Indexing is how a product gets a knowledge base. Until you've indexed a product, the
widget doesn't appear on its page and no AI has anything specific to answer from.
What it reads
Only your own product content in Shopify:
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Product title
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Description
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Vendor
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Product type
It doesn't pull anything from the web, from competitor listings, or from your other
products. If a detail isn't in your product content, it won't be in the knowledge
base. That's worth knowing up front, because a two-line description won't produce
much of a spec sheet.
What it produces
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A structured description — your description, reorganised into sections.
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A spec sheet — key specifications pulled out of your copy.
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An FAQ — questions and answers a shopper is likely to need.
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Predefined questions — the suggested question chips shown in the widget.
📷 A product's Knowledge base tab, scrolled so the sections, spec sheet and FAQ are all visible.
You can edit any of it afterwards. See
Review and edit a product's knowledge base.
What it costs
One AI generation per run. Regenerating only the knowledge base costs one, and
regenerating only the questions costs one, so rebuilding both halves separately
costs two where doing them together costs one.
How many you get depends on your plan. See
Plans and pricing.
How each AI uses it
Arus AI answers from the knowledge base of whichever product the shopper is
looking at, and is told to stay on that product rather than wander off into general
advice.
ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Grok get the shopper's question plus a link to a
public JSON file containing that product's knowledge base. That's what stops them
guessing from the product name alone.
Keeping it up to date
If you later change a product's title, description, vendor or product type, the app
marks its knowledge base Needs update. It doesn't regenerate on its own, because
that would spend your generations without asking.
Changes to tags, price, inventory, images or product status don't trigger this,
since none of them feed the knowledge base. See
Product statuses explained.