> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.clickai.vn/clickai-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.clickai.vn/clickai-docs/clickai-docs-en/database/configure-the-chunk-settings.md).

# Configure the Chunk Settings

## Table of Contents

·       \[What is Chunking?]\(#what-is-chunking)

·       \[Choose a Chunk Mode]\(#choose-a-chunk-mode)

·       \[Pre-process Text Before Chunking]\(#pre-process-text-before-chunking)

·       \[Enable Summary Auto-Gen]\(#enable-summary-auto-gen)

·       \[Preview Chunks]\(#preview-chunks)

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## What is Chunking?

Chunking is the process of splitting long documents into shorter text segments (called "chunks"). This is a critical step in building a Knowledge Base because:

·       Chunks that are too long may contain irrelevant information, causing noise during retrieval

·       Chunks that are too short may lack context, leading to incomplete answers

·       Properly sized chunks result in more accurate retrieval

Two key concepts:

·       Delimiter: The character or sequence where text is split. For example, \n\n splits at paragraph breaks, \n at line breaks.

📝 NOTE: Delimiters are removed during chunking. For example, using \`A\` as the delimiter splits \`CBACD\` into \`CB\` and \`CD\`. To avoid information loss, use non-content characters that don't naturally appear in your documents.

·       Maximum Chunk Length: The maximum size of each chunk in characters. Text exceeding this limit is force-split regardless of delimiter settings.

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## Choose a Chunk Mode

ClickAI provides 4 chunking modes:

### Mode Overview

<table data-header-hidden><thead><tr><th valign="top"></th><th valign="top"></th><th valign="top"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td valign="top">Mode</td><td valign="top">Description</td><td valign="top">When to use</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">General</td><td valign="top">Splits by delimiter and max size. Flexible and fits most cases.</td><td valign="top">General documents, FAQs, guides</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">Parent-Child</td><td valign="top">Creates large chunks (parent) containing smaller chunks (child). Retrieval targets child but returns fuller parent context.</td><td valign="top">Technical docs, docs needing broader context</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">Paragraph</td><td valign="top">Splits by natural paragraphs.</td><td valign="top">Documents with clear paragraph structure</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">Full Doc</td><td valign="top">Keeps the entire document as a single chunk.</td><td valign="top">Short documents, policy documents</td></tr></tbody></table>

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### Quick Comparison

<table data-header-hidden><thead><tr><th valign="top"></th><th valign="top"></th><th valign="top"></th><th valign="top"></th><th valign="top"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td valign="top">Criteria</td><td valign="top">General</td><td valign="top">Parent-Child</td><td valign="top">Paragraph</td><td valign="top">Full Doc</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">Flexibility</td><td valign="top">High</td><td valign="top">Medium</td><td valign="top">Low</td><td valign="top">Low</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">Broad context</td><td valign="top">Medium</td><td valign="top">High</td><td valign="top">Medium</td><td valign="top">Very High</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">Retrieval accuracy</td><td valign="top">High</td><td valign="top">Very High</td><td valign="top">High</td><td valign="top">Low</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">Suits long docs</td><td valign="top">✅</td><td valign="top">✅</td><td valign="top">✅</td><td valign="top">❌</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">Suits short docs</td><td valign="top">✅</td><td valign="top">❌</td><td valign="top">✅</td><td valign="top">✅</td></tr></tbody></table>

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### Notes on Parent-Child Mode

·       Only the first 10,000 tokens are processed. Content beyond this limit will be truncated.

·       The parent chunk cannot be edited once created. To modify it, you must upload a new document.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Choosing the right chunk mode is a critical step that directly affects retrieval quality. Experiment with different modes and use the Test Retrieval feature to evaluate results.

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## Pre-process Text Before Chunking

ClickAI provides pre-processing options to clean text before chunking:

### Replace consecutive spaces, newlines, and tabs

Automatically normalizes whitespace:

·       Three or more consecutive newlines → two newlines

·       Multiple spaces → single space

·       Tabs, form feeds, and special Unicode spaces → regular space

### Remove all URLs and email addresses

Strips all URLs and email addresses from text content.

📝 NOTE: This setting is ignored in Full Doc mode.

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## Enable Summary Auto-Gen

When Summary Auto-Gen is enabled, ClickAI automatically generates summaries for each chunk using an LLM. Summaries help:

·       Improve retrieval when user queries differ from document language

·       Add high-level information for chunks containing technical content (code, tables, logs)

·       Create "semantic glue" — apply identical summaries to related chunks for grouped retrieval

💡 TIP: Summary Auto-Gen is especially useful when source documents use specialized jargon but users ask questions in everyday natural language.

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## Preview Chunks

After configuring chunk settings, click Preview to review results:

·       See how documents are split into chunks

·       Inspect content of each chunk

·       Adjust configuration if results are unsatisfactory

Check chunk quality:

·       Chunks too short — May lack sufficient context, leading to semantic loss and inaccurate answers

·       Chunks too long — May include irrelevant information, introducing semantic noise and lowering retrieval precision

·       Semantically incomplete chunks — Caused by forced chunking that cuts through sentences or paragraphs, resulting in missing or misleading content

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Always preview and check chunk quality before proceeding with indexing. Re-indexing later costs additional time and resources.

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*📖 Previous: \[Quick Create Overview] · Next: \[Index Method & Retrieval Settings]*
