Train your bot
From clicking Train bot to a Ready bot, end-to-end.
Training turns your uploaded documents into a knowledge base the bot can search. A bot answers only after it has been trained on its current documents.
Bot status reference
Every bot has a status shown on the Dashboard and on the bot detail page. The status tells you whether the bot can chat and what to do next.
| Status | What it means | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| No documents | The bot exists but has no documents yet | Add documents from Create a bot |
| Not trained | Documents are uploaded but the bot has not been trained yet | Start training |
| Training | Training is queued or running | Wait and watch the progress |
| Ready | The bot is trained on its current documents | Open Chat Workspace and ask questions |
| Needs retraining | Documents changed since the last training | Train the bot again |
How the status changes
- Uploading the first document moves No documents to Not trained.
- Training moves the bot to Training, then to Ready when it finishes.
- Adding or deleting a document on a Ready bot moves it to Needs retraining.
- Training again moves it back through Training to Ready.
- If training fails or you cancel it, the bot returns to the status it had before.
How to start training
Open Training sources
On the bot detail page, open the Training sources tab. Your documents are listed first; the Training panel sits beside them, or below them on narrow windows.
Choose a document reader
Pick how Pegasus reads your files in Document reader. See Choose a document reader.
Click Train bot
Pegasus confirms with "Training started. The bot will be ready shortly."
When Train bot is unavailable, the Training panel says why below the button:
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Upload at least one document to train the bot. | Add a document first. |
| The bot is up to date. Train again after you add or remove documents. | Nothing; the bot is already Ready. |
| Training actions are unavailable while this workspace is read-only. | See Read-only state. |
| Wait for the current document or training operation to finish. | Wait for the upload or training to finish. |
| This reading method needs a Pro or Ultra plan. | Choose another document reader, or upgrade. |
See Cannot train this bot for more.
Training uses credits based on document size. Make sure you have enough daily credits before training a large set of documents.
What happens, in order
Prepare
Pegasus works out which documents are new, changed, or removed since the last training. Only those are processed.
Read
The selected document reader extracts the text of each new or changed document.Index
The text is split into passages and indexed so the bot can find the relevant parts.Finish
The bot becomes Ready and Pegasus shows "Bot is now ready to chat!"
Watching progress
While the bot is Training, the Training panel shows its progress:
- "Waiting in queue (position {position})" - other training jobs are ahead of yours.
- "Next in line" - your job starts as soon as a slot opens.
- "Preparing documents…" - Pegasus is working out what changed.
- "Reading documents…" - text extraction is running.
- "Indexing documents…" - Pegasus is building the bot's index.
- "Retrying (attempt {attempt})…" - a temporary error happened and Pegasus is retrying automatically.
You can leave the page while training runs; it continues in the background.
Cancelling a training
While the bot is Training, the panel shows a Cancel button. Pegasus asks "Cancel training?" before stopping it.
- If queued: the job is removed right away.
- If running: training stops after the current file.
Choose Cancel training to stop, or Keep training to let it finish. The bot returns to its previous status.
First training vs retraining
- First training reads and indexes every document, so it is usually the slowest run.
- Retraining processes only what changed: added, removed, or changed files.
That is why later runs are often much faster.
Needs retraining
A bot shows Needs retraining when its documents change after a successful training, for example after you upload or delete a document.
While a bot needs retraining, it does not answer in chat, in the website widget, or through the API. Finish your document changes, then train the bot again to bring it back to Ready.
Can you chat in each status?
| Status | Can you chat? |
|---|---|
| No documents | No - the bot has no knowledge |
| Not trained | No - it has not been trained |
| Training | No - training is in progress |
| Ready | Yes |
| Needs retraining | No - train it again to include the new changes |
If you try to chat with a bot that is not ready, Pegasus shows "Bot is not ready for chat." See Bot is not ready for help.
Training failures
If a training run fails:
- Pegasus shows "Training failed. Please try again.", or a message that explains the cause when one is known.
- The Training panel shows "Training failed. Updating status…" with the same reason.
- The bot returns to its previous status.
- The training does not consume the full credit cost; only the work already done is counted.
See Training failed for deeper troubleshooting.
Daily credit limit
Training uses the same daily credits as chat. If the daily credits are used up, Pegasus does not start training and shows a daily credit limit message.
Wait for the daily refill or upgrade your plan, then train again. See Credits, quota & limits.