Knowledge Base — Writing and Publishing Articles

The Alps knowledge base lets you create a public help center where customers find answers on their own. This guide covers the article editor, organizing content into collections, publishing, and tracking how your articles perform.

<a href="#1-overview">Overview</a>
<a href="#2-creating-an-article">Creating an article</a>
<a href="#3-the-article-editor">The article editor</a>
<a href="#4-block-types">Block types</a>
<a href="#5-formatting-text-inline">Formatting text inline</a>
<a href="#6-article-settings">Article settings</a>
<a href="#7-publishing-and-unpublishing">Publishing and unpublishing</a>
<a href="#8-organizing-content-with-collections">Organizing content with collections</a>
<a href="#9-duplicating-and-deleting-articles">Duplicating and deleting articles</a>
<a href="#10-version-history">Version history</a>
<a href="#11-viewing-an-article-on-your-help-center">Viewing an article on your help center</a>
<a href="#12-article-analytics">Article analytics</a>

1. Overview

Your knowledge base powers two things:

Your public help center — a website at <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">{your-slug}.tryalps.app</code> where customers can search and browse articles without contacting support
In-conversation article sharing — agents can attach articles to a reply directly from the message composer

Every article is either a draft (private, not visible to customers) or published (live on the help center).

2. Creating an article

From the Knowledge Base page:

Click Knowledge Base in the left sidebar
Click New Article
The editor opens with a blank canvas

From a collection:

Open a collection
Click New Article within that collection
The article is pre-assigned to that collection

3. The article editor

The editor has three main areas:

Top bar:

Back button (returns to the knowledge base without discarding)
Last saved indicator ("Saved 2m ago" — articles auto-save as you type)
Cover image toggle (show or hide the cover image above the article)
Article settings panel (the sliders icon on the right)
More options menu (three dots)
Publish / Unpublish button

Article metadata (above the body):

Cover image — click to upload a cover photo. Appears as a banner above the article title on the help center.
Title — large text area at the top. This becomes the article heading and the page title.
Description — a short summary shown in search results and article listing pages.

Article body: The body is a block-based editor. Each paragraph, heading, image, code block, or other element is its own block.

4. Block types

Add blocks using the slash command (<code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/</code>) or the plus button that appears when you hover over any block.

Type <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/</code> and start typing the block name to filter the list. Press Enter or click to insert.

| Block | Slash command | Use it for | |---|---|---| | Paragraph | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/paragraph</code> or just type | Regular body text | | Heading | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/heading</code> | Section titles (H1, H2, H3) | | Callout | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/callout</code> | Tips, warnings, important notes | | Code | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/code</code> | Code snippets, terminal commands, API responses | | Bulleted list | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/list</code> | Unordered lists | | Numbered list | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/numbered</code> | Step-by-step instructions | | Blockquote | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/quote</code> | Quotes or highlighted text | | Image | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/image</code> | Uploaded images with optional captions | | Video | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/video</code> | Embedded video from a URL | | Table | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/table</code> | Rows and columns of structured data | | Divider | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/divider</code> | Horizontal rule to separate sections |

Working with blocks:

Drag to reorder: Hover over a block to see the drag handle (six dots) on the left. Click and drag to move the block.
Add a block below: Click the plus button that appears to the right of the drag handle.
Select multiple blocks: Hold Shift and click another block to select a range.
Delete a block: Select it and press Delete or Backspace, or use the block's context menu.

Heading block

Click inside a heading block to select it. A small toolbar appears where you can switch between H1, H2, and H3.

Use heading levels consistently:

H1 — article title (only use once, at the top)
H2 — major sections
H3 — subsections within a major section

Callout block

Callout blocks draw the reader's attention to important information. They appear with a colored background to stand out from the body text.

Use callouts for:

Tips that speed up a task
Warnings about irreversible actions
Notes about permissions or plan requirements

Example callout content:

This action permanently deletes the record and cannot be undone. Make sure you have exported your data before continuing.

Code block

Code blocks display text in a monospace font with syntax highlighting. Ideal for:

API request and response examples
Command-line instructions
Configuration file snippets
Code samples

          javascript
          
        

// Example: Identifying a user in the Alps widget
alpsWidget('identify', {
  name: 'Chidi Okeke',
  email: 'chidi@company.com',
  plan: 'growth'
});

When you create a code block, a language selector appears. Choose the correct language (JavaScript, Python, Bash, JSON, etc.) to enable syntax highlighting.

Image block

Click <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">/image</code> or the plus button and select Image
Click the upload area to select an image file from your device
The image uploads to Cloudinary and appears inline
Add an optional caption below the image
The image is responsive — it scales to fit any screen size

Table block

Insert a table block
Type in any cell
Press Tab to move to the next cell
New rows are added automatically when you press Tab on the last cell
Hover over a row or column to see options for adding or deleting rows/columns

5. Formatting text inline

Select any text in a paragraph, heading, or list to see the inline formatting toolbar:

| Option | Effect | |---|---| | B | Bold | | I | Italic | | U | Underline | | ~~S~~ | Strikethrough | | <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em"></></code> | Inline code | | Link icon | Insert a hyperlink |

To insert a link:

Select the text you want to make into a link
Click the link icon in the toolbar
Paste the URL and press Enter

6. Article settings

Click the sliders icon in the top bar to open the settings panel on the right.

| Setting | Options | Notes | |---|---|---| | Category | Dropdown of your collections and categories | Assigns the article to a section of your help center | | Visibility | Everyone / Logged-in users / Internal only | "Internal only" means only your team can see it | | Show cover image | Toggle | Show or hide the cover image on the published article | | Creator | Read-only | The agent who created the article | | Created | Read-only | Creation date | | Updated | Read-only | Last modified date | | Article URL | Read-only + Copy | The full URL of the article on your help center |

7. Publishing and unpublishing

To publish: Click the Publish button in the top-right corner. The article goes live immediately on your public help center.

To unpublish: Click the Unpublish button (appears when the article is already published). The article reverts to Draft and disappears from the public help center. The article itself is not deleted.

Draft articles are only visible to agents inside the Alps dashboard. They do not appear on the public help center or in search results.

8. Organizing content with collections

Collections are the top-level categories on your help center (e.g. "Getting Started", "Billing", "Troubleshooting"). Categories are groups within a collection.

Creating a collection:

Go to the Knowledge Base page
Click New Collection
Give it a name and optional description

Adding an article to a collection: Open the article's settings panel and select a collection/category from the Category dropdown.

Reordering collections and articles: Drag and drop items on the Knowledge Base page to change the order they appear on your help center.

9. Duplicating and deleting articles

Duplicate an article:

Open the article
Click the three-dot menu in the top bar
Click Duplicate

A copy of the article is created with "(Copy)" appended to the title. It starts in Draft status.

Delete an article:

Open the article
Click the three-dot menu
Click Delete article
Confirm the deletion

Warning: Deleting an article is permanent. If the article is linked from anywhere (other articles, automations, agent replies), those links will break. Consider unpublishing instead of deleting if the article may be needed later.

10. Version history

Alps saves a history of every version of an article.

Open the article
Click the three-dot menu
Click Version history

A panel slides in from the right showing a list of saved versions with timestamps. Click any version to preview it.

Restoring a version: To restore an older version, open it in version history, then copy the content you want to recover and paste it back into the current article.

11. Viewing an article on your help center

Click the three-dot menu inside the editor and select View on help center. This opens the published article at <code style="font-family:ui-monospace,monospace;background:#f1f5f9;color:#dc2626;padding:0.1em 0.35em;border-radius:3px;font-size:0.875em">{your-slug}.tryalps.app/articles/{article-id}</code> in a new tab.

You can also click Preview from the Design page to see how the help center looks overall.

12. Article analytics

Alps tracks how customers interact with your knowledge base.

Go to Reports > Help Center Analytics to see:

| Metric | What it tells you | |---|---| | Article views | How many times each article has been opened | | Helpful ratings | How many customers clicked "This was helpful" | | Not helpful ratings | How many customers clicked "This wasn't helpful" | | Empty searches | Search queries that returned no results — gaps in your content |

Using empty searches to improve your knowledge base:

The empty searches list is the most actionable data in help center analytics. If 40 customers searched "how to cancel" and got no results, that is a clear signal to write a cancellation article.

Review empty searches weekly and turn the top queries into new articles.

Knowledge Base — Writing and Publishing Articles

Knowledge Base — Writing and Publishing Articles

Table of Contents

1. Overview

2. Creating an article

3. The article editor

4. Block types

Heading block

Callout block

Code block

Image block

Table block

5. Formatting text inline

6. Article settings

7. Publishing and unpublishing

8. Organizing content with collections

9. Duplicating and deleting articles

10. Version history

11. Viewing an article on your help center

12. Article analytics