Recap: Ask Us Anything about Knowledge Management

For five days, ​@Stefan van Opstal (product manager Knowledge Management) and ​@Camilo.T (senior consultant) answered all your questions about knowledge management. We received 57 replies, ranging from strategic questions to specific bugs and workarounds. Here are the key points, so you don't have to read through the whole topic.

Services and knowledge items: what's changing?

Services remain the foundation of TOPdesk, but knowledge management is getting more of its own building blocks — ones that don't fully depend on the services structure any more:

• Permissions: the knowledge base is getting its own permissions model, separate from services. Operator groups will link directly to groups of knowledge items.

• Structure: the knowledge base has a flexible structure, so you can set it up however you like — folders aren't linked to services. The link between knowledge items and services still exists, and we're extending it further, but as an option, not a requirement.

• Flows: nothing changes here. Services and service flows stay the place where forms, permissions, and knowledge items come together — and we're investing in this area, including for the Virtual Support Agent.

Note: some of this is still under investigation. Treat this as direction, not as a commitment with a fixed timeline.

Getting knowledge items ready for AI

A common question: what format should a knowledge item follow to get the most out of AI features, like the AI Answer assistant, which quotes answers from your knowledge items?

Practical advice:

1. Write one knowledge item per problem or topic — avoid catch-all articles.

2. Write the title and content in your end user's language, preferably as a question and answer.

3. Put the full solution in the text itself, not just a reference to an attachment.

4. Use separate, clear steps instead of dense paragraphs.

5. Review your knowledge items regularly, so you don't share outdated information.

6. Spell out the information from images in text too — for example, “Go to Settings > Notifications > Email” instead of just a screenshot. This helps AI, and it helps users with a screen reader.

This is practical guidance, not a required format from TOPdesk.

Known bugs and planned fixes

• Some knowledge items show error messages when migrating to the new Explorer, due to a sync issue between the old and new architecture. Report this to our support team so we can resynchronize it.

• Linked standard solutions or incidents open from a knowledge item in a new browser tab instead of a tab within TOPdesk. This is known behaviour and it's on the backlog.

• Folders don't show in alphabetical order on the SSP. This is a known bug, and a fix is planned.

• Unpublishing a subfolder while its knowledge items stay published doesn't always work as expected: published folders sometimes still turn up when you click through the SSP, but not when you search.

• Attachments that won't open after migrating to the new knowledge portal, and knowledge items that no longer show up on incident forms on the new SSP: report these to support if you run into them, so we can look into each case.

What's coming

• When you create a knowledge item, you'll soon be able to pick the right folder straight away, anywhere in the structure — instead of saving first and moving it after.

• We're working on a Virtual Support Agent for the SSP, which will be able to show parts of a long knowledge item based on the headings you've added.

• Improvements to how knowledge items look and behave on the SSP (your own naming, your own structure, scalable images) are on our radar, but they'll follow once the foundation and management side are further along.

Handy workarounds from the community

• Knowledge item folder as a shortcut: the URL /tas/public/ssp/ssp/knowledge/[unid] links straight to a specific knowledge item folder. Find the UNID by right-clicking the folder and copying the link address. Handy as a shortcut on a service or SSP tile — just remember to tick “Open within TOPdesk”.

• Periodic review of knowledge items: you can already set this up with an event (for example, 365 days after creation or last edit) linked to an action, such as an email or action series. See KI 18685 – Revision date on knowledge items for how.

• Overview of knowledge items per operator: you can build this with a time-based selection and the creator as a column. A dashboard for this is on the wish list.

Still under investigation

• Using other knowledge sources (such as SharePoint or a PDF manual) to resolve incidents.

• Measuring how often a knowledge item is opened over a specific period, rather than just a running total.

• A required comment field for negative feedback on a knowledge item.

Have a feature request of your own? Submit it via tip.topdesk.com — your idea goes straight to the right people.

Still have a question after reading this recap? Feel free to post it as a new topic in the community — we're happy to help you think it through.

*This summary was created with the help of AI