Troubleshooting guide
Knowledge Assistants: Diagnostic Guide
Knowledge Assistants: Diagnostic Guide organizes the decisions that matter for businesses building internal assistants grounded in documents, policies, products, support information, or operational knowledge: the current workflow, ownership, implementation choices, rollout risk, and acceptance evidence.
Working artifact
Knowledge Assistants implementation-path comparison
Compare the smallest responsible paths before treating replacement as the default.
| Path | Best fit | Watch closely |
|---|---|---|
| Repair | The core of document ingestion and knowledge indexing remains sound | Employees search several repositories for one answer |
| Extend | RAG architecture and vector search has a stable, understood boundary | Generic AI invents policies or product facts |
| Replace | Ownership or architecture prevents a responsible repair | Sensitive documents must respect access levels |
Record the symptom before changing it
Employees search several repositories for one answer. Confirm who encounters it, where it occurs, and what changed before it appeared. Then distinguish the visible symptom from dependencies such as RAG architecture and vector search.
- Save exact error text
- Record the last known working date
- List recent code, content, vendor, DNS, or account changes
Separate reachability, data, and behavior
For Custom AI Assistants & Knowledge Systems, confirm account ownership, current exports or backups, recovery options, and recent changes before touching production. Preserve exact errors and timestamps that may disappear after a restart or update.
- Reachability check for identity-aware retrieval
- Data or content check related to document ingestion and knowledge indexing
- Behavior check for retrieval-augmented question answering
Use stop conditions
Frame the first scope around document ingestion and knowledge indexing and one observable acceptance journey. Treat retrieval-augmented question answering as a later phase unless the evidence shows it is a true dependency.
- No confirmed backup
- Unknown production ownership
- Security or payment data may be involved
Verify the repair in the real journey
Repair fits when the core remains sound. Extension fits when the boundary around RAG architecture and vector search is understood. Replacement fits when ownership, architecture, or operating risk prevents a responsible change.
- Document ingestion and knowledge indexing
- Citations and source traceability
- Citation and confidence interfaces