Gen8

Connecting documents and knowledge

Integration · route: configured

Answers from your own documents, with sources included

The knowledge people seek usually already exists: in a document library, shared folder or handbook nobody opens anymore. This integration makes those documents useful as workflow sources, so an answer comes with a reference rather than out of nowhere. Source-system permissions remain authoritative.

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  • Permissions stay in force
  • EU hosting
  • Visible approval

Documents, Knowledge

At a glance

Route: configured
Components: SharePoint, Google Drive, OneDrive

Capabilities

What the integration can do

The workflow reads documents from your designated sites, libraries and folders and uses them as sources:

  • Answer a question with a reference to the document and location within it
  • Compare multiple documents and identify differences
  • Extract data another step needs
  • Flag that the answer is absent from designated sources — a valid outcome, not an error

Google Drive goes beyond files: its own Google Docs, Sheets and Slides tools let a workflow read and edit content instead of merely referring to it.

What does not happen: moving, deleting or reorganizing documents. Cleanup is human work; this integration provides access, not reorganization.

Inspiration

What you can automate with this

A few examples of work you can hand over through this integration. We work out what fits your organisation together during scoping.

Answer questions with source references

An answer from your own documents, referencing the document and its specific location.

Compare documents

Two versions of a contract or proposal side by side, with differences identified.

Extract document data

Data needed by a next step is extracted from the document.

Honest when the answer is absent

If designated sources do not contain the answer, the workflow says so rather than inventing something.

Generate a report

A workflow can also build a report with Google Docs. A change starts as a proposal.

Update a spreadsheet

Figures from documents enter a Google spreadsheet, first visible as a proposal, then logged.

Does this work look familiar? Or does your process run on another system?

Tell us which work you want to hand over. We help you think through the integration and route, even if your system is not listed here yet.

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Permissions and data

What access is needed

An administrator configures the connection with access to designated sites, libraries or folders — not the entire environment. Scope is the most important setup decision.

The principle is that source-system permissions remain authoritative: a document-access workflow must not become a way around them. How strictly that works depends on access configuration and the identity used by the integration. This must be explicitly recorded and checked during setup, not taken for granted.

Control

Where approval is required

Reading documents as sources is read only and requires no approval per question. Approval comes earlier: selecting sources and deciding who may use the workflow.

That changes when a workflow also writes in documents — generating a report or updating a spreadsheet. A change must then first be visible as a proposal, and every step logged. Processing takes place in the EU.

Evidence

What we can demonstrate

SharePoint, Google Drive and OneDrive each have their own Gen8 integration: SharePoint tools for sites, lists and files; Drive tools for files, Docs, Sheets and Slides; OneDrive tools for files — see also Microsoft 365. The route is configured because value depends entirely on the sources an administrator designates. For storage without its own integration, see MCP, API and custom development. Related workflows: making documents accessible as knowledge and querying a knowledge base.

gen8 · documents and knowledgedone

Answer a question from designated sources

Plan01Sources scoped to designated sites, libraries and folders
Action02Documents searched within the questioner's permissions
Action03Multiple documents compared and differences identified
Action04Answer drafted with document and location reference
Reflect05A subquestion is absent from all sources: reported as open
Answer with sources · missing information identified, not filled in

Frequently asked questions

Can everyone then access all documents?

That must never be the result. Source-system permissions should remain authoritative; how that works in your environment must be checked during setup rather than assumed.

What if the answer is nowhere to be found?

The workflow says it is not in the designated sources. That is a useful answer; an invented answer is not.

Are our documents copied?

Exactly what is stored to make them searchable depends on setup. Define it beforehand — your administrator must be able to answer before the integration is enabled.

Does this work with a network drive too?

Not through a ready-made integration. It requires a custom route; see MCP, API and custom development for what is involved.

Which systems do you use?

Tell us which process you want to connect. We explain which route fits, which permissions are needed and where people keep making decisions.

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