Knowledge base: how Skol knows what to recommend

What the knowledge base is

This is the library your coach draws on when answering questions and building your plan. It has two layers: a shared library of reviewed sports-science material available to every athlete, and a personal library containing the books and articles you upload. The Knowledge base page shows each source as a card with its topic, evidence level and usage metrics.

How a source enters the library

1

Relevance review

Every file is reviewed for relevance first. A physiology textbook or training methodology is accepted; a recipe book is rejected with an explanation. Scientific material is also classified by study design, evidence level and the population in which its conclusions were studied.

2

Rule extraction

The system extracts actionable details: heart-rate zone boundaries, recovery intervals, session-cancellation criteria and race-taper protocols. Not a book summary, but rules the coach can use to increase or reduce training load.

3

Passage-level indexing

The text is split into semantic passages while preserving the Book → Chapter → Section path, then indexed for retrieval. The coach can therefore cite a precise passage rather than an entire book.

How the coach retrieves evidence

Retrieval is based on the meaning of your question rather than exact keywords, and is used in three workflows:

• In chat. For questions about methodology, physiology or nutrition, the coach searches the library and cites the author, year and chapter.
• During plan generation. Knowledge-base retrieval is a mandatory step, not an option: material is selected for your training phase and sports before the week is built.
• During plan adjustments. Every proposal includes either a source citation or an explicit no source: based on athlete data label. Read more in Source citations.

What the Knowledge base page shows

• Coach Focus — which sources currently take priority for your profile and why, explained in a dedicated guide.
• Transparent metrics: Cited in answers counts explicit chat citations, Retrieved counts appearances in search results, and Used in plans counts plan generation or adjustment. These are three different events and are never combined.
• Retrieval test — use the form at the bottom of the page to ask a question and inspect the passages and relevance scores available to the coach.

How to add your own book or article

On the Knowledge base page, drag a file into the upload area or select Choose file: PDF, Markdown, TXT or CSV up to 25 MB. The file is reviewed and indexed before the coach can cite it. If automatic topic or tag detection gets something wrong, correct it in the expanded source card. Deleting a source removes its passages from retrieval, so the coach stops using it.

Next: how Coach Focus determines which sources matter most for you.