Sim adds knowledge-base imports: transfer chatbot content, recheck permissions

Sim adds the missing half of knowledge-base transfer

Sim released 0.9.32 on October 23, 2026, adding knowledge-base bundle imports through its API and sim knowledge import CLI command. Teams moving a document assistant between development and production gain a structured transfer path instead of uploading every file again. Access policies and live source connections still need separate verification.

The new capability imports an exported .simkb.zip bundle into a new knowledge base without overwriting an existing one. This October 25 report covers the October23 release. Images show real CLI help from application source tag v0.9.32, not a graphical import screen.

What moves with the bundle?

The documentation shipped with 0.9.32 describes chunking configuration, tag definitions and values, original files, completed chunk text and optional retrieval vectors. Vectors are numerical representations used to match a question to document content. Included content retains its enabled or disabled flags.

Reusing vectors requires the destination embedding model and dimensions to match the source. Equal dimensions alone are insufficient. With a different model or no vectors, Sim reprocesses original files; documents available only as chunks are reconstructed from their text. Processing costs then depend on the configured provider and deployment.

A claim of avoiding embedding charges therefore applies only to compatible reused vectors. A successful archive upload also does not establish that an assistant is ready: documents must finish processing and be eligible for retrieval.

Content transfers do not transfer source permissions

The archive excludes source access-control lists, connector credentials and uploader identities. Exports include active, included documents readable by the workspace as a whole, not every source document that one individual happens to have personal permission to access.

This boundary matters to consultancies delivering assistants to different customers. A working development base cannot simply be treated as safe for another workspace. Friday Works recommends rebuilding destination access policies, using nonsensitive test documents and checking a standard account before connecting production data.

Imports require workspace write access and the creation and upload capabilities. Exports have a separate export capability. A workspace API key follows its workspace role and operation policy, so different credential types must not be assumed to have identical access.

Track completion, failures and cancellation separately

The API creates an import, transfers the bundle using issued upload instructions, and completes the upload to start processing. The CLI can wait or return early; status and cancellation commands use the import identifier. The release does not establish that a new graphical import button exists.

The versioned documentation limits an archive to 5 GiB and each document file to 100 MB. Validation occurs before creation, but document-level processing failures can still leave a partially successful import; inspect failures. Cancellation retains documents already imported rather than rolling everything back.

documentsImported counts created documents. Documents needing new embeddings may continue processing after the import job completes. Operators should reconcile document counts, processing status and retrieval results instead of treating a single success message as acceptance.

A small test before customer handover

Friday Works suggests five company-owned documents, including one tagged document and one disabled chunk. Import into an isolated test workspace, reconcile filenames, tags and enabled flags, and ask questions with known answers. Then test with an account lacking access to verify the permission boundary.

Accept the transfer only when content and permissions match expectations, reprocessing has finished and actual costs are recorded. A verified assistant-handover tool is a research direction; customer demand and savings remain hypotheses to measure.

Actual interfaces, versioned sources and implementation support

The cover shows sim knowledge import help; the inline image shows sim knowledge imports with get and cancel. Friday Works ran the unmodified CLI source accompanying application tag v0.9.32 in a real terminal on October 25, 2026. Only help commands ran: no authenticated API calls or imports were performed, so these images are not evidence of a successful data transfer.

The tag’s CLI source package reports 2.2.0, distinct from the application version. A separately downloaded npm sim@2.2.0 package still rejected knowledge import during the October 25 check; verify the CLI actually installed or use the corresponding API. Images use Apache 2.0 and xterm’s MIT terms, with help-region crops, proportional downscale and margins.