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How knowledge files work

Give your Chirp files to answer from, like a guide or a price list, and see how it uses them.

EssentialsCreatorBusinessAcademyFor: Account owner, Workspace admin, Editor

When you're done, you know what knowledge files do and where to manage them.

Who can do this: the account owner on any plan, and workspace admins and editors.

Knowledge files are documents your Chirp answers from: a product guide, a price list, a course workbook, your FAQs. They work like the files you gave a Custom GPT.

Garden Helper's knowledge: two files it answers from.

How a Chirp uses them

  • It doesn't retrain the AI model. When you add a file, its text is read in your browser and kept with your Chirp. The original file is stored privately.
  • With each question, the model gets your files' text along with the question. Usually that's all of it while your files are small, and otherwise the passages that best match the question; you can change this. See How a Chirp uses its files.
  • It's told to prefer your files over what it already knows, to mention the file name when it relies on one, and to say so when your files don't cover the question.
  • Files are reference material, not instructions. The model is told to ignore commands written inside a file. Put your rules in the Chirp's instructions: see Write instructions for your Chirp.

Where to find them

In the Chirp's editor, section 4. Knowledge. A new Chirp needs saving first: until then the section says "Save your Chirp first, then add knowledge files here."

Good to know

  • Files apply straight away, for visitors too. You don't need to save or publish.
  • Saved versions don't include files. Going back to an earlier version, or discarding changes, doesn't bring back a file you removed.
  • Visitors can't download your files, but the Chirp quotes from them, and a determined visitor may get it to repeat parts. Don't put anything private in a knowledge file. Keep instructions confidential (under 6. Capabilities, on unless you turn it off) also asks the model not to repeat your files word for word, but it's a request to the model, not a lock.
  • Files count toward your knowledge storage, which is for your whole account: see Knowledge storage and your plan's limit.
  • An AI app can add files too. If you've connected Claude or ChatGPT to Chirp Builder, it can add and remove knowledge files in your own Chirps. It sends the file's text rather than the file itself. See Build and update Chirps with your AI app.

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Checked against the app on October 27, 2026.