Skip to main content

Files

Upload documents directly to your project. Biel.ai indexes their content for chat responses.

tip

Uploaded files remain private. Your assistant does not expose a link to the stored file as a source.

When to use file uploads​

Use file uploads for:

  • Internal documents such as handbooks, policies, and procedures
  • Offline content that is not published on the web
  • PDF manuals, Office documents, and spreadsheets
  • Confidential content that needs to stay private

Supported formats​

FormatExtensions
PDF.pdf
Word.docx
PowerPoint.pptx
Excel.xlsx
Delimited data.csv
Markdown and text.md, .txt
Structured data.yaml, .yml, .json, .xml
Documentation and web files.rst, .html, .css, .js

Requirements​

  • Each file can be up to 10 MB.
  • Use the listed extension. Legacy Office formats such as .doc, .xls, and .ppt are not supported.
  • Files must not be empty or password-protected.

Upload files​

  1. In the Biel.ai dashboard, select an existing project. Files are available after you create the project.

  2. Go to Settings > Sources > Files.

    The Files tab of the Sources settings page with the upload area

  3. Drag files into the upload area, or click Browse files. Files upload automatically; wait until they appear in the uploaded-file list.

  4. Click Refresh sources to index the files. Check the loading status and Logs in the project dashboard.

How files are indexed​

Biel.ai processes PDF, Word, and PowerPoint files page by page. It processes each Excel sheet separately. This keeps retrieved content aligned with the page or sheet where it came from.

Scanned PDFs are processed with OCR. Clear, high-resolution scans generally produce better results than low-quality scans or pages with difficult layouts.

Manage files​

For text and HTML files, use the Preview or Edit icon next to the file. After editing, click Save in the editor. For other formats, delete the old version and upload the replacement. Click Refresh sources after changing files to index the current set.

Use the Download icon next to an uploaded file in Settings > Sources > Files to retrieve the original file. To remove a file, click its Delete icon.

Troubleshooting​

Upload failures​

  • Check that the file is no larger than 10 MB.
  • Verify the file format is supported.
  • Check that the file is not empty, corrupt, or password-protected.

Content not indexing​

  • Refresh sources after upload, then allow the crawl to finish.
  • For scanned PDFs, use a clear scan with legible text.
  • If a large document is only partly indexed or a crawl reports that files were skipped, try refreshing sources again. Contact us if the problem continues.