How Pippin Finds Answers in Your Knowledge

Summary

Overview: Pippin answers customers from the files, web pages and text you add to its knowledge. Before it states any fact, it searches your knowledge and bases its answer only on what it finds. This guide explains how that search works and how to check which documents Pippin can use.

Prerequisites:

• You are an Admin. Only Admins see Settings.
• You have added at least one document. See How to Add a File to Pippin's Knowledge.

How Pippin Decides

1. Search first, every time. Before Pippin writes a reply to a customer's message, its first step is always a search of your knowledge. It can search again with different words if the first search does not find the exact fact.
2. Only your own, switched-on documents. The search looks only at your own workspace's documents. Documents you set to Inactive are never searched. A document that is still Queued or Indexing, or that Failed, may have nothing Pippin can search yet, so wait until it shows Active.
3. Words and meaning. The search matches both the exact words (useful for codes, plan names and place names) and the meaning of the question. A document's file name counts too.
4. Facts come only from what it found. For products, prices, availability, inclusions, dates and policies, Pippin only says what the search returned.
5. Prices. Pippin may quote a price that appears in your knowledge, and says it is the published rate. It never invents a price. For custom or negotiated pricing, it says a tailored price will be prepared instead of writing a figure.
6. When nothing is found. Only after repeated searches find nothing does Pippin tell the customer it will confirm and follow up. It never makes up details.
7. Photos. A photo in your knowledge is searched by what it shows. When a customer asks for pictures, Pippin says which photos you have and offers to have your team send them. Pippin cannot attach files itself.
8. Other things shape the reply too. Your mission, tone of voice, answer length and guidance rules decide how Pippin says it. Questions unrelated to your business are politely declined. See What Topics Pippin Won't Discuss.

Limits

• Knowledge works on every plan and on the free trial.
• Pippin also uses your knowledge to price quotes it drafts. Quotes always wait for approval. See How Pippin Drafts a Quote.
• Pippin is told never to promise firm dates or confirm bookings and payments in writing.
• Follow-up sequence messages also search your knowledge, but they cannot draft quotes or propose bookings.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Check which documents Pippin can search

1. Go to Settings › AI Studio and open the Knowledge tab.
2. Look at each document's status:
   • Active: searched by Pippin.
   • Queued or Indexing: still being prepared. It becomes searchable when it shows Active.
   • Failed: could not be prepared. The reason shows under the status; hover over it to read all of it.
   • Inactive: switched off, so not searched.

Step 2: Switch a document on or off

1. Click the ⋮ menu on the document's row.
2. Click Deactivate to stop Pippin using it, or Activate to use it again.

Step 3: Fix a document that failed

1. Click the ⋮ menu on the row.
2. Click Re-index. For a document imported from Google Drive, you can also click Re-sync from Drive.
3. If it still fails, Delete it and add it again.

Step 4: Test an answer

1. In Settings › AI Studio, click Test Pippin and ask a question in Customer view.
2. Open Event log to see the sources Pippin used for that answer.
3. If the answer is wrong or missing, add or update the document that should contain it. See How to Test Pippin Before Going Live.

Verify It Worked

Success criteria:

• The documents you want Pippin to use show Active.
• In the preview, Pippin answers with facts from those documents, and the Event log lists them as sources.

Troubleshooting

Common errors

• Pippin says it will confirm and follow up: no active document contained the answer. Fix: add the fact to your knowledge. See How to Paste Text or an FAQ Into Pippin's Knowledge.
• Pippin uses an old price: an outdated document is still Active. Fix: Deactivate or Delete the old document, or re-sync it from Drive.
• A document shows Failed: it could not be read. Fix: Re-index it, or add the content another way.

Limitations & considerations

• A price that is only in a photo or a scanned page may be harder to find. Put key prices in text as well.
• Deactivating a document affects the next reply. Replies already sent are not changed.

Next Steps & Related Resources

• Next steps:
  • How to Manage Knowledge Documents
  • How to Test Pippin Before Going Live
• Related articles:
  • How to Add a File to Pippin's Knowledge
  • How to Add Your Website to Pippin's Knowledge
  • How to Import Knowledge From Google Drive
  • How to Add Guidance Rules
  • What Topics Pippin Won't Discuss
  • Can Pippin See Images Customers Send?
  • How Pippin Drafts a Quote

Need more help? For more information and assistance, please send an email to support@pippify.ai.

Last Updated: 10/12/2026