# Using AI agents to search your knowledge base by Category

> Concierge and Envoy use their own dedicated search tool that uses plaintext search input and filters knowledge base results by category With this knowledge in

Source: https://help.kustomer.com/en_us/using-ai-agents-to-search-your-knowledge-base-by-category-SJQYmd0rzg

Last updated: 2026-08-17T13:46:41.340Z

Concierge and Envoy use their own dedicated search tool that uses plain-text search input and filters knowledge base results by category. With this knowledge in mind, an AI agent's knowledge search can be scoped to a specific subset of articles for more efficient retrieval. For example, restricting search to a single location's policies based on customer location, or having the ability to access a VIP-only category based on customer VIP status.

This article breaks down how this tool is used, and how to call it within your AI agents in Kustomer Concierge and Kustomer Envoy. 

### Creating a knowledge base search tool

This operation requires building a knowledge base search tool that your agent can access. 

To create a knowledge base search tool:

1.  In the left navigation panel, click the **sparkle icon** to open the Kustomer AI menu.
2.  Click **Tools**.
3.  Click **Add Tool** and select _Search KB_ as the tool. Next, configure the following:
    1.  Enter a **Name** for the tool. This name is used by the AI, so it should be clear and reflect the search function's intended purpose. 
    2.  Enter a **Description** the AI can use to inform its guidance and use the tool effectively. 
    3.  Select any **Input Attributes** the AI agent should supply when calling this tool. Your options include:
        1.  **Brands:** This option limits search to the brand that houses your knowledge base.
        2.  **Tags:** This option limits search to the tags you specify. Tags are applied to Knowledge Base articles in **Settings>Knowledge Base>Articles** from an article's **Article Settings** tab. 
        3.  **Categories**: This option limits search to specific **Categories** within your knowledge base. You can select multiple categories or leave this option blank to allow the AI agent to search all categories.
4.  Click **Save**.

### Configuring the search input

Every knowledge base search tool requires a _search\_input_ attribute — the text the AI agent uses to run a semantic search against the knowledge base. When you add the tool to an AI agent, set _search\_input_ as a reasoning attribute so the AI agent determines the search text from the conversation.

If you set fixed values for _Categories_ on the tool itself, the AI agent only reasons about the _search\_input_ value and always searches within the categories you configured. This lets you build narrowly scoped tools — for example, a tool preset to the _New York_ and _Singapore_ categories, so the AI agent only searches those locations' articles regardless of the conversation.