Docs Knowledge Base

Knowledge Base

Build and manage your FAQ library, auto-generate content with AI, and enable in-chat knowledge suggestions for visitors.

Overview

The Knowledge Base is a built-in FAQ and article management system inside Helpon. Access it from your WordPress admin at Helpon → Knowledge Base. It serves two purposes:

  • Self-service resource — Visitors browse and search articles directly from the chat widget or a dedicated KB page on your site.
  • AI context source — Every published article is automatically indexed and fed to the AI engine. When a visitor asks a question, the AI searches your Knowledge Base first, producing accurate, site-specific answers instead of generic responses.
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AI Context Priority

When the AI engine responds to a visitor, it checks your Knowledge Base articles before falling back to its general training data. A well-maintained KB dramatically improves answer accuracy and reduces hallucinations.

The Knowledge Base dashboard displays a summary of total articles, published vs. draft counts, total views, average helpfulness rating, and top-searched queries that have no matching article (gap analysis).

Creating Articles

Each Knowledge Base article consists of a title, rich-text body, category, tags, status, featured image, and optional SEO metadata. To create a new article:

1

Open the Editor

Navigate to Helpon → Knowledge Base → Add New Article. The article editor opens in a full-width panel.

2

Enter the Title

Write a clear, question-style title that matches how visitors phrase their queries. For example: "How do I reschedule my appointment?" or "What insurance plans do you accept?"

3

Write the Body

Use the rich text editor to compose your answer. You can add headings, bold/italic text, bulleted and numbered lists, links, images, embedded videos, and code blocks. Keep answers concise and scannable.

4

Set Category & Tags

Assign the article to a category (e.g., Billing, Appointments, General) and add relevant tags for improved searchability.

5

Configure SEO & Publish

Optionally fill in the SEO meta title and meta description for the public KB page. Set the article status to Published or save as Draft. Click Save Article.

Article Title *
How do I reschedule my appointment?
Body *
To reschedule your appointment, log in to the patient portal and navigate to My Appointments. Click the Reschedule button next to the appointment you want to change, then select a new date and time...
Category
Appointments ▾
Status
Published ▾
Tags
reschedule appointment booking
SEO Meta Title
Reschedule Appointment | My Clinic FAQ
Featured Image
Upload or select from media library
Writing Tip

Use question-format titles that mirror how visitors actually ask. The AI matches visitor questions against article titles first, so natural phrasing improves suggestion accuracy.

Categories & Tags

Categories and tags organize your Knowledge Base into a browsable structure. Navigate to Helpon → Knowledge Base → Categories to manage them.

Managing Categories

  • Create categories — Give each category a name, optional description, and icon (choose from the built-in icon library or upload a custom SVG).
  • Nest sub-categories — Drag and drop categories to create a hierarchy up to 3 levels deep. For example: Billing → Insurance → Claims.
  • Display order — Drag to reorder categories. The order you set here is reflected on the public KB page and in the widget's article browser.
  • Category icons — Each category can display an icon next to its name. Supported formats are SVG, emoji, or any icon from the built-in library.

Using Tags

Tags are flat labels applied to articles for cross-category discoverability. Unlike categories, tags have no hierarchy. Use tags for synonyms, related terms, and alternate phrasings. For example, an article in the "Appointments" category might have tags like reschedule, cancel, change time, and booking.

Categories
📄 General 8 articles
📅 Appointments 12 articles
🕒 Scheduling 5 articles
Cancellations 3 articles
💰 Billing 10 articles
🩺 Services 6 articles

AI Auto-Generation

Helpon can automatically generate FAQ articles by analyzing your conversation history. The AI identifies frequently asked questions that don't yet have a Knowledge Base article and drafts answers based on how your agents (or the AI itself) previously responded.

One-Click Generation

1

Open AI Generator

Go to Helpon → Knowledge Base → AI Generate. The system scans your recent conversations (last 30 days by default) and identifies unanswered or frequently repeated topics.

2

Review Suggestions

The AI presents a list of suggested articles, each with a draft title, proposed body content, suggested category, and a confidence score. Higher scores indicate more frequently asked topics.

3

Edit & Approve

Click any suggestion to open it in the article editor. Review the AI-drafted content, make edits for accuracy and tone, assign the correct category and tags, then click Publish or Save as Draft.

4

Dismiss or Regenerate

If a suggestion is not relevant, click Dismiss to remove it from the queue. Click Regenerate to have the AI rewrite the draft with a different approach.

Bulk Generation

Select multiple suggestions at once and click Approve All as Drafts to create them all as draft articles. You can then review and publish each one individually from the Knowledge Base article list.

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Always Review AI-Generated Content

AI-generated articles are drafts and should always be reviewed before publishing. Verify facts, check medical or legal accuracy, and ensure the tone matches your brand voice. Never auto-publish AI content without human review.

In-Chat Suggestions

When a visitor types a question in the chat widget, Helpon's AI engine searches your Knowledge Base in real-time and surfaces matching articles as suggestion cards directly in the conversation. This helps visitors find answers instantly without waiting for an agent.

How It Works

  • Semantic matching — The AI uses semantic search (not just keyword matching) to find articles relevant to the visitor's question, even if different words are used.
  • Relevance scoring — Each potential match is scored from 0 to 100. Only articles above the configured threshold (default: 70) are shown as suggestions.
  • Suggestion card — Matching articles appear as compact cards in the chat, showing the article title and a short preview. The visitor clicks a card to expand the full article inline.
  • Fallback to AI — If no article meets the relevance threshold, the AI generates a response from its general knowledge and your site context instead.
How do I cancel my appointment?
I found an article that might help:
📚 How to Cancel or Reschedule an Appointment
You can cancel or reschedule your appointment through the patient portal up to 24 hours before...
Click to read full article →
If you need further assistance with cancelling, I can connect you with our front desk team. Would you like me to do that?

Configuration

Adjust in-chat suggestion behavior from Helpon → Settings → Knowledge Base → Suggestions:

  • Enable/Disable — Toggle in-chat KB suggestions on or off.
  • Relevance threshold — Set the minimum score (0–100) required for an article to be suggested. Default is 70.
  • Max suggestions per message — Limit how many articles can be shown per visitor message. Default is 2.
  • Show preview text — Toggle the excerpt preview below the article title in suggestion cards.

Search Configuration

Helpon includes a built-in search engine for your Knowledge Base that supports fuzzy matching, typo tolerance, and weighted field search. Configure search settings under Helpon → Settings → Knowledge Base → Search.

Search Options

  • Public KB search — Enable or disable the search bar on your public Knowledge Base page.
  • Fuzzy matching — Allow partial and approximate matches so visitors find articles even with typos (e.g., "apointment" matches "appointment").
  • Search weights — Configure how much weight is given to title matches vs. body matches vs. tag matches. Defaults: Title 3x, Tags 2x, Body 1x.
  • Widget search — Add a search bar inside the chat widget so visitors can browse the KB without leaving the chat.

KB Page Shortcode

Embed a full, searchable Knowledge Base page on any WordPress page using the shortcode:

Shortcode
[helpon_knowledge_base]

You can customize the shortcode with parameters:

Shortcode with Parameters
[helpon_knowledge_base categories="billing,appointments" columns="2" search="true" per_page="12"]
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SEO Benefit

The public KB page is fully indexable by search engines. Each article generates its own permalink with proper heading structure and schema markup, helping drive organic traffic to your site.

Article Analytics

Track how visitors interact with your Knowledge Base from Helpon → Knowledge Base → Analytics. Use these insights to identify content gaps, improve underperforming articles, and understand what your visitors need most.

Metric Description Location
Total Views Number of times an article has been viewed on the KB page or expanded in chat Article list & detail
Helpful Rating Percentage of visitors who clicked "Helpful" vs. "Not Helpful" on an article Article detail
Search Queries List of search terms visitors used, with result count and click-through rate Analytics tab
Top Articles Ranked list of most-viewed and highest-rated articles over a given date range Analytics tab
Gap Analysis Search queries that returned zero results, indicating missing content opportunities Analytics tab
Suggestion CTR Click-through rate on in-chat KB suggestion cards Analytics tab
Deflection Rate Percentage of conversations resolved by KB articles without agent escalation Analytics tab
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Using Gap Analysis

Check the Gap Analysis report weekly. It shows the exact questions visitors are searching for but not finding answers to. Use this data to prioritize which new articles to create next.

Import & Export

Helpon supports bulk import and export of Knowledge Base articles, making it easy to migrate from another platform or maintain backups.

CSV Import

Import articles in bulk using a CSV file. Navigate to Helpon → Knowledge Base → Import/Export → Import CSV. Your CSV file must follow this format:

CSV Format
title,body,category,tags,status
"How do I book an appointment?","Visit our website and click Book Now...","Appointments","booking,schedule,new patient","published"
"What insurance do you accept?","We accept most major insurance plans...","Billing","insurance,payment,coverage","published"
"Where are you located?","Our clinic is located at 123 Main St...","General","location,address,directions","draft"
  • title (required) — The article title.
  • body (required) — Article content. Supports plain text or basic HTML.
  • category (optional) — Category name. If it does not exist, it will be created automatically.
  • tags (optional) — Comma-separated list of tags (within quotes if the CSV field itself uses commas).
  • status (optional) — published or draft. Defaults to draft if omitted.

JSON Export

Export your entire Knowledge Base (or selected articles) as a JSON file from Helpon → Knowledge Base → Import/Export → Export. The JSON export includes all article fields, categories, tags, and metadata. This format is ideal for backups and for migrating between Helpon installations.

JSON Export Example
{
  "version": "1.0",
  "exported_at": "2026-03-01T12:00:00Z",
  "articles": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "title": "How do I book an appointment?",
      "body": "<p>Visit our website and click <strong>Book Now</strong>...</p>",
      "category": "Appointments",
      "tags": ["booking", "schedule", "new patient"],
      "status": "published",
      "created_at": "2026-01-15T09:30:00Z",
      "updated_at": "2026-02-20T14:15:00Z",
      "views": 342,
      "helpful_yes": 89,
      "helpful_no": 7
    }
  ]
}

Bulk Operations

From the article list view, select multiple articles using the checkboxes and use the Bulk Actions dropdown to:

  • Change status (publish or unpublish multiple articles at once)
  • Move to a different category
  • Add or remove tags
  • Export selected articles
  • Delete selected articles

Migration from Other Plugins

Helpon includes built-in migration tools for popular WordPress KB plugins. Go to Helpon → Knowledge Base → Import/Export → Migrate and select your source plugin. Supported sources include:

  • BetterDocs
  • Heroic Knowledge Base
  • Echo Knowledge Base
  • WP Starter Knowledge Base
Backup Before Migration

Always export your existing KB data as a JSON backup before running a migration. While the migration tool preserves your original data, having a backup ensures you can restore if needed.

Troubleshooting

Common issues with the Knowledge Base and their solutions:

Articles not appearing in chat suggestions

  • Verify the article status is Published, not Draft. Only published articles are indexed for AI suggestions.
  • Check that in-chat suggestions are enabled in Helpon → Settings → Knowledge Base → Suggestions.
  • The relevance threshold may be set too high. Try lowering it from 70 to 50 and test again.
  • After publishing new articles, click Rebuild Index in the Knowledge Base settings to force a re-index. Indexing usually happens automatically within 5 minutes.

Search not returning results

  • Ensure fuzzy matching is enabled if visitors use varied spelling or abbreviations.
  • Check that the articles exist and are published. Draft articles are excluded from search results.
  • Review the search weight configuration. If title weight is set to 0, title-only matches will not appear.
  • Try rebuilding the search index from Helpon → Knowledge Base → Settings → Rebuild Search Index.

AI not using Knowledge Base context

  • Confirm the Knowledge Base module is enabled in Helpon → Settings → Modules.
  • Verify your AI provider (Claude or OpenAI) is properly configured and the API key is valid in Helpon → Settings → AI.
  • Check the AI context settings: go to Helpon → Settings → AI → Context Sources and ensure "Knowledge Base" is checked.
  • If you recently added articles, the AI context cache may need refreshing. Click Clear AI Cache in the AI settings panel.
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Index Rebuild

If articles are missing from both search and AI suggestions, a full index rebuild usually resolves the issue. Go to Helpon → Knowledge Base → Settings and click Rebuild All Indexes. This process may take a few minutes for large Knowledge Bases (500+ articles).