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Quickstart

Build an Assistant application that answers questions from your own documents. Start with a small collection so you can check the answers and their sources before sharing it.

To give an employee a job using a role, written notes, or a voice brief, start with Employees. That path creates an Assistant application too, with an employee profile and a preparation conversation for building and testing its agents. This walkthrough creates a document Q&A application directly.

Prerequisites

You need a Docana account, permission to create a library and application, and a few documents you are allowed to use. If your company does not have an account, request a demo.

Step 1: Give your documents a home​

Documents live in collections, and collections live in libraries.

  1. Go to platform.docana.com and sign in
  2. Click Knowledge Libraries in the sidebar, then New Library. Name it after the subject, like "Product Documentation"
  3. Open the library and create a collection, like "User Guides"
  4. Upload a few documents. PDFs, Word files, spreadsheets, presentations, images, even videos and audio all work

Docana processes the files after upload. Wait until they are ready before testing the assistant. Processing time depends on file size and content, especially for audio and video.

User Guides appears inside Product Documentation. Open the collection to add the documents your assistant will read.
User Guides appears inside Product Documentation. Open the collection to add the documents your assistant will read.

For details, see Creating a Library and Creating a Collection.

Step 2: Create an application​

An application keeps the connected knowledge, agents, members, and settings in one workspace. Choose the Assistant type for this conversation.

  1. Click Applications in the sidebar, then + Create Application
  2. Give it a name and pick Assistant as the type
  3. Select the collection you created in Step 1
  4. Click Create

Step 3: Talk to it​

Open your application and click the Assistant tab. Ask something your documents can answer:

"What does our refund policy say about late returns?"

The assistant searches your collection and uses what it finds to answer. Ask for sources, then check them against the response.

The assistant displays its answer below expandable document-search steps. This example uses the seeded article collection.
The assistant displays its answer below expandable document-search steps. This example uses the seeded article collection.

Check at least 3 questions whose answers you already know, then ask one that the documents cannot answer. Open the cited sources and confirm that they support the response.

If the answer is missing or incorrect:

  • Confirm that the files finished processing.
  • Check that the application includes the intended collection and that you can access it.
  • Open the source document to check whether it contains the answer.
  • Review the assistant instructions and test again with a specific question.

For workflows you plan to share, save these questions as agent test cases.

Step 4: Put it somewhere useful​

Choose a channel for the people who will use your assistant. You can also keep it inside the platform for internal work.

Where to go next​