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Snippets in AskVault knowledge management

Written by , Founder, AskVault · Reviewed by Aashiq
Last updated: · 4 min read

What snippets are

Most AskVault knowledge comes from crawled URLs, uploaded files, or integration sources (Notion, Confluence, GitHub). Snippets are different. They're short freeform text entries you add directly in the dashboard, no document needed.

Three patterns where snippets fit:

  1. Tribal knowledge. A fact your team knows but never documented. "Our office is closed on Indian national holidays plus a 2-week winter break." A snippet captures it.
  2. Sales talking points. "Our biggest customer in India is a 500-person SaaS that processes 200k support queries per month." Surfaces during sales conversations without living in marketing docs.
  3. Override or augment crawled content. Your blog says one thing, you want to add nuance the bot should mention. A snippet sits alongside.

Snippets differ from Q&A pairs. Q&A pairs are structured question-answer entries that override retrieval. Snippets are freeform paragraphs that join standard retrieval as higher-priority content.

Setup

Three steps to a working snippet.

  1. Open Knowledge > Add Source > Snippet in AskVault.
  2. Type the snippet. Plain text up to 100 KB. Markdown supported.
  3. Optionally tag with audience and source URL. Audience tags restrict retrieval to verified users. Source URL appears as the citation.
  4. Save.

The snippet indexes within 2 to 3 seconds. Test by asking the bot a question whose answer is in the snippet; you should get a response that quotes the snippet content.

Snippet structure

Each snippet has:

  • Title. Short label shown in retrieval citations. Customer-facing.
  • Content. The actual text. Up to 100 KB (about 25,000 words).
  • Audience tags (optional). Restricts to verified users matching the tags.
  • Source URL (optional). What the citation links to when surfaced.
  • Priority (optional). Higher-priority snippets surface ahead of comparable retrieval matches.
  • Last updated (auto). When the snippet was last edited.

For most snippets, just a title and content. Audience and priority are advanced.

Retrieval priority

Snippets compete with crawled documents during retrieval. By default, snippets and docs are weighted equally. To boost snippets above docs, configure under Knowledge > Snippets > Priority Weight.

This is useful when you want sales-specific snippets to surface ahead of generic marketing content. Tune the weight per workspace.

When to use snippets vs docs vs Q&A pairs

A decision matrix:

  • Document is published somewhere (website, Notion, Confluence). Index it as a doc. Re-sync keeps it fresh.
  • Content is short, one-off, and shouldn't live in a doc. Use a snippet.
  • Content is a specific question with a specific canonical answer. Use a Q&A pair.

A typical workspace has 20 to 100 snippets, 5 to 50 indexed docs, and 30 to 200 Q&A pairs.

Markdown support

Snippets accept Markdown formatting. Useful for:

  • Bullet lists of policy points.
  • Tables of pricing or comparison data.
  • Code blocks for technical snippets.
  • Bold and italic emphasis.

The bot preserves formatting when surfacing the snippet content in its reply.

Audience tagging

Like all knowledge sources, snippets support audience tags. Tag a snippet audience: ["sales_team"] and only verified visitors whose audience set includes sales_team see it.

Useful for internal-only content (sales talking points, internal pricing) that shouldn't surface to anonymous website visitors. Growth+

Limits

  • Per-workspace cap. 100 snippets on Free, 500 on Starter, 1,500 on Growth, 5,000 on Business.
  • Per-snippet length. Up to 100 KB (about 25,000 words).
  • Markdown features. Tables, lists, code blocks, links. No embedded images.

Bulk import

For migrating from another knowledge tool, bulk-import snippets via CSV:

  1. Knowledge > Snippets > Import CSV.
  2. CSV columns: title, content, audience (semicolon-separated), source_url, priority.
  3. Upload. Each row creates a snippet.

Up to 1,000 rows per CSV. For larger imports, split into multiple files.

Common pitfalls

Snippet doesn't surface in retrieval. Visitor's question doesn't match the snippet's semantic content. Add keywords to the snippet's title (which embeds with stronger weight) or write the snippet in the same vocabulary your customers use.

Bot quotes outdated snippet content. Snippet wasn't updated when the underlying fact changed. Edit the snippet directly; changes apply within seconds.

Snippet conflicts with crawled doc. Both mention the same topic with different details. Either delete the doc, delete the snippet, or update both to agree. Bot may quote whichever has higher relevance score, leading to confused customers.

Customer asks for citation link but snippet has no URL. Set the source_url field. Without it, the bot can quote but can't link.

FAQ

Can I write a snippet in a non-English language?

Yes. AskVault's embedding models handle major languages. For mixed-language workspaces, tag snippets with their language for better retrieval routing.

How do I share snippets across workspaces?

You don't. Each workspace has its own snippet collection. For shared knowledge across multiple workspaces, use Notion or another central source that all workspaces ingest from.

Can snippets reference each other?

Snippets are independent. A snippet can include a Markdown link to another snippet via its source URL, but the bot retrieves them independently.

Do snippets count toward my content storage cap?

Marginally. Each snippet is 1 to 100 KB. 1,000 snippets averaging 10 KB each = about 10 MB.

Can I version-control snippets?

Not natively. For version control, edit snippets via the API and keep the JSON state in your own git repo. Auto-sync via custom integration possible on Enterprise.

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