External sources for AI assistive search

External sources for Eddy AI Assistive Search lets you configure Eddy AI to retrieve answers from URLs and sitemaps outside your Document360 knowledge base, enabling federated search across multiple content sources. Once configured, Eddy AI searches both your internal knowledge base articles and the external sources simultaneously, returning a unified response with numbered references that link back to the originating page. This is available in the Manage sources section under AI features in your Knowledge Base portal.

When to use external sources

• Cross-platform support teams — agents can pull answers from internal knowledge base articles, public documentation sites, blogs, and product release notes without switching platforms.
• Distributed content — when your authoritative content lives across multiple sites and you want Eddy AI to surface answers from all of them in one response.
• Supplementary reference material — add external resources such as third-party guides or partner documentation to enrich Eddy AI's answers without migrating that content into Document360.

Before you begin

• You can add up to 50 webpages and 1 sitemap per project.
• Webpages must be in HTML5 format and include <article> or <main> tags.
• Only server-side rendered (SSR) webpages are supported. Client-side rendered pages may not index correctly and can return empty search results.
• Webpages with bot detection or crawl-blocking mechanisms cannot be indexed — a Forbidden error will occur.
• Sitemaps must be under 1 MB, in XML format, and must not use nested sitemaps with the <sitemapindex> tag.
• Sources sync automatically every 24 hours. Manual sync is available up to 4 times per day.

How to add an external source

1. In the Knowledge Base portal, select Settings in the left navigation bar.

2. In the left navigation pane, go to AI features > Manage sources.

   The Manage sources page displays all currently configured external sources.

3. Click Add new.

   The Add source panel appears.

4. Select the source type: Webpage or Sitemap.

5. Enter a source name.

6. Enter a valid URL.

7. Click Add source.

Manage sources overview

The Manage sources page lists all indexed external sources and provides the following controls:

How to restrict Eddy AI to specific workspaces, languages, and categories

By default, Eddy AI searches across all workspaces and languages. You can restrict this to specific workspaces, languages, and categories using the Content access control on the Manage sources page.

1. On the Manage sources page, click the Content access dropdown (shown as All by default).

2. Select Allow selected.

   The Manage workspace & category popup appears.

3. Select the workspaces, languages, and categories you want Eddy AI to search.

   A Manage button appears alongside the Allow selected dropdown.

4. Click Manage to review and confirm your selections, then click Save.

   A confirmation message — AI search sources updated — appears. The Save button is only enabled when changes have been made.

5. To close the popup without saving, click Cancel or press Esc.

How to handle errors in external sources

If a webpage encounters an error (unsupported HTML format, unsupported language, or HTTPS issue), Eddy AI stops fetching from that page until the error is resolved. For sitemaps, Eddy AI continues fetching from all valid URLs in the sitemap even if individual pages within it have errors.

1. Click the Error (⚠) icon next to the source's status toggle.

   The Edit panel opens and displays all affected URLs and their error details.

2. Hover over a URL and click the Open site icon to inspect the external source directly.

3. Click Remove to delete a specific URL from the sitemap's URL list.

4. Click Remove all to delete all URLs with errors at once.

How external source results appear on your Knowledge Base site

When Eddy AI returns an answer that draws from external sources:

• Each response includes numbered reference markers indicating which parts of the answer came from which source.
• Hovering over a reference number shows the webpage title and a short description of the source.
• Clicking the reference number or the Open in a new tab icon opens the source page in a new tab.

Troubleshooting

Unsupported format error when adding a sitemap

Error message: Unsupported format

This error occurs when the sitemap contains nested sitemaps using the <sitemapindex> tag, exceeds 1 MB in file size, or is not in a supported format.

To resolve:

• Use only a direct sitemap URL — nested sitemaps with <sitemapindex> are not supported.
• Ensure the sitemap file is under 1 MB.
• Verify the sitemap is in XML format.

Forbidden error when adding a webpage

Error message: Forbidden

This error occurs when the webpage has bot detection or other crawl-blocking mechanisms that prevent Eddy AI from accessing the content.

To resolve:

• Check whether the source URL has bot detection enabled. If so, contact the website administrator to allow crawler access.
• Use a different source URL that does not restrict crawling.

HTML5 format error when adding a webpage

Error message: Only HTML5 documents with <article> or <main> tags

This error occurs when the webpage is not in HTML5 format or does not contain the required <article> or <main> tags.

To resolve:

• Verify the HTML5 doctype — the page should declare <!DOCTYPE html> at the top.
• Check for required tags — view the page source (Ctrl+U / Cmd+U) and confirm the page contains <article> or <main> tags.
• Update the page — if either requirement is not met, update the webpage to conform before adding it as a source.

Unsupported language error when adding a webpage

Error message: Error due to unsupported language

This error occurs when Eddy AI does not support the language of the webpage, or when the language is supported but has not been added to your project's localization settings.

To resolve:

1. Check whether the webpage's language is supported by Eddy AI — see Multilingual support for Eddy AI Search Suite.
2. If the language is supported, ensure it is added to your project. For example, if you are adding https://abc.document360.com/fr/document:
   1. In the Knowledge Base portal, select Settings in the left navigation bar.
   2. In the left navigation pane, go to Knowledge base portal > Localization & Workspaces.
   3. Confirm that French (fr) is available in the selected workspace.
3. If the issue persists, contact Document360 support.

FAQ