Tags

Last updated: October 20, 2026

Tags decide what Iris reads when it writes an answer. Every file in your Knowledge Map, every web page you add and every approved answer carries tags, and every time you ask a question you choose which tags Iris may draw from. Pick Security and Iris answers from content tagged Security. Pick nothing and it searches the Knowledge Map with no tag filter at all. If you want Iris to answer from the right material, tags are how you tell it where to look.

Tags are managed in Settings > Tags. What you can do on the page depends on the Tags permission.

The Tags page. Your own default tags sit at the top. Below them, the organization's tags, with a Default checkbox in each row and System and Default labels next to a tag's title.

Create a tag

An administrator opens Settings > Tags and clicks Create Tag.
In the Add New Tag window, enter a Title (required) and, if you like, a Description of up to 250 characters. A good description tells people what belongs under the tag.
Check Set as default tag if you want it pre-selected for everyone (see below).
Turn on Restrict to specific groups if only certain people should use it, then choose the groups under Select Groups.
Click Create Tag.

Title and description are all you need. Default and Restrict are optional.

Titles are unique in your organization. Iris reserves two titles for itself, Approved Answers and Ask IRIS, and applies them automatically. Those system tags can be set as defaults but can't be renamed or deleted.

Administrators can also click New Tag inside any tag picker.

Rename and delete

Click Edit at the end of a row to change the title, description, default or group access. Renaming takes a moment, because Iris updates the title on every file and passage that carries it. It runs in the background, and if another background job is already running for your organization, Iris asks you to try again once it finishes.

Click Delete to remove a tag. Iris removes it from every file, project, project preset and approved answer that carried it, then deletes the tag. Nothing else is deleted: a file whose only tag was the deleted one simply becomes untagged. The confirmation doesn't say how many items are affected, so check first. To remove several at once, tick their checkboxes and use Delete.

Default tags

A default tag is pre-selected when someone starts a project, asks Iris a question or opens chat. It's a starting point. People can change the selection every time.

Organization default tags are set with the checkbox in the Default column. A tag that is a default also shows a Default label beside its title, and Iris's own tags show System (or Set as default tag in the dialog). Everyone in your organization starts with them.
My default tags is your own list, shown at the top of Settings > Tags and on your Profile page, when enabled for your organization. Choose tags, click Save, and Iris pre-selects those for you instead of the organization's. Click Reset to organization defaults to go back. In Ask Iris and the new-project window, a Save as my default tags link appears when your selection differs from your defaults.

My default tags are saved in this browser, not on your account. They won't follow you to another browser or device, and clearing your browser's site data resets them.

Restricted tags

A restricted tag is limited to the groups you pick. Members of those groups, and administrators, see the tag in lists and pickers and can use it. Everyone else doesn't see the tag, can't select it, and doesn't get citations from content that carries it. A small lock beside the title marks restricted tags in the list. Group membership changes take effect without anyone logging out. See Groups in Iris.

Turn on Restrict to specific groups and pick at least one group. With none, only administrators can see the tag.

Restrict a tag to groups and only those groups, plus administrators, can use it.

Designing your tag set

Start from the questions people answer, not from your folder structure. What would they want to narrow by? Here are three ways teams do it.

By product line. A company that sells two products might use Product A, Product B and Platform. A questionnaire about Product A gets Product A and Platform selected, so Iris never mixes in Product B's specifics.

By region. A company with different data residency or compliance answers by region might use US, EU and Global. An EU customer's questionnaire gets EU and Global. Tag anything true everywhere as Global, not as every region.

By content type. A team that answers many kinds of documents might use Security Policies, Case Studies, Pricing and Legal. A security questionnaire selects Security Policies. A proposal adds Case Studies.

Some rules of thumb:

Keep the list short. A dozen well-chosen tags beat sixty overlapping ones. If two tags would always be selected together, they are one tag.
Select any, not all. Iris matches files that have any selected tag, so picking Product A and Global gets both sets of content. Select Sources must have all tags to narrows to files carrying every selected tag.
Tag shared content as shared. A general tag such as Global or Platform keeps company-wide material from being left out when you narrow by product or region.
Two or three tags per file is plenty. One for what it's about, one for who it applies to (e.g. "Product - All", "Product - Gizmo")
Name tags the way people say them, and write a description.
Create tags before you upload. It's easier than re-tagging later. Review the list every so often and delete what nobody uses. You can create a tag as you upload content if you need to quickly add one.

Where tags are applied

You'll see the same tag picker in these places:

Knowledge Map files, when you upload, replace or bulk-edit them. See Managing Knowledge Map Files.
Web content you add, and the sync rules for connected sources.
Approved answers in the library.
Projects, in Project Content Details when you start one and in Edit Project later.
Ask Iris and chat, for each question.
Project presets, which store a set of tags. See Project Presets.