Evaluate and improve Knowledge Indicators

A useful Knowledge Indicator (KI) gives an agent accurate, relevant context without making it rediscover the same information from raw data. Inspect KIs after an automation runs and whenever the source data or intended use changes. When a generated KI needs improvement, refine its source or automation so later runs produce the improvement consistently.

You need an AI index that contains at least one generated KI. To create one and review the required access, follow Get started with Context Engine.

You can inspect and test KIs in a managed AI index, but you cannot refine its sources or automations. The owning Elastic integration maintains that configuration.

1. Find Context in the navigation menu or use the global search field.
2. Open the AI index you want to inspect.
3. Select the Knowledge Indicators tab.
4. If the AI index contains several KI types, filter the list by type.
5. Select a KI to expand its JSON document.

The following fields help you determine what a KI represents, where it came from, and how an agent can use it:

For example, a KI derived from support cases might look like this:

{
  "id": "ki-support-feed-compaction-hot-tier",
  "type": "support.recurring_issue",
  "title": "Feed compaction stalls on the hot tier above 1,000 shards",
  "description": "A recurring cause of ingest backpressure in the reviewed cases.",
  "content": "The affected cases show a rising bulk rejection rate before compaction stalls.",
  "tags": ["tier:hot", "area:ingest"],
  "attributes": {
    "case_count": 14
  },
  "references": [
    {
      "uri": "index://support-cases",
      "relation": "derived_from",
      "description": "The support cases analyzed by the automation"
    }
  ],
  "expires_at": "2026-12-10T00:00:00Z",
  "governance": {
    "provenance": {
      "created_by": {
        "uri": "workflow://support-case-distiller",
        "metadata": {
          "version": 3,
          "run_id": "<workflow-run-id>"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
		

KI types are free-form values. Use names that consistently identify what the documents represent. The generation strategy is a separate choice that controls which source records become KIs and how much information each KI contains. Refer to Select a generation strategy for common strategies.

Review the KI as context for an agent, not only as a valid document. Confirm that it:

• Answers a recurring question or helps an agent decide what to query next.
• Adds business meaning, derived findings, or usage guidance that a mapping alone cannot provide.
• Distinguishes facts derived from the complete dataset from observations based on a sample.
• States important limitations, missing data, and the questions it cannot answer.
• Includes references or verified query patterns when an agent might need current details.
• Contains enough information to be useful without repeating an entire source document.

Syntax and runtime verification show that a generated query parses and runs. They do not prove that its fields, grouping, and calculations answer the intended question. Review the query logic and its results before relying on it as guidance for an agent.

1. Record the KI's id, updated_at, and provenance run ID.
2. Run its automation again.
3. Return to the Knowledge Indicators tab and open the KI.
4. Confirm that the automation updated the KI with the same id instead of creating an unintended duplicate.
5. Confirm that updated_at, provenance, and any source-dependent content reflect the latest run.

If the automation intentionally creates one KI per event or source document, multiple KIs are expected. Stable IDs are most important when an automation maintains one KI for a dataset, entity, or other long-lived subject.

After you make the AI index available to an Elastic Agent Builder agent:

1. Ask a question the KI can answer from its generated content.
2. Ask a question that requires current details from the source.
3. Inspect the reasoning and tool calls shown with each response. If trace collection is available, you can also view the trace for the conversation round.
4. Confirm that the agent retrieves the relevant KI, answers from it when appropriate, and queries the source only when it needs additional detail.

This test shows whether the KI reduces repeated source exploration. If the agent ignores the KI, retrieves an unrelated KI, or still performs broad source exploration, revise the AI index description, KI content and tags, source selection, or automation instructions.

Do not rely on one-off edits to a generated KI. Update the source or automation so future runs reproduce the correction. Depending on what you find:

• Refine the source when it omits relevant data or includes unrelated data.
• Refine the automation instructions when the KI lacks meaning, boundaries, or useful retrieval guidance.
• Select a different generation strategy when each KI represents too much or too little source material.
• Adjust the schedule or expiration time when the KI becomes stale before its next refresh.
• Add verification when a generated query or structured attribute can be checked automatically.

Run the automation again, then repeat the content, refresh, and retrieval checks until the KI supports its intended questions.