Company Knowledge Base

Last verified: 14 February 2026 | Applies to: Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise

In 30 seconds

Every growing company has the same problem: knowledge is scattered across Google Docs, Slack threads, email chains, and the heads of people who have been around the longest. Claude can serve as a queryable knowledge base — your team uploads documentation, policies, and procedures, and anyone can ask questions in natural language and get accurate, sourced answers. This workflow shows you how to build it using Projects and Skills.

Prerequisites

• Claude Desktop with Cowork enabled (Pro or above)
• The Productivity plugin installed (for memory and task management)
• Your existing documentation — SOPs, policies, handbooks, FAQs, onboarding materials, process docs
• Optional: custom Skills for domain-specific knowledge (see Skills)

What it does

A Claude-powered knowledge base combines three layers:

Layer	What it provides	How it works
Projects	Persistent document storage	Upload files that Claude can reference across all conversations in that project
Skills	Structured domain knowledge	Markdown instructions that tell Claude how to interpret and apply your company’s information
Memory (Productivity plugin)	Evolving context	Team structure, current priorities, terminology — the stuff that changes quarterly

Together, these layers let any team member ask Claude a question like “What’s our refund policy for enterprise clients?” or “How do I submit a purchase order over $10,000?” and get an accurate answer with a reference to the source document.

How to set it up

Step 1: Organise your source material

Before uploading anything, sort your documentation into categories. Claude works better with structured input.

I'm building an internal knowledge base for our company. Help me create a folder structure for organising our documentation before I upload it. Our company is a 40-person B2B SaaS business. We need to cover: HR policies, finance procedures, IT/security policies, sales processes, customer support playbooks, product documentation, and company-wide policies. Suggest a folder structure and list what documents typically belong in each folder.

Claude produces a structure you can use to sort your existing docs. A typical output looks like:

• hr/ — employee handbook, leave policy, expense policy, onboarding checklist
• finance/ — purchase order process, expense approval workflow, month-end procedures
• security/ — acceptable use policy, incident response, access control
• sales/ — qualification criteria, pricing guide, proposal templates, CRM conventions
• support/ — escalation matrix, SLA definitions, troubleshooting guides
• product/ — feature documentation, release notes, roadmap
• company/ — mission/values, org chart, communication norms, meeting cadence

Step 2: Upload to a Project

Create a dedicated Project in Claude for your knowledge base.

1. In Claude Desktop, go to Projects (left sidebar)
2. Create a new project — name it something clear like “Company Knowledge Base”
3. Upload your documentation files (PDF, Word, text, markdown)
4. Add a project description that gives Claude context:

This project contains our company's internal documentation and policies. When answering questions:
1. Always cite the specific document and section where you found the answer
2. If the answer isn't in the uploaded documents, say so clearly — do not guess
3. If a policy has a specific effective date, mention it
4. If you find conflicting information across documents, flag the conflict and cite both sources
5. Use Australian English in all responses

Step 3: Create a Knowledge Base skill

For more sophisticated querying, create a custom Skill that teaches Claude how to navigate your knowledge base.

Create a custom Skill for our company knowledge base. The skill should:

1. When a team member asks a policy question, search the relevant documents and provide:
   - The answer, in plain language
   - The source document and section
   - The effective date of the policy
   - Who to contact if they need an exception or have questions

2. When a team member asks a process question ("how do I..."), provide:
   - Step-by-step instructions
   - Any approval requirements
   - Links or references to forms/templates mentioned in the process
   - Common mistakes to avoid

3. When a team member asks about a person or team ("who handles..."), provide:
   - The responsible person or team
   - Their role and what they cover
   - How to reach them

Include a /kb-search slash command that takes a question and returns a structured answer.

Save the generated Skill files in your Cowork working folder. Claude loads them automatically in future sessions.

Step 4: Seed the memory layer

Use the Productivity plugin to add context that changes more frequently than your static documentation.

Save the following to memory for the knowledge base:

Team structure (as of February 2026):
- CEO: Alex Chen
- COO: Jordan Park
- CFO: Sam Nguyen
- Head of Engineering: Riley Cooper
- Head of Sales: Morgan Blake
- Head of Support: Casey Williams
- HR Manager: Pat Sullivan

Current priorities:
1. Series B fundraise (targeting Q2 close)
2. SOC 2 Type II audit (auditor engagement starts March)
3. New product launch (v3.0, beta in April)

Key terminology:
- ARR = Annual Recurring Revenue
- CS = Customer Success (not Computer Science)
- PSC = Product Steering Committee (meets Thursdays)
- P0 = drop everything, P1 = this week, P2 = this sprint, P3 = backlog

Step 5: Test with real questions

Open a new conversation in the project and test the knowledge base with questions your team actually asks.

What's our policy on working from home? Who approves remote work requests?

How do I get a new software licence approved? What's the spending threshold that needs CFO sign-off?

A customer is asking for a refund on their annual subscription. They're 4 months in. What's our policy?

Who handles security incidents? What's the first step if I think we've had a data breach?

Review the answers for accuracy, check that citations are correct, and note any gaps where Claude could not find the answer. Those gaps tell you which documents are missing from your knowledge base.

How operators actually use it

What operators say

“We had a 200-page employee handbook that nobody read. Now the team just asks Claude. Questions like ‘how many sick days do I get?’ or ‘what’s the process for requesting parental leave?’ get answered in seconds with the exact policy reference. HR enquiries dropped by about 60%.”

“The biggest win was during onboarding. New hires used to spend their first week asking the same 30 questions. Now they ask Claude, and they get accurate answers that cite the actual source document. Their ramp time dropped noticeably.”

Before a knowledge base: New hires ask teammates, who ask other teammates, who eventually find the answer in a Google Doc from 2023 that may or may not be current. Knowledge requests interrupt productive work constantly.

After a knowledge base: Anyone on the team gets an accurate, sourced answer in seconds. The knowledge is always available, always current (if you maintain it), and never annoyed at being asked the same question twice.

Keeping it current

A knowledge base is only useful if it reflects reality. Build a maintenance rhythm:

Review the knowledge base for staleness. List every document in the project with its effective date or last-modified date. Flag anything older than 6 months as "review needed." Flag anything older than 12 months as "likely outdated." Output as a table: document name, date, status, suggested owner for review.

Run this monthly. It takes two minutes and prevents your knowledge base from becoming another graveyard of outdated documentation.

What to watch out for

Caution

• Claude can only reference what you upload. If a policy exists but is not in the Project, Claude cannot find it. Gaps in your uploads create gaps in answers — and Claude may try to fill those gaps with general knowledge rather than saying “I don’t know.” The project description instruction to cite sources helps catch this.
• Keep documents current. An outdated policy in the knowledge base is worse than no policy at all, because your team will trust the answer. When policies change, update the uploaded documents immediately.
• Project file limits exist. Projects have a maximum number of files and total storage. For very large documentation sets, prioritise the most-queried documents and keep rarely accessed policies in a separate project.
• This is not a replacement for legal or HR counsel. Claude can surface what your policy says. It cannot advise on whether your policy is correct, legally compliant, or appropriate for a specific situation. Complex cases still need human judgement.
• Team and Enterprise plans work best. On Team and Enterprise plans, you can share Projects across the organisation. On Pro, the knowledge base is personal — each team member would need their own copy.

Related

• Workplace Memory — the Productivity plugin’s memory system that complements your knowledge base
• Skills — create custom Skills that teach Claude your company’s domain knowledge
• Team Rollout — deploying a shared knowledge base as part of your team’s Claude adoption
• SOPs & Process Docs — generate the documentation that feeds your knowledge base

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