dify-docs/en/use-dify/knowledge/manage-knowledge/maintain-knowledge-documents.mdx

---
title: Manage Knowledge Content
sidebarTitle: Manage Content
---

## Manage Documents

In a knowledge base, each imported item—whether a local file, a Notion page, or a web page—becomes a document. 

From the document list, you can view and manage all these documents to keep your knowledge accurate, relevant, and up-to-date.

<Tip>
    Click the knowledge base name at the top to quickly switch between knowledge bases.
</Tip>

![Manage Knowledge Documents](/images/manage_knowledge_documents.png)

| Action              | Description          |
|:------------------- |:---------------------|
| Add                 | Import a new document.|
| Modify Chunk Settings | Modify a document's chunking settings (excluding the chunk structure).<Info>Each document can have its own chunking settings, while the chunk structure is shared across the knowledge base and cannot be changed once set.</Info>|
| Delete              | Permanently remove a document. **Deletion cannot be undone**.|
| Enable / Disable    | Temporarily include or exclude a document from retrieval. <Note>On Dify Cloud, documents that have not been updated or retrieved for a certain period are automatically disabled to optimize performance.<br/><br/>The inactivity period varies by subscription plan:<ul><li>Sandbox: 7 days</li><li>Professional & Team: 30 days</li></ul> Professional and Team users can re-enable these documents **with one click**.</Note>|
| Archive / Unarchive | Archive a document that you no longer need for retrieval but still want to keep. Archived documents are read-only and can be unarchived at any time.|
| Edit                | Modify the content of a document by editing its chunks. See [Manage Chunks](#manage-chunks) for details.|
| Rename              | Change the name of a document.|

## Manage Chunks

According to its chunk settings, every document is split into content chunks—the basic units for retrieval. 

From the chunk list within a document, you can view and manage all its chunks to improve the retrieval efficiency and accuracy.

<Tip>
    Click the document name in the upper-left corner to quickly switch between documents.
</Tip>

![Manage Knowledge Chunks](/images/manage_document_chunks.png)

| Action   | Description          |
|:-------- |:---------------------|
| Add     | Add one or batch add multiple new chunks. <br/><br/>For documents chunked with Parent-child mode, both new parent and child chunks can be added. <Info>*Add chunks* is a paid feature on Dify Cloud. [Upgrade to Professional or Team](https://dify.ai/pricing) to use it.</Info>|
| Delete  | Permanently remove a chunk. **Deletion cannot be undone**.|
| Enable / Disable | Temporarily include or exclude a chunk from retrieval. Disabled chunks cannot be edited.|
| Edit    | Modify the content of a chunk. Edited chunks are marked **Edited**.<br/><br/>For documents chunked with Parent-child mode: <ul><li>When editing a parent chunk, you can choose to regenerate its child chunks or keep them unchanged.</li><li>Editing a child chunk does not update its parent chunk. </li></ul>|
| Add / Edit / Delete Keywords  | In knowledge bases using the Economical index method, you can add or modify keywords for each chunk to improve its retrievability. <br/><br/>Each chunk can have up to 10 keywords.|
| Add / Delete Image Attachments | Delete images extracted from documents or upload new ones within their corresponding chunk.<br/><br/>URLs of extracted images remain in the chunk text, but you can safely remove these URLs to keep the text clean—this won't affect the extracted images. <Note> Each chunk can have up to 10 image attachments, which are returned alongside it during retrieval; images beyond this limit will not be extracted.<br/><br/>For self-hosted deployments, you can adjust this limit via the environment variable `SINGLE_CHUNK_ATTACHMENT_LIMIT`.</Note><Tip>If you select a multimodal embedding model (marked with a **Vision** icon), the extracted images will also be embedded and indexed for retrieval.</Tip>|

## Best Practices

### Check Chunk Quality

After a document is chunked, carefully review each chunk to ensure it's semantically complete and appropriately sized for optimal retrieval accuracy and response relevance.

Common issues to watch for:

- Chunks are **too short**—may lack sufficient context, leading to semantic loss and inaccurate answers.

- Chunks are **too long**—may include irrelevant information, introducing semantic noise and lowering retrieval precision.

- Chunks are **semantically incomplete**—caused by forced chunking that cuts through sentences or paragraphs, resulting in missing or misleading content during retrieval.

### Use Child Chunks as Retrieval Hooks for Parent Chunks

For documents chunked with Parent-child mode, the system searches across child chunks but returns the parent chunks. Since editing a child chunk does not update its parent, you can treat child chunks as semantic tags or retrieval hints for their parent chunks. 

To do this, rewrite child chunks into **keywords**, **summaries**, or **common user queries**. For example, if a parent chunk covers the full *Return Policy*, you could rephrase its child chunks as:

- *How do I return an item?*

- *What's the refund period?*

- *Are there any return shipping fees?*