved; meeting inventories show dates and source metadata, not transcripts

Use the citation panel as your verification ground truth. The answer text can paraphrase, but the citation chunks are exactly what the retrieval pipeline returned. If a citation points to the wrong document, the problem is retrieval, not generation. Tune the document set or the connector, not the prompt.

When you are verifying a brand-new set, expand each citation and confirm the chunk text matches what you expect from the source file. Title-only matches can be misleading: two files with similar titles can collide, and the excerpt tells you which one was actually retrieved.

Note

An empty historical meeting list has no source citations. For other answers without citations, re-open Tools > Knowledge Search > Scope and confirm the intended source or set is selected.

27.3 Historical meeting lists

Ask Knowledge Search for completed Sophea Meet meetings in a date range, for example, “List all meetings from 10 through 25 August, with dates and sources.” Both dates are included in your local timezone. The list uses accessible indexed meetings, not a relevance-ranked transcript search or the first page of the live app.

Each result keeps its meeting date and source citation. Lists return the oldest 500 matching indexed meetings at most. If the answer says results are partial, narrow the date range; the returned count is not the total. Older records without a known meeting date appear after dated meetings only when you ask for all history, labeled “Date unavailable”. They are not included in date-range searches. An empty range means no matching accessible indexed meetings, not that the meeting never happened.

For what was said, ask a transcript-content question. For today’s schedule or current meeting status, use the connected live app instead.

27.4 Permissions model

Knowledge Search evaluates the requesting user’s workspace identity and active Portal Team principals on every query. A selected scope can narrow eligible content, but it cannot bypass an ACL.

Current indexed visibility comes from:

  • connector or document-set access set to Everyone in this Workspace
  • supported direct user principals
  • active Portal Teams bound to a private connector or compatible document set
  • source-system document permissions for SharePoint and Google Drive connectors configured with Sync permissions

Sharing a compatible private document set with a Team can add that Team to the eligible ACL for its connector documents without making the content workspace-public. This is different from selecting a document set as the search scope: selection only narrows the request and never grants access or bypasses the resulting ACL.

Provider-native per-document permissions are not a general Nous search ACL path. They are mirrored only for supported SharePoint and Google Drive connectors configured with Sync permissions. Other sources continue to use the connector and document-set access paths above. A private document without a supported Nous principal is excluded from results rather than exposed publicly.

Note

Workspace administrators do not automatically bypass search ACLs. Test restricted knowledge with a real member of the intended Team, not only with the administrator who configured the connector.

If one member can retrieve a file and another cannot, compare their active Portal Teams and the connector or document-set access bindings in Nous. Also check whether the member still has another workspace access source after a recent Portal change.

27.5 Troubleshoot missing results

When search returns nothing, work through the list in order. Stop at the first step that resolves the issue.

  1. Search indexing. Open the connector detail page and check the Search indexing panel. Confirm the expected files are counted as Searchable and review any Needs attention categories. Workspace administrators can retry failed documents from Needs attention; rows that remain after the retry need action in the source.
  2. Scope. Re-open Tools > Knowledge Search > Scope and confirm the intended connector source or document set is selected. Switch to All sources to distinguish a scope mistake from an ingestion problem.
  3. Document set configuration. If you selected a document set, confirm it is Up to Date and includes the expected connector.
  4. Query specificity. Re-ask with an exact filename, title, or quoted phrase you know exists in the source.
  5. Permissions. For a Sync permissions connector, check the source grant and Last completed permission sync. For other connectors, check whether the connector or compatible document set is workspace-public or Team-shared, and whether the affected member belongs to an active attached Team. Credential ownership alone does not grant search access.
  6. Recent reindex. A connector that recently finished a full reindex can return stale or empty results until the reindex fully completes. Open the connector from the Existing Connectors page and check whether an indexing job is still running.

If none of those steps resolve the issue, capture the query, selected scope, and expected filename, then raise the issue with platform support.

27.6 Where to go next

  • Document Sets for creating, sharing, and editing the sets you searched here.
  • Agents for wiring a verified document set into a guided assistant so users do not have to pick the set manually.
  • Search Verification and Troubleshooting for the Document Explorer, Document Feedback, and a troubleshooting sequence for missing or wrong results.