Your first research project

This tutorial uses a small, non-sensitive document set so you can learn the complete workflow before working with important material.

What you will produce

By the end, you will have:

• a workspace with a clear research boundary;
• a checked and indexed document collection;
• a research conversation with verified citations; and
• an editable decision brief.

Prepare a safe sample corpus

Choose three to five documents you are allowed to use. A useful practice set might include a public policy, a synthetic contract, meeting notes, and a spreadsheet with neutral data.

Include at least one PDF with page numbers so you can practice opening page-level citations. Do not use customer or confidential material for training.

Create the workspace

Create a personal workspace named Research practice with this description:

A synthetic collection for learning source-backed comparison. Prefer direct evidence, identify contradictions, and distinguish facts from assumptions.

Upload and inspect

Upload the complete folder. Keep its structure intact. Wait for every required file to show Completed, then spot-check the extracted content of one simple file and one visually complex file.

If a scan has missing text, change its extraction method to OCR or Adaptive and reindex it.

Run three research passes

Start broad:

List the documents in this workspace and explain the subject and date range covered by each one. Cite every description.

Then compare:

Identify the three most important points of agreement and disagreement across the collection. Use a table and cite each row.

Finally, synthesize:

Recommend the next decision or investigation step. Separate evidence, assumptions, and unresolved questions. Cite every important factual claim.

Verify the answer

Open at least one citation from each source. Confirm that the cited page supports the claim and that the answer has not omitted a nearby qualification.

Use the Sources panel to check whether important documents were retrieved. If an expected source is missing, make the next question narrower or name the document explicitly.

Create the brief

Ask the assistant:

Save a decision brief as a working document. Include a one-paragraph summary, findings, conflicting evidence, open questions, and recommended next steps. Preserve citations.

Open Files, edit the draft, and export it. Check the exported layout and each high-impact citation before sharing it.

Clean up

Keep the workspace as a reusable training environment or delete it after reviewing the deletion impact. Never mix training material with a real matter or client corpus.