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Grounding content in sources

Adding a webpage or your own notes so generations can cite them instead of inventing a claim.

Updated

A source is material you have given the product so a generation can quote it rather than make something up. You add either a public webpage, which is fetched, or your own pasted notes, which are stored as typed.

A source is only usable once it has been read. Until then it grounds nothing, and the page says so rather than letting you assume otherwise.

BEFORE YOU START

  • The "create" or "edit" permission.
  • For a webpage, an address that is genuinely public. Only public pages can be fetched.
  • Nothing else. Adding a source costs no credits.

STEPS

  1. Open Library and choose "Sources", or go to /app/sources.
  2. Pick a tab: "Webpage" or "Pasted text".
  3. For a webpage, type the address into "Public URL".
  4. For pasted text, give it a "Title" and paste the material into "Text".
  5. Choose "Add source".
  6. Watch the source's chip. "Fetching" means it is not yet available to ground a generation; "Ready" means it is; "Failed" means nothing was ingested, so it grounds nothing.

WHAT YOU SHOULD SEE

The source in the list with a "Ready" chip. A source that is still fetching or that failed is labelled with what that means for generation, rather than just a colour.

WHAT THIS WILL NOT DO

  • It does not fetch a page behind a login. Only public pages can be ingested.
  • It does not make a claim safe. A source lets a generation cite something; whether the source is right is your judgement.
  • It does not read text out of an image or a scanned PDF. There is no optical character recognition engine connected.
  • A failed source is not a partial one. Nothing was ingested, so it contributes nothing.

IF IT DOES NOT WORK

  • "That URL cannot be ingested for security reasons." means the address is not one the product will fetch.
  • "The URL could not be fetched. Check it and try again." means the page did not answer, or answered with nothing readable.
  • "Could not add the source." is the general fallback.
  • A source stuck on "Fetching" has not failed. It is not usable yet.

COMMON QUESTIONS

What is the difference between a source and a prompt?

A source is material to draw facts from. A prompt is an instruction about how to write. They are different libraries and are used at different moments.

Does adding a source change existing content?

No. It changes what a later generation can cite.

  • Saving reusable prompts

    A workspace prompt library - shared or personal, versioned on every edit, and offered inside the content editor.

  • Repurposing a source into several drafts

    Turning one article, page, document or recording into posts, captions, threads and hooks, with a record of where each draft came from.

  • Writing your Business DNA

    The eight facts about your business that generation is allowed to cite, and how saving a new version works.