Letterbook Docs

External knowledge base

Use customer-facing knowledge articles in the user portal and choose between manual and synced sources.

Last updated June 25, 2026

What this guide covers#

The external knowledge base is the customer-facing side of Letterbook knowledge. It contains the articles customers can browse from the user portal and the public explanations the AI can reference when drafting replies.

Use external knowledge for content you would be comfortable showing directly to a customer:

Setup guides
Product FAQs
Troubleshooting steps
Billing and subscription explanations
Feature availability and plan-limit details
Contact support instructions

Keep private support procedures in internal knowledge. For the full comparison, see Internal vs external knowledge.

How it connects to the user portal#

External knowledge is displayed on the user portal. Customers can search it, browse categories, open articles, and submit a ticket if the article does not solve their issue.

Portal-related guides:

External knowledge is the content layer. The user portal is the customer-facing destination where that content appears.

Customer visibility#

External articles are not automatically public the moment they exist.

For an external article to appear in the user portal:

It must be in Knowledge Base > External.
It must be marked Ready.
The portal must be launched or published.

When you publish the portal, Letterbook snapshots the ready external articles into the public portal deployment. Draft external articles and internal articles are not included in that public snapshot.

Source modes#

External knowledge can be managed in two source modes:

Mode	Best when	Editing behavior
Manual	You want to write and maintain articles directly in Letterbook	Articles are editable in Letterbook
Sync from URL	You already have a public help center or docs site that should remain the source of truth	Synced articles are managed by the crawler and cannot be edited by hand

You choose the source from Knowledge Base > External > Source.

Manual mode#

Manual mode is the best starting point when your help center is new or when Letterbook should be the source of truth for customer-facing docs.

Use manual mode when:

You are creating your first user portal.
Your current docs are incomplete or outdated.
Support owns the help content directly.
You want to edit categories and articles in Letterbook.
You want to review each article before marking it Ready.

In manual mode, you can create sections, write articles, mark drafts as Ready, preview the portal, and publish updates.

If you have connected inboxes and no external articles yet, Letterbook can also help generate a starting knowledge base from existing tickets. Review generated content before marking it Ready.

Sync from URL mode#

Sync from URL mode is for teams that already maintain customer-facing documentation somewhere else.

Use sync mode when:

You already have a public help center or docs site.
Another CMS is the source of truth.
Product or docs teams update content outside Letterbook.
You want Letterbook to crawl selected public pages instead of rewriting them manually.

To configure sync:

Open Knowledge Base > External.
Select Source.
Choose Sync from URL.
Enter the root URL for the help center or docs section.
Review the discovered pages.
Select the pages Letterbook should sync.
Submit and sync.

Syncing overwrites existing external articles with the synced content. When sync mode is active, external articles are read-only in Letterbook because the crawler manages them. Edit the source help center or docs site, then sync again.

After a successful sync, Letterbook shows sync status and syncs hourly.

Choosing a source mode#

Choose Manual if Letterbook should own the public content. Choose Sync from URL if another website should own the public content.

Question	Choose Manual if	Choose Sync from URL if
Where should edits happen?	In Letterbook	In your existing help center or docs CMS
Do you already have customer docs?	No, or they need to be rewritten	Yes, and they are accurate
Who owns content quality?	Support or CX	Docs, product, marketing, or another CMS owner
Do you need page selection from a crawl?	No	Yes
Should Letterbook articles be editable?	Yes	No, synced articles are read-only

What to publish first#

Start with articles that reduce repetitive tickets:

How to get started
How to reset login or account access
How billing, invoices, cancellations, or refunds work
How to troubleshoot your most common error states
How to contact support and what details to include

Keep articles focused. One specific question per article usually works better than broad FAQ pages that cover unrelated topics.