Building Your Knowledge Map
Last updated: October 20, 2026
The Knowledge Map is everything Iris is allowed to read when it writes an answer: your policies, security reports, past RFP responses, web pages and files synced from the tools you already use. Iris starts with no knowledge of your business, so the Knowledge Map is the first thing to set up. If Iris does not find an answer in your documents, it says so instead of making one up.
This article is for whoever sets up knowledge in your organization. It covers what to add, how to add it, and how to tell when it is ready. For keeping files current afterward, see Managing Knowledge Map Files.
What to put in your Knowledge Map
Iris can only be as accurate as the documents behind it. Start with the material you would reach for yourself when answering a buyer.
Using Iris for RFPs and security questionnaires. Add your security documentation first. Iris cannot answer security questions without documents like a SOC 2 report, accessibility statement or encryption policy.
Using Iris for everyday writing. Add customer stories, competitive intelligence, demo decks and other sales and marketing material. Iris draws on them for reports, summaries and emails.
Think of your documents in three groups.
Core documents. Most organizations have these.
External support site and website content
Internal knowledge base
Company handbook and code of conduct
SOC 2, ISO 27001 or GDPR assessments
Accessibility documentation, such as VPATs and screen reader testing
Recent RFP submissions
Industry-specific documents. These depend on your industry or regulations, for example HECVAT, PCI DSS, HITRUST CSF, CMMC, NIST CSF, FedRAMP or CSA STAR.
Company-specific documents. These make Iris sound like you.
Customer stories and case studies
White papers
Demo slide decks
Competitive intelligence and battle cards
Brand and style guides
Other documents worth adding include disaster recovery plans, privacy policies, risk management frameworks, implementation guides, password and network security policies, vendor governance frameworks and business continuity plans.
Add your most current material first. Recent RFP submissions matter most: answers you have already approved are what let Iris score a new answer High confidence (see Confidence Scores). As you work through projects, Iris flags contradictions between documents, which shows you where to clean up.
Choose your tags first
There are no folders in the Knowledge Map. Files are organized with tags, and every upload needs at least one. If you try to continue without a tag, Iris shows Tags Required and the button OK, I'll add tags.
Tags are also how you control what Iris reads. A project or question can be limited to certain tags, so a well-tagged Knowledge Map keeps sales material out of a security questionnaire. You can only use tags you have access to. Set up a few tags before your first upload. See Tags.
Where it is enabled for your organization, Save as my default tags in the tag picker saves your usual selection.
The Knowledge Map page
Click Knowledge Map in the left sidebar, then Files. The page is one table with a header row of buttons.
The Knowledge Map page, with the three ways to add content at the top.
The buttons are:
Upload Files adds files from your computer.
Add Web Content captures a web page or a whole site.
Add from Integrations brings in files from a connected tool.
Refresh reloads the table.
View Content shows the text Iris extracted from your files.
The table shows each file's File Name, Owner, Status, Source, tags, Uploaded date and Expiration. Use the search box to find a file by name, and the filters for Tags, Status, Owner, Expiration and Source. If you do not see the Knowledge Map or the upload buttons, ask an admin to check your access.
Upload files
Click Upload Files. The Add File dialog opens.
Drag files into the dialog or choose them from your computer.
Drag your files into the dialog or click Choose Files.
Choose at least one tag.
Optional: select an expiration date. Iris keeps using an expired file but treats it as possibly out of date, and the file owner gets a reminder 7 days before. See Managing Knowledge Map Files.
Click Add Files.
Limit | Value |
|---|---|
File types | .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xlsx, .xlsm, .csv, .txt, .md, .ppt, .pptx |
Size | 75 MB per file and 75 MB per upload |
File name | 150 characters |
A bar in the dialog shows how much of the 75 MB you have used. Files over a limit are rejected with a message naming the file. If you add a macro-enabled Excel file, Iris shows Macros will be removed. The macros are stripped and the file is saved as .xlsx. If you close the dialog during an upload, Iris asks before cancelling.
Add web content
Use Add Web Content for public pages such as your support site, trust center or product pages.
Click Add Web Content and enter the URL. It must start with http:// or https://.
Choose a scope.
Just this page captures only that URL.
Entire site (for a root URL) or Entire section (for a URL with a path) captures many pages. The URL you enter is the boundary. Iris never goes above it, so to capture one section, enter that section's URL. A multi-page capture covers up to 1,000 pages.
For multi-page captures, choose any options.
Also import documents linked on this page. Imports the PDF and Word documents linked on the URL you entered, not the ones on other captured pages. Useful for trust centers and policy indexes.
Set up weekly auto-sync. Re-crawls the URL every week and updates the Knowledge Map. Weekly sync covers up to 200 pages.
Choose at least one tag and, if you want, an expiration date.
Click Submit.
The scope options appear after you enter a URL.
A banner shows progress while Iris crawls. You can dismiss it and keep working. See Add Web Content for more detail.
Add from integrations
Click Add from Integrations to browse files in a connected tool and import them. You can also set up automatic sync so Iris keeps them current. The Source column shows where each file came from, including Google Drive, Confluence, Notion, SharePoint, Salesforce, Highspot, Seismic, Drata and Vanta. Tags are required here too.
Connect the tool first. See the Integrations collection and Sync Rules.
Check the status
New files start as Processing. Large files take longer, and the table updates on its own while anything is processing. A file is ready to use when it shows Done. Web captures show Crawling until the crawl finishes.
Status and Source columns for a few files.
If a file shows Failed, hover the badge to read the reason. To fix it, see Managing Knowledge Map Files. If a file you just added is not listed, click Refresh.
Approved Answers
The Knowledge Map menu also holds Approved Answers. Answers your team approves in projects are saved there and become sources Iris can cite next time. Files and approved answers work together. See Approved Answers Library.