Tutorial: Upload knowledge documents to Azure SRE Agent

In this tutorial, you upload knowledge documents to your Azure SRE Agent's Knowledge settings by using two methods: asking the agent to create a runbook from an investigation and uploading a file through the portal UI.

Your agent can capture knowledge discovered during investigations and store it for future use, so it automatically builds institutional knowledge. For more information, see Upload knowledge documents.

In this tutorial, you learn how to:

• Turn an investigation into a structured runbook and save it to Knowledge settings
• Upload a file manually through the portal UI
• Verify that uploaded documents are indexed and available
• Confirm that the agent retrieves uploaded knowledge in new conversations

Estimated time: 15 minutes

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following resources and permissions:

• An Azure SRE Agent in Running state.
• Write permissions on the agent.
• Agent run mode set to Review or Autonomous.

Start from an investigation

The best knowledge documents come from real investigations. Instead of creating content from scratch, capture what your agent already learned.

1. Go to sre.azure.com and select your agent.
2. In the left sidebar under Chats, find a previous investigation thread where your agent diagnosed or resolved an issue, and select it.

If you don't have an investigation thread yet, start a new chat and ask your agent to investigate something:

Investigate high memory usage on our container apps

Wait for the investigation to complete, and then continue with the next step.

Create a runbook from the investigation

In the same investigation thread, ask your agent to turn its findings into a runbook and save it to Knowledge settings. Be specific about the filename.

Create a runbook from the investigation we just did. Include the root cause
analysis, the diagnostic steps, mitigations, and escalation triggers.
Save it to Knowledge settings as high-memory-runbook.md

Your agent performs the following actions:

1. Synthesizes the investigation context into a structured runbook.
2. Generates sections like Root Cause Analysis, Diagnostic Steps, Mitigations, and Escalation Triggers.
3. Saves the document to Knowledge settings and confirms the upload.

The agent confirms the document was saved and provides a download link. Your runbook is now stored in Knowledge settings and is indexed for search.

At this point, confirm the following information:

• The agent generated a structured runbook from the investigation.
• The agent confirmed the document was saved.

Verify in Knowledge settings

Go to Knowledge settings to confirm your document is indexed.

1. In the left sidebar, select Builder to expand the section.
2. Select Knowledge settings.

The Knowledge settings page displays your documents in a table with columns for File Name, Status, Type, and Last modified. The Status column shows Indexed when the document is indexed and ready for search.

If the status shows Pending, select Refresh. Indexing typically finishes within a few seconds.

Upload a file through the portal

You can also upload files directly. This method is useful for existing runbooks, documentation, or reference materials your team already has.

1. On the Knowledge settings page, select Add file.
2. Drag a file into the drop zone, or select browse for files to choose one.
3. Select Add file to upload.

The portal accepts many file types for Knowledge settings, including text files, documents, and images. For the complete list of supported extensions and size limits, see Upload knowledge documents.

Maximum file size is 16 MB per file, with up to 100 MB per upload.

Test retrieval in a new conversation

Confirm that the agent can find and use the uploaded documents.

1. Select New chat thread in the sidebar.
2. Ask a question that your uploaded documents should answer.

For example:

What are the steps for troubleshooting high memory usage on container apps?

Your agent searches Knowledge settings, finds your uploaded runbook, and references it in the response. This confirmation shows the knowledge is indexed and retrievable.

Delete a knowledge document

To remove a document from Knowledge settings, use the following steps.

1. Go to Builder > Knowledge settings.
2. In the documents list, select one or more documents by using the checkboxes.
3. Select Delete in the toolbar.
4. A confirmation dialog lists the documents to remove. Select Delete to confirm.

Deleted documents are removed from the agent's Knowledge settings and no longer appear in search results.

Note

You can't edit knowledge documents in place. To update a document, upload a new version with the same filename to replace the previous version.

Troubleshooting

Use the following table to resolve common issues with knowledge document uploads.

Error	Cause	Fix
"Agent memory is disabled. Can't upload documents."	Knowledge settings aren't enabled on your agent.	Contact your administrator to enable Knowledge settings.
"I don't have write access to your Knowledge settings"	Agent can't locate the upload tool.	Rephrase your request: "Save it to Knowledge settings as filename.md"
"Invalid file extension. Only .md and .txt files are allowed."	Filename doesn't end in .md or .txt (chat upload).	Use a .md or .txt extension when asking the agent to save.
"Document content exceeds maximum size of 16MB"	Content is too large for a single document.	Split into multiple smaller documents.
"File name can't be empty"	No filename provided.	Include a filename in your prompt (for example, runbook.md).

Related content

Resource	Description
Upload knowledge documents	How uploading knowledge documents works and why it matters.
Skills	How skills and knowledge work together.
Azure DevOps Repos connector	Connect live wiki content as a knowledge source.