How to create a knowledge base from your documents
A practical, step-by-step method to turn scattered PDFs, Word files and spreadsheets into a knowledge base your team can trust.
By the Ophiry team · Updated on October 23, 2026
A knowledge base built from your documents starts with the files you already have, not a blank page. You add the documents, an AI reads all of them and flags what contradicts what, you approve a plan, and every article is written with its sources. The first version takes hours instead of weeks, and a person checks it before anyone reads it.
Build your knowledge base
From your source documents to a first wiki, one step at a time. Everything here can be changed later.
Documents – Add source documents
Map – Read your documents
Design the structure
Set editorial rules
Generate the first plan
The editor drafts a full outline from your documents. You review and approve it before anything is written.
Why start from your documents
Most organisations already wrote their knowledge down: procedures, handbooks, contracts, slide decks, spreadsheets. The problem is not that the knowledge is missing. It is scattered, duplicated in several versions, and nobody knows which one is current. A knowledge base built from those documents keeps what is true, makes it easy to find, and ties every statement to the document it comes from.
The six steps
| Step | What you do | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Add your documents | Gather the useful files, in their original format | Documents read and ready |
| 2. Read the documents and check the map | Spot what contradicts or replaces what, and decide | One version that applies for each subject |
| 3. Design the structure and generate the plan | Decide the articles and the subjects of each | A plan with no duplicates |
| 4. Approve the plan and write | Approve the plan, let the AI write | Clear articles with sources |
| 5. Publish | Make the knowledge base available to readers | A published edition |
| 6. Ask the knowledge base | Ask questions in your own words | Answers with their sources |
1. Add your documents
Do not clean the files first. Old versions, scans and spreadsheets are useful: they show what changed and when. Keep the original formats (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, CSV, Markdown, web pages) so nothing is lost in a conversion.
In Ophiry, this is the first step of the "Build your knowledge base" screen: "Add documents". Each file is then read in the background until it is "Ready".
2. Read the documents and check the map
Before writing anything, read the whole set once. Which subjects come up? Which documents disagree? Which one replaces an older one? A recent policy that replaces an old handbook is the most common source of wrong answers in a knowledge base, and only a reading of the whole corpus can catch it.
In Ophiry, the "Map – Read your documents" step produces the Map: the files in disagreement, the older version struck through beside the one that applies now. You check it, then click "I've checked these". Nothing is written before that.
Already decided
0
Files disagree
4
Never explained
0
You've checked
0 of 4
Annual leaveSeniority increases annual leave entitlement
Corvella Employee Handbook 2025.pdfpreviously
Full-time employees receive 21 days of paid annual leave per calendar year.
Corvella Leave Policy.pdfnow
1 to 4 years: 21 · 5 to 9 years: 23 · 10 years or more: 25
3. Design the structure and generate the plan
Give every subject exactly one home. If leave appears in the handbook, the HR policy and an FAQ, it still gets one article that draws on all three. A plan with one article per subject prevents the contradictory pages most wikis end up with.
In Ophiry, three optional steps come before the plan: "Design the structure", "Ask for specific articles" and "Set editorial rules". Then comes "Generate the first plan". You can ask the "Editor in Chief" for changes in your own words.
Structure
Editor in Chief
Tell the editor what to change about the plan.
Add an article on public holidays
Done: "Public holidays" is in the plan, written from the Employee Handbook.
4. Approve the plan and write
Each article should be written from the documents it covers, and every statement should point to the passage it comes from. Readers can check, and when a source document changes, you know which articles to update.
In Ophiry, you click "Approve & write". Every sentence of the article carries a citation mark that opens its source document.
Annual leave
A full-time employee receives 21 days of annual leave, 23 days from 5 to 9 years of service and 25 days after that.1 An absence of up to five days is requested in the HR portal at least two weeks in advance.2 Up to five unused days can be carried over, and must be taken before 31 March.3
5. Publish
An AI can write the first version; a person who knows the subject should review it before it is published. That review is short when every sentence carries its source.
In Ophiry, articles stay in "Draft" until you click "Publish": the knowledge base becomes a new edition, the one readers will see.
6. Ask the knowledge base
A knowledge base is useful when the answer takes seconds to find. Readers ask in their own words, and the answer cites the article it comes from.
Ophiry is a software that turns an organisation's documents into a clear knowledge base, written by AI and checked by people, that everyone can ask questions to and get answers with their sources. Each reader sees only what is meant for them.
How many vacation days do I get after 5 years?
You receive 23 days of annual leave after five years of service (the 5–9 years entitlement is 23 days) [1].
- Full-time entitlement for the 5–9 year band: 23 days.
Sources
1. Leave
Answering only from articles you can access in this knowledge base.
Common mistakes
- Starting from a blank page. You will rewrite what already exists, and introduce new errors.
- Copying documents into pages. A copy of a 40-page PDF is not an article; nobody will read it.
- Several pages for one subject. Readers find one of them and miss the correction in another.
- No sources. Without them, nobody can tell a current rule from an outdated one.
- No owner. A knowledge base without someone responsible for updates is out of date within months.