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Source Feedback
Source feedback lets you rate individual source documents within a suggestion card. While answer feedback rates the overall AI-generated response, source feedback targets the specific document chunks that were retrieved from the knowledge base.
Why Source Feedback Matters
A suggestion's quality depends directly on the sources it was built from. By rating individual sources, you help the system distinguish between:
- High-quality chunks that should continue to surface for similar queries.
- Low-quality chunks that should be deprioritized or suppressed.
This granular signal is more precise than answer-level feedback alone. An answer might be rated negatively because one out of three sources was irrelevant -- source-level feedback pinpoints exactly which one.
Rating a Source
Source card with thumbs-up and thumbs-down feedback buttons on each citation
Each source card within a suggestion has its own thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons.
Thumbs Up (Positive)
Click thumbs up on a source to indicate it was helpful and relevant. This reinforces the source's ranking for similar queries in the future.
Thumbs Down (Negative)
Click thumbs down on a source to indicate it was not helpful. This opens a feedback modal with reason selection and an optional comment field.
Source feedback modal with reason code selection and comment field
Feedback Reason Options
When you give a source a thumbs-down rating, select from the following reasons:
| Reason Code | When to Use |
|---|---|
| Irrelevant | The source content does not relate to the customer's question. It was retrieved by mistake. |
| Outdated | The source contains information that is no longer current. Policies, procedures, or details have changed since the document was indexed. |
| Incorrect | The source contains factual errors regardless of its age. |
| Duplicate | The source repeats the same content as another source in the same suggestion. It adds no new information. |
| Too Vague | The source touches on the right topic but lacks the specific detail needed to answer the question. |
| Wrong Context | The source is accurate content but was pulled from the wrong context (for example, a policy for a different product line or region). |
Select the single reason that best describes the issue. Use the optional comment field to add detail when the reason code alone is not sufficient.
TIP
Marking outdated sources is especially valuable. It alerts administrators to content that needs to be refreshed in the knowledge base.
How Source Feedback Affects Chunk Scoring
Source feedback has a direct impact on how the RAG pipeline ranks document chunks:
- Positive feedback increases the chunk's helpfulness score, making it more likely to appear in future results for similar queries.
- Negative feedback decreases the chunk's helpfulness score, pushing it lower in the ranking.
- Auto-suppression. When a chunk accumulates enough negative feedback from multiple agents across multiple conversations, the system can automatically suppress it. A suppressed chunk is excluded from future retrieval results until an administrator reviews and either republishes or removes it.
WARNING
Auto-suppression thresholds are set by your administrator. A single negative rating will not suppress a chunk. The system requires a consistent pattern of negative feedback before taking action.
Connection to KB Helpfulness Reports
Source feedback data flows into the Knowledge Base helpfulness reports that administrators access from the admin portal. These reports show:
- Per-document helpfulness rates. The percentage of positive vs. negative ratings each document's chunks have received.
- Most flagged chunks. A ranked list of chunks with the highest negative feedback counts, sorted by severity.
- Reason code distribution. A breakdown of why sources are being rated negatively, helping administrators prioritize whether to update, replace, or remove content.
- Suppression candidates. Chunks approaching the auto-suppression threshold, giving administrators a chance to review before suppression takes effect.
By consistently providing source feedback, you contribute directly to the quality of your organization's knowledge base and the accuracy of future suggestions.
Removing Feedback
To remove a source rating, click the same button again:
- Click a highlighted thumbs-up to remove your positive rating.
- Click a highlighted thumbs-down to remove your negative rating and dismiss the reason.
Next Steps
- Learn how to rate overall answers: Answer Feedback
- Return to the feedback overview: Feedback