Troubleshooting answers

When an agent gives a poor answer, the cause is almost always one of four things: the knowledge isn't there, the right knowledge wasn't found, the question was refused, or the conversation settings got in the way. This guide shows how to tell which.

Start with the citations

Ask the same question in Work → Conversations and click the numbered citations. You'll see exactly which passages the answer was built from.

• The right passage is cited, but the answer is still wrong: tell your Appricity contact, with the question and the passage.
• Wrong or weak passages are cited: see The right knowledge wasn't found.
• Nothing relevant is cited: see The knowledge isn't there.

The knowledge isn't there

• Check Knowledge → Sources: is the document you expected there, and ready? A source still processing isn't used yet, and a failed one shows the reason on its page.
• Was the information only in an image, a scanned PDF or a page that needs sign-in? Those can't be read; add a text version.
• Is the source in a scope the agent's role surface can't see?

The right knowledge wasn't found

• Language: is the source's language set correctly? A French document recorded as English is still found, but less reliably.
• Wording: buyers may use a name your documents don't. Add a product-graph entity with the buyer's name for it, and tag the relevant passages.
• Version: if you use releases, check the source's version binding. A source bound to an old release isn't used for questions about the current one.
• Competing material: an old document saying something different may win. Delete it or bind it to its release.

The question was refused or deferred

A refused answer shows the refusal message; a deferred one says it can't help with that.

• Open Knowledge → Refusal policy and find the topic. Is its classifier description too broad? "Pricing" described as "anything about money" catches questions about ROI. Tighten it, save, and ask again.
• Should the topic be refused at all? Switch it to Not refusing if not.

The conversation settings got in the way

For channel conversations, check the connection's Answer incoming messages settings:

• A hand-over happened too soon: review Hand over to a person when. "Annoyed or upset" and "unclear opt-out" are deliberately cautious.
• No reply at all: the status line lists anything unanswered today with the reason: outside hours, flagged for review, a limit reached, opted out, or the monthly platform allowance used up.
• It answered someone it shouldn't: switch Who should the agent answer? to Smart triage or Known contacts only.

Ingestion problems

Re-ingest on the source's page runs it again.

When should I contact Appricity?

When you've checked the above and still can't explain an answer. Send the question, the time, the conversation link and what you expected, and we'll look at exactly what happened.