Connecting sources

Three ways to get content into VDF AI Data

Each has a place. The right choice depends on how often the content changes and how widely it should be shared.

Method	Best for	Stays current?	Reusable across products?
Direct file upload	Snapshots, one-off references, archived documents	No (manual re-upload)	Yes
Connected app	Living content — folders, spaces, projects that update	Yes	Yes
Pasted text in a prompt	Quick context for a single conversation	No	No

For anything that changes over time, prefer connected apps. For anything that’s a finished snapshot, upload directly.

Uploading files directly

The simplest pattern. Drag a file in, it processes, it’s referenceable.

What to consider before uploading

• Will this content change? If yes, a connected app is usually better. Uploads are snapshots.
• Who should see this? Set visibility immediately after upload. The default may not match what you want.
• Is it the right format? Plain text, PDF, DOCX, XLSX, CSV, PPTX, and transcripts all work well. Scanned PDFs require OCR — slower and sometimes lower quality.
• Is it a sensible size? Very large files (hundreds of pages, gigabyte-scale spreadsheets) may take longer to process. Splitting into two files often gives better results than uploading a monster.

A useful naming convention

Files in Data are easier to reference when their names tell you what they are. A few patterns that pay off:

• MSA-AcmeCorp-2025.pdf is searchable. final_v3.pdf is not.
• Date prefixes (2025-03-12-call-transcript.txt) make chronological searches easier.
• Project tags in the name (alpha-onboarding-checklist.docx) help filter when you have hundreds of files.

Connecting apps

This is where the real power lives. A connection means VDF AI can read live content from an app — and you don’t have to upload, re-upload, or manually sync.

Common apps you can connect

• Google — Drive folders, Docs, Sheets, Slides
• Microsoft — OneDrive, SharePoint, Outlook, Teams
• Confluence — Spaces and pages
• Jira — Projects, boards, individual tickets
• GitHub — Repos, issues, pull requests
• Slack — Channels and conversations
• Zoom — Recorded meetings and transcripts
• GitBook — Spaces and documents
• Box — Folders and files

Your workspace may have additional connectors. Check the Connections area to see what’s available.

How a connection works

1. You start the connection.

   From the Connections area, pick the app and click "Connect."

2. The app asks you to authenticate.

   Sign in with your account on that platform. This proves to the app that the connection is authorized by you.

3. The app asks what to share.

   You choose what VDF AI should be able to access — a folder, a space, a project, a channel. Start narrow.

4. The connection becomes active.

   VDF AI can now reference content from the scoped area inside any conversation, agent, or network.

5. The connection refreshes over time.

   Some apps auto-refresh; others may need manual reauthorization periodically.

Scoping a connection right

The single best decision you make when connecting is what to scope it to.

A useful pattern:

• Connect by project, not by drive. “Q3 launches” folder, not all of Drive.
• Connect by team’s working space, not the company root. Your team’s Confluence space, not the whole Confluence instance.
• Connect by active project, not archive. Current Jira project, not every ticket ever.

You can always expand later. Tightening a too-broad connection means re-scoping and possibly re-authenticating.

Keeping connections fresh

A great connection on day one can degrade over time. A few things to watch:

Auto-refresh and manual refresh

Most connections refresh on their own — VDF AI checks for new content periodically. Some workspaces also offer manual refresh: a button that forces an immediate refresh when you know content just changed.

Use manual refresh when:

• You just edited a doc and want to query it immediately.
• You added a new folder to a connected drive.
• You renamed or restructured connected content.

When a connection fails

You’ll see a notification in the Connections area. Common causes:

• Permissions changed. Someone removed your access to the scoped area, or the app’s permissions model changed.
• Authentication expired. Reauthorize to refresh the token.
• The scoped content was moved or deleted. Re-scope to the new location.

Failed connections aren’t catastrophic — they just stop returning new results. Your existing references continue to work until the connection is back.

A monthly cleanup ritual

Once a month, ten minutes:

1. Open the Connections area.
2. Look at each connection’s status (active, needs attention, stale).
3. Reauthorize anything in “needs attention.”
4. Disconnect anything you no longer use.

A clean connections list produces sharper answers. A bloated one produces noisy ones.

What’s private, what’s shared

Visibility in Data has three usual levels:

• Personal — only you can reference this source.
• Team-shared — your team can reference it.
• Workspace-shared — anyone in your workspace can reference it.

For new sources, the default visibility depends on workspace settings. Check after every upload or connection — visibility is one of the most common surprise misconfigurations.

Permissions, in plain language

A common question: “Can VDF AI see things I shouldn’t see?”

No. Connections honor the access permissions of the account that authorized them. If your account can see a folder, the connection can see that folder. If your account can’t see a folder, the connection can’t either.

That means:

• A team member’s connection sees what their account sees — not what your account sees.
• If your access to a folder changes, the connection’s access changes too.
• VDF AI can’t “elevate” through a connection — it has only the permissions you granted.

For tighter control over what a workspace’s AI can read, your workspace admin can scope connections at the workspace level.

Removing or replacing a source

To remove an uploaded file: delete it from the Data area. References to it in past conversations remain (as a record of what was asked) but new conversations will no longer see it.

To remove a connection: disconnect from the Connections area. The connection’s content stops being referenceable; the source app is unaffected.

To replace a source: upload the new file or rescope the connection. There’s no “version 2 of the same source” pattern — just remove the old and add the new.

A clean Data area is a multiplier

Teams that succeed with VDF AI tend to share a habit: they treat their Data area as a real piece of team infrastructure. They name files thoughtfully, scope connections tightly, refresh on a cadence, and clean out the stale.

The teams that don’t end up with noisy, drifting Data — and a slow degradation of every answer the AI produces.

Where to go next

• Searching your knowledge — how to ask great questions across the sources you’ve connected.
• Use cases — six worked examples.
• Privacy & Security — the full data-handling picture.