[[Knowledge]] that cannot be fully articulated — it exists as judgment, intuition, [[Pattern recognition|pattern recognition]], and [[Expertise|expertise]] acquired through experience. Also called **know-who** or **expertise knowledge**. ^definition Examples: - knowing which engineer to call for a database incident - recognising a bad architectural decision from experience before it ships - a senior consultant's instinct about what a client really wants ^examples ## In [[Knowledge base design]] Tacit knowledge mostly lives in people and resists capture. What can be partially externalised: - [[Decision log|Decision logs]] and [[Post-mortem|post-mortems]] — the *why* behind choices - Q&A transcripts and forum threads — expertise externalised through questions - Mentorship notes and failure stories — patterns experienced people recognise immediately A [[Knowledge base|knowledge base]] that only stores factual and procedural content will fail agents that need this context. ^kb-implications