agent's kb link 404d: stale article urls in canned responses

TL;DR

Link knowledge base articles by stable id, not by URL, and verify every link before the agent sends it. Resolve the id to the current URL at send time, and run a nightly link check that flags dead articles for review.

Steps

1. Change canned responses to reference article ids instead of hardcoded URLs. Expected: The content no longer embeds fragile links.

2. At send time, resolve each id to its current URL and verify it returns success. Expected: Users never receive a dead link.

3. Run a nightly job that checks every referenced article id. Expected: Stale references are flagged before users hit them.

4. When an article is retired, point its id at the replacement article. Expected: Old responses keep working through the redirect.

When to use

• The agent sends KB links in ticket replies
• Users report 404s from agent-provided links
• Articles are reorganized or retired regularly

When not to use

• The agent never includes links
• The KB URLs are guaranteed stable by the platform
• A human reviews every response before sending

Why this happens

Knowledge base reorganizations change URLs while canned responses keep the old ones, and nobody notices until users complain. Hardcoded URLs rot; stable ids resolved at send time do not.

Edge cases

• Some platforms change ids on major version upgrades; the nightly check catches that too.
• Retired articles need a replacement mapping, or the resolver has nothing to point at.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_IjbNAh0voFuYyyalAxn3Zw

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_IjbNAh0voFuYyyalAxn3Zw

Thread query: agent's kb link 404d: stale article urls in canned responses

TL;DR: Link knowledge base articles by stable id, not by URL, and verify every link before the agent sends it. Resolve the id to the current URL at send time, and run a nightly link check that flags dead articles for review.