Knowledge base

Project-specific reference material the agent reads on every prompt. Drop in design system docs, brand voice, schema patterns, anything you’d otherwise repeat.

The knowledge base is project-specific reference the agent always has access to. Anything you’d repeat across many prompts (“our brand color is #6D28D9”, “we always use named functions for top-level components”, “the tasks table uses dueAt not due_date”) belongs here, not in individual prompts.

What to put in it

Brand voice and copy guidelines

“Tone is warm but professional. Avoid exclamation marks. Use ‘we’ not ‘the company’.”

Design system rules

“Buttons use variant=primary for primary actions. Use bg-violet-600 not #6D28D9. Inline icons go on the left of text.”

Schema conventions

“All timestamps use Date.now() (number). All IDs are Convex IDs. Soft delete via deletedAt: number?.”

Architecture decisions

“We use TanStack Query for cross-page state. We don’t use Redux. Server state lives in Convex; client state in Zustand.”

Acronyms and jargon

“MRR = monthly recurring revenue. ARR = annual recurring revenue. NPS = net promoter score.”

External references

“Our brand kit lives at https://…; refer to it for color and typography. Our design system is the shadcn/ui defaults plus the customizations in components/ui/.”

Adding entries

1. Project → Knowledge → Add

   Either type entries inline or upload a markdown file.

2. Categorize

   Tag entries (design / data / brand / etc.) so the agent can prioritize relevant ones.

3. Verify it's used

   Submit a prompt that should benefit from a knowledge entry. Check the agent’s response references it.

Structure of a good entry

Knowledge entries are short, declarative, and rule-shaped:

“Buttons in the primary brand color use the primary variant of the shadcn/ui Button. Don’t add custom CSS to override colors — extend the variant if a new style is needed.”

Not:

“We have lots of buttons throughout the app. Sometimes they’re violet, sometimes they’re gray. There’s a Button component but I’m not sure how the variants work.”

The first is actionable; the second is a story.

Knowledge base vs. custom instructions

Surface	Knowledge base	Custom instructions
Scope	Project	Project or workspace-wide
Length	Long-form, can be many entries	Short rules, ~10–20 lines total
Best for	Reference material, conventions, jargon	Direct rules (“always”, “never”)

Use both. They complement each other.

Tips

Update it as you learn. When you find yourself correcting the agent twice on the same thing, that’s a knowledge base entry waiting to be written.

Don’t dump your README. The README is for humans; knowledge entries are for the agent. Be selective and rule-shaped.

Related

Custom instructions

The shorter, rule-shaped sibling.

Cross-project referencing

Pulling components from one project into another.

Templates

Pre-built starting points.