---
title: "How collections and sections appear in the Help Center"
description: "Summary"
canonical_url: "https://help.brainfi.sh/articles/how-collections-and-sections-appear-in-the-help-center-ZMer6RAzuJ"
md_url: "https://help.brainfi.sh/articles/how-collections-and-sections-appear-in-the-help-center-ZMer6RAzuJ.md"
---
# Summary
Brainfish uses two related concepts that customers often confuse:
1. **Collections** — where articles live in the dashboard (Knowledge).
2. **Sections** — how those collections are grouped on the public Help Center home page and navigation.
A collection name in Knowledge does **not** automatically become a top-level section on the public site. Sections are configured separately on the Help Center agent.
***
## Quick terminology
| Dashboard term | What customers see on the public Help Center |
| :-------------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Collection** | A group of articles. On older layouts this may appear as a **category** card (`/categories/...`). |
| **Section** | A top-level navigation group on the Help Center (e.g. "Guide", "Distribution"). Contains one or more collections. |
| **Knowledge source** | Any collection (or API catalog) selected to power the Help Center agent. |
| **Public / Internal** (on a collection) | Whether that collection's articles can appear on the live Help Center. |
***
## Where to configure in the dashboard
### Step 1 — Create content in Knowledge
1. Go to **Knowledge** in the sidebar.
2. Open or create a **collection** and add articles.
To make a collection eligible for the public Help Center:
1. Open the collection.
2. Use the **Public / Internal** toggle in the collection header (Permissions area).
3. Set the collection to **Public** — tooltip: *"Collection is published to your live help center"*.
4. Ensure individual articles are published (not draft/archived).
> **Important:** A collection can be selected in Help Center settings but still not show publicly if it is set to **Internal**.
### Step 2 — Connect collections to the Help Center agent
1. Go to **Agents**.
2. Open the customer's **Help Center** channel.
3. Expand **Knowledge Settings**.
4. Under **Select knowledge sources**, choose which collections (and catalogs, if enabled) the Help Center uses.
5. Click **Save changes**.
At least one knowledge source must be selected for Help Center channels.
### Step 3 — Organize sections
Still in **Agents → Help Center → Knowledge Settings**, scroll below the knowledge source picker to **Sections**.
* **Sections** control how selected collections appear on the public Help Center home page and navigation.
* Each section has a **name** (e.g. "Guide", "Distribution") and contains one or more **sources** (collections).
* Drag sections to change their order on the public site.
* Click a section to edit its name and assign collections to it.
* Click **Save changes** after making changes.
#### Default behavior
When the customer does **not** have multi-section editing enabled:
* They see a single read-only section named **"Guide"**.
* That section automatically includes all selected knowledge sources.
* They can reorder sources **within** the Guide section, but cannot add separate section names like "Distribution" from the dashboard.
\
This is why a customer may have a collection called "Distribution" in Knowledge but **not** see a matching "Distribution" section on the public Help Center — it is inside the default **Guide** section unless multi-section editing is enabled.
#### Multi-section editing
When Help Center multi-section editing is enabled for the team:
* Customers can click **+ Section** to add named sections.
* They can assign different collections to different sections.
* They can rename, reorder, and remove sections.
If a customer needs section names that mirror an old KB, such as "Distribution", they either need multi-section editing enabled or their content will appear under the default **Guide** section.
***
## How this maps to the public Help Center
```text
Dashboard (Knowledge) Dashboard (Agents → Help Center)
───────────────────── ─────────────────────────────────
Collection: "Distribution" Knowledge source: selected
Collection: "Getting Started" Section: "Guide"
└─ articles └─ source: Distribution
└─ source: Getting Started
Public Help Center
──────────────────
Section: Guide (URL slug: /guide/...)
└─ Distribution (collection shown as a card / category)
└─ Getting Started
└─ individual articles
```
### Public URL patterns
| Public URL | Maps to |
| :----------------------------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------- |
| `/{section-slug}/...` | Section name from Help Center settings, e.g. `/guide/...` |
| `/categories/{collection-slug}-{id}` | Legacy flat view of a collection |
| `/articles/{article-slug}-{id}` | Individual article |
Section names are slugified for URLs. For example, "Distribution" becomes `/distribution/...` when configured as its own section.
***
## Common support scenarios
### "I have a collection but don't see it on the Help Center"
Check in order:
1. Is the collection set to **Public** (not Internal)?
2. Are the articles published?
3. Is the collection selected under **Agents → Help Center → Knowledge Settings → Select knowledge sources**?
4. Is the collection assigned to a **Section** or included in the default Guide section?
5. Has the customer saved the Help Center configuration after changes?
### "I want sections like our old KB"
Explain:
* **Sections are not the same as collection names.** Collection names live in Knowledge; section names live in Help Center agent settings.
* By default, everything appears under one **Guide** section.
* To create separately named sections, the team needs multi-section editing enabled. Escalate to Product/Engineering if the customer is entitled to this layout.
### "Our own Brainfish Help Center doesn't match our dashboard"
This is expected if Brainfish HQ's public Help Center uses custom section groupings that differ from raw collection names in Knowledge. Use **Agents → Help Center → Knowledge Settings → Sections** to see the actual mapping — not the Knowledge sidebar alone.