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Briefs and files

Numbers say what happened. Briefs say why: what a company does, what the board decided, which customer is at risk. Gatlas keeps both side by side, so an agent can answer with the context as well as the figures.

Context comes in two layers

  • Files holds the files synced from Google Drive, SharePoint and OneDrive, as they are. You find it under Library in the sidebar.
  • Briefs holds short briefs written from those files (and from your datasets): a company overview, a decisions log, the definitions behind your KPIs. These are what agents read first.

Brief prompts, under Definitions in the sidebar, is how the first layer becomes the second: a brief prompt reads a set of files and writes a brief, by hand or on a schedule.

Sync files from Google Drive, SharePoint or OneDrive

1

Connect the source

On Sources, choose Add source, pick Google Drive or SharePoint and OneDrive (and, with several companies, the company it belongs to), and sign in. Gatlas reads the locations you choose and never changes or deletes a file. SharePoint usually needs a Microsoft 365 admin to approve Gatlas first. You can also send a setup link to the person who owns the files. See Connecting sources for both.

2

Pick the folders

For Google Drive, tick the folders to sync. A ticked folder includes every folder inside it, so open a folder only to pick part of it. If a folder is not listed, for example one in a shared drive, paste its link.

For SharePoint and OneDrive, pick your OneDrive or open a site to see its libraries. A selected library or folder includes every folder inside it, so open a library only to pick part of it. Search finds sites the account does not follow.

Then save with the Sync button, which counts what you picked. The source does not sync until you pick at least one.

3

Check what arrived in Files

Every file in a selected location, subfolders included, lands in Files. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides are converted to text. PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel files are stored as they are and read when a brief prompt needs them. Files over 50 MB are skipped, and so are OneNote notebooks, shortcuts, Loop files and files protected by a sensitivity label; hover a skipped file to see why. Files with no text in them, such as images, sync but count as Unreadable.

Note

Pick folders that hold company knowledge: board packs, investment memos, meeting notes, contracts. A folder of website assets or personal files adds noise, not answers.

Distill files into briefs with a brief prompt

Admins and above create brief prompts. On Brief prompts, choose New brief prompt and fill in:

  • Name and Instructions: what to write and how to lay it out, in plain language.
  • Company: the company whose files it reads. Narrow it with Connection or Folder prefixes when only some folders matter.
  • Schedule: manual, @daily or @weekly.
  • Max input tokens: a size limit on what the brief prompt reads. A run over it fails rather than silently reading less. Leave it empty for the default.

Open the brief prompt and choose Run preview to see the result on a small sample without saving anything. When it reads well, Run live writes the brief, and every later run adds a new version. A brief prompt that fails three times in a row pauses itself; fix it and choose Resume.

Claude can also create brief prompts for you, including ones that read your approved datasets or other briefs alongside the files:

Create a weekly brief prompt for Northwind that reads the board meeting notes folder and keeps a decisions log: each decision, its date, and who owns the follow-up.

Approve a brief so agents can read it

A brief is either Approved or a Draft. Agents only read approved ones. The first live run of a brief prompt creates its brief as a draft, so you can read it before anyone relies on it. Approving it is a request to Claude; the dashboard has no switch for it:

1

Let Claude see the brief prompt

Edit the brief prompt and turn on Agents can run it, which is off for brief prompts created in the dashboard.

2

Ask Claude to approve its brief

With a read/write personal or whole-workspace key, ask:

Approve the brief the Northwind decisions log brief prompt writes.

A brief is tagged to the company its brief prompt reads. On Briefs, the No company count shows any that a key limited to some companies can't see.

Start with the briefs that answer the most

On Briefs, Ideas for getting started suggests the briefs worth having early for each company, and shows which it already has. A few that pay off quickly:

  • A company description: what it sells, to whom, and how.
  • KPI definitions, so "active customer" means one thing.
  • Accounting conventions, such as the fiscal year and currency.
  • Data caveats and known gaps, so nobody trusts a number that should not be trusted.
  • A decisions log.

Ask about briefs in Claude

Once approved, briefs are part of what Claude can read. Ask for them directly, or ask a question that needs both:

What does the Northwind company description say about its largest customers, and how does that compare with its revenue by customer this year?

Claude reads the briefs first. When none covers the question, it can search the files too; treat a search result as a lead to check, not a count. Briefs follow the same access as datasets: an agent key only sees the companies it was given. See Getting the most out of Gatlas for how briefs and datasets work together.