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Internal vs external knowledge

Understand which knowledge base content is private, which content can appear in the user portal, and how the AI uses each type.

Last updated June 25, 2026

What this guide covers#

Letterbook separates knowledge base content by audience:

Internal knowledge is private guidance for your support team and AI agent.
External knowledge is customer-facing content that can be published to the user portal.

This distinction affects who can see an article, what the AI can use for draft replies, and which content can be edited automatically.

Quick comparison#

Area	Internal knowledge	External knowledge
Primary audience	Agents and the AI agent	Customers and the AI agent
Where it lives	Knowledge Base > Internal	Knowledge Base > External
Customer visibility	Not shown in the user portal	Can be shown in the user portal after it is ready and published
Best for	Procedures, policies, escalation rules, decision trees	Help articles, FAQs, how-to guides, troubleshooting steps
AI can read it	Yes	Yes
AI can edit it	Yes, for supported knowledge maintenance workflows	Treated as customer-facing and requires human approval before publishing

Internal knowledge#

Internal knowledge is the place for instructions that help Letterbook decide what to do.

Use internal categories and articles for:

Refund, cancellation, and exception rules
Account access and identity verification procedures
Escalation paths for legal, privacy, security, or abuse issues
Data lookup instructions for Stripe, Shopify, your database, or other integrations
Tone guidance and phrases to avoid
When the AI should ask for review instead of answering
Which actions require approval before they run

Internal knowledge does not appear in the user portal. It can contain operational detail that customers should not see, but it should still avoid secrets, raw credentials, private keys, and unnecessary customer data.

External knowledge#

External knowledge is the source for your public help content.

Use external categories and articles for:

Customer-facing setup guides
Product FAQs
Billing and subscription explanations
Troubleshooting steps customers can follow themselves
Feature availability and plan-limit explanations
Contact support instructions

External articles are written as if you are speaking directly to the customer. They should not include internal refund thresholds, private escalation notes, internal system names, or agent-only decision rules.

For source modes, portal publishing, and sync behavior, see External knowledge base.

How external knowledge reaches the user portal#

External knowledge is not automatically public just because it exists.

For a customer to see an article in the user portal:

The article must be in an external category.
The article must be marked Ready.
The portal must be launched or published so Letterbook snapshots the ready external articles.

The public portal serves that deployment snapshot. Draft external articles and internal articles are not included in the public portal.

For portal setup details, see What is the user portal?, User portal functionality, and Configure the user portal.

What the AI looks at#

When Letterbook drafts a reply, it can look at both internal and external knowledge.

Internal knowledge helps the AI decide:

What policy applies
Which data source to check
Whether the issue needs escalation
What action can be suggested
What should require human approval
What not to say to the customer

External knowledge helps the AI answer in customer-facing language:

How to explain a feature
Which setup steps to give the customer
What troubleshooting sequence to suggest
Which public article can support the answer

Good replies often use both. For example, an external article may explain how cancellation works, while an internal article tells the AI when a refund exception is allowed and who must approve it.

What the AI can edit#

Letterbook treats internal and external knowledge differently.

The AI can use supported knowledge maintenance workflows to update internal knowledge when it finds a gap, such as after a human answers a clarifying question. Internal articles are the right place for new procedures, policy clarifications, and decision rules learned during support.

External knowledge is customer-facing, so changes need human control. The AI can read external articles for context, and Letterbook can help generate or sync external content, but customer-facing articles should be reviewed, marked Ready, and published by a person before customers rely on them.

If an external knowledge source is synced from an existing help center, synced articles are managed by that source. Edit the source help center, then sync again, instead of hand-editing the synced article in Letterbook.

Where to put common content#

Content	Put it in
"How do I reset my password?"	External
"When can we bypass identity verification?"	Internal
"How do refunds work?"	External
"Refund exception matrix by plan and customer segment"	Internal
"How to connect Shopify"	External
"Which Shopify fields the AI should check before replying"	Internal
"How to contact support"	External
"Which teammate owns security escalations"	Internal

Best practices#

Keep customer-facing explanations in external knowledge.
Keep decision rules and private support procedures in internal knowledge.
Use matching categories when it helps agents maintain both sides, such as external Billing and internal Billing policy.
Mark external articles Ready only after they are safe for customers.
Update internal knowledge when agents repeatedly correct the same AI decision.
Update external knowledge when customers repeatedly ask the same public question.