Standards and Knowledge can both support an answer, but they serve different purposes. The distinction is about authority, not file format or importance.
Standard
What the organization has decided.
- Authoritative and versioned
- Must have an owner
- Can be limited by Role
- Active revision can override Knowledge
Knowledge
What the organization knows.
- Explanatory or evidential
- Ownership is optional
- Supports files, notes, Q&A, and websites
- Organized in Areas, which nest
Choose a Standard for a governing rule
Write a Standard when someone should be able to ask, “What is our rule?” and receive one accountable answer. Examples include an approval limit, required procedure, safety instruction, or organization-wide policy.
Publishing activates one revision. Older revisions remain available as history, while the active revision becomes the authoritative version used by internal retrieval.
Choose Knowledge for context
Add Knowledge when the material explains, supports, or records rather than governs. Product manuals, handbooks from external bodies, internal notes, frequently asked questions, and crawled websites belong here.
Knowledge can still be essential. It simply does not claim the same organizational authority as a Standard.
What an answer uses
The Agent searches within its configured scope and the reader’s access. When an active Standard and ordinary Knowledge both address the same internal question, the Standard carries governing weight. An Agent answering the public does not expose Standards; publish visitor-safe material as Knowledge instead.
A practical test
Ask what should happen when the material is wrong. If a named person must correct and republish the organization’s rule, use a Standard. If the source itself should be updated, replaced, or resynchronized, use Knowledge.
Examples that are easy to misclassify
A law, supplier manual, or industry handbook is usually Knowledge: it is an external source the organization relies on. The organization’s interpretation of that material, once approved as the way employees must work, is a Standard. Meeting notes remain Knowledge even when the meeting was important. A policy becomes a Standard when it expresses an owned organizational decision and is published through the governing lifecycle.
If one document mixes a rule with a large body of evidence, separate the two. Keep the concise decision in a Standard and link to the supporting Knowledge. That gives readers a clear answer while preserving the original context and its own update cycle.