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With Respect source permissions on, a source answers each person only from the documents the source system lets them read. The rule is applied inside the search, before results are ranked, so a document someone cannot read never shapes their answer. When nothing they may read answers the question, the assistant says it does not know.
Source permissions are in beta and not available yet. The switch is shown on GitHub repository sources but cannot be turned on until the access lists can be stored, which needs a database change that has not been released. Until then sources answer exactly as they always have.

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Who is answered from what

A person is matched by a verified email address only, never by a name or an address someone typed. A document whose readers the source did not report is answered to knowledge administrators only. An unknown list is never treated as an open one. Sources with the switch off answer everyone who can use the assistant, as before.

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Which sources

Other sources cannot turn the switch on yet. Website, sitemap, OpenAPI, Zendesk help center and Discourse sources only read what is already public. For a GitHub repository, visibility is read on every sync that lists the repository. A sync that is skipped because the repository has no new commit reads nothing, so after making a repository private, run a sync once there is a new commit.

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See who can be answered from a document

Open a document from a source’s document list and choose Who can see this. It shows the switch, what the source reported, and who is answered now. The same is available from Get document access.

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Turn it on or off

Open the source and use Respect source permissions. The change applies from the next question and does not need a sync. Over the API, set respect_source_permissions with Update a source. New GitHub repository sources have it on by default once it is available.
Last modified on November 12, 2026