Learning Outcomes
- Understand what Knowledge Builder is and when to use it.
- Learn what file types and limits are supported for knowledge sources.
- Know where to access Knowledge Builder in Foundry Connect.
Knowledge Builder Overview
Knowledge Builder lets you create a custom AI assistant that answers questions using your uploaded documents as its knowledge base. This feature uses RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation): when you ask a question, Foundry Connect searches for the most relevant sections from your sources, then uses those sections to generate an answer.
Knowledge Builder is useful when you want:
- Consistent answers grounded in your lab / team documentation (SOPs, specs, internal notes).
- A focused assistant for a specific project or domain (for example, “RNA-seq QC helper”).
- Multi-document Q&A without manually searching across many files.
Supported knowledge source files and limits
When creating an assistant, you can upload knowledge sources with the following limits:
| Format | Maximum Size (each) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 20 MB | May include charts/images; ingestion can take longer. | |
| HTML/HTM | 20 MB | May include charts/images; ingestion can take longer. |
| MD | 20 MB | Recommended for clean text content. |
| TXT | 20 MB | Recommended for clean text content. |
- You can upload up to 20 files per assistant at creation time.
About PDFs/HTML with images
PDFs and HTML reports can include images or charts. During ingestion, Foundry Connect may analyze these visuals to improve retrieval quality, which can increase processing time and provider token usage.
Accessing Knowledge Builder
- Navigate to Cortex → Knowledge Builder
- Use Add Assistant to create a new Knowledge Builder assistant
Feature availability
Knowledge Builder is part of the Cortex feature set and may require being enabled for your account. If you don’t see Cortex or Knowledge Builder, contact your administrator to confirm access (for example, the FF_MODEL_SMITH feature flag).
Prerequisites
AI integration token required
Knowledge Builder requires at least one AI provider integration token (for example OpenAI, Gemini, or Claude) under Account → Profile → Integration Tokens.
See Integration Tokens.