Knowledge & context: what do I use for what?
Overview
Section titled “Overview”9brains offers several ways to provide knowledge and context to the AI. Each feature has its own purpose. The following overview helps you choose the right feature for the right use case.
Comparison at a glance
Section titled “Comparison at a glance”| Feature | Purpose | Visible to | Maintained by | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory: personal notes | Personal facts and corrections about you | Only you | You, or the AI on your instruction | ”I’m a project manager in logistics” |
| Memory: automatic profile | Automatically detected patterns from your conversations | Only you | Automatic (every night) | Role, tools, current projects |
| Custom instructions | Fixed rules for communication style | Only you | You (in settings) | “Always reply with concrete examples” |
| Knowledge base | Company knowledge: documents, processes, facts | All users with access | Administrators and users with write permission | Product catalog, manuals, guidelines |
| Agents | Persistent digital colleagues with memory, triggers and workspace | Creator and shared users | Creator of the agent (owner) | Inbox colleague with hourly cron trigger |
| Skills | Automated workflows and tool integration | All users of the tenant | Administrators | PDF analysis, create diagrams, run code |
When do I use what?
Section titled “When do I use what?””The AI should remember something about me”
Section titled “”The AI should remember something about me””Use memory. Say in chat, for example, “Remember that I work with SAP”. The AI saves that and considers it in all future conversations.
”The AI should always respond in a certain way”
Section titled “”The AI should always respond in a certain way””Use custom instructions in your personal settings. There you can store rules like “Always reply in English” or “Keep it brief”.
Distinction: Custom instructions control how the AI responds. Memory stores what it knows about you.
”My team should be able to access certain documents”
Section titled “”My team should be able to access certain documents””Use the knowledge base. Upload documents or propose knowledge. All users with access benefit from it.
Distinction: If you tell the AI “Remember that our opening hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.”, that does not belong in personal memory but in the knowledge base. There, all colleagues benefit from it.
”I need someone to take care of a recurring task”
Section titled “”I need someone to take care of a recurring task””Create an agent. Describe in natural language what it should do, give it reference files if needed (tone of voice, templates, price lists) and decide whether it should run via chat, on a schedule (cron) or in response to a webhook.
Distinction: Agents are intended for roles with their own identity and memory. They learn over weeks and can work autonomously. Memory, by contrast, remembers facts about you personally, across all chats.
”The AI should process files or work with external systems”
Section titled “”The AI should process files or work with external systems””That is handled by skills and integrations. Skills like PDF analysis, diagram creation or code execution extend the AI’s capabilities. Per agent you decide which skills and integrations it may use.
How they work together
Section titled “How they work together”The features complement each other. In a typical conversation, 9brains uses simultaneously:
- Your memory, to know you personally
- Your custom instructions, to hit the right tone
- The knowledge base, to include company knowledge
- An agent with its own
AGENTS.md, if you’ve chosen a specialized digital colleague - Skills and integrations, when a task requires special tools or external systems
This produces an answer tailored to you, your company and your task.