Setup takes about twenty minutes. Most of that is uploading files. When you are done, anyone on your team can ask a question in plain English and get the answer from your own current documents.
What HeyJanet does
HeyJanet keeps your company’s documents in one place and keeps track of which version of each one is current. Your AI reads from that place. When someone asks a question, the answer comes from your document, not from something the AI half remembers.
When you replace a document with a newer version, the old one is archived. Every answer from then on uses the new one. Nobody has to tell anyone.
Before you start
You need three things.
- A Google account. Gmail or a work Google account. This is the account your AI will use to read your documents. If your company runs on Microsoft 365, you may not have one yet. You can create a Google account with your existing work email address. Your email stays where it is.
- An AI account that can connect to Google Drive. Claude, ChatGPT, or Perplexity. Claude is recommended. It must be a plan that lets you create a Project (Claude, ChatGPT) or a Space (Perplexity) and connect Google Drive.
- Five to ten real documents. Not samples. A safety manual, a price list, a warranty — the things people ask each other about most.
The six steps
When you sign in, the dashboard shows these six steps. It ticks them off as you go. The last two cannot tick themselves. You tick them.
1. Fill in your business details
Open Company Information. Enter your address, phone, hours, licence numbers, and who runs each department.
These are the facts the AI answers from when no document covers the question. Until the required ones are filled in, the AI has to say it does not know.
2. Upload your first documents
Open Upload. Drag in one file or up to twenty. HeyJanet reads each one and suggests where it belongs. You check the suggestion and publish.
See Uploading documents for what works and what does not.
3. Publish your AI configuration
Open AI configuration and go to the card called Publish the full reference to Drive. Press Publish to Drive.
This writes a rulebook into your Drive. It tells the AI how your documents are organised and how to tell which version is current.
4. Give your AI account access
On the same page, find the card Which Google account will read your documents? Enter the Google account from Before you start. Press Give access.
That account can now read your documents. Nobody else can. The table below it, Who can open your documents, lists everyone who has access. You can remove anyone from there.
The account you enter here must be the same Google account you connect to Google Drive inside your AI. This is the most common reason setup fails. See step 5.
5. Set up your AI workspace
This step happens inside your AI account, not inside HeyJanet. HeyJanet cannot see it and cannot do it for you. It has three parts. Do them in this order.
a. Add anything specific to your company (optional). On the AI configuration page, the card Add anything specific to this company takes extra rules, one per line. For example: “always name the document you took the answer from.” Press Save instructions. Do this first, because it changes the text you copy next.
b. Paste the instructions. In the card Paste this into your AI, press the Copy button. Then open your AI:
| If you use | Open | Paste into the field called |
|---|---|---|
| Claude | your Project | Project instructions |
| ChatGPT | your Project’s settings | Instructions |
| Perplexity | your Space | Space Instructions |
Replace whatever is already in that field. In ChatGPT, do not use Custom instructions in your account settings. That is a different setting, and the wrong place.
c. Add your index. Back on the AI configuration page, under the Google account you entered, press Copy index link. In your AI, open the Project or Space, choose to add a file from Google Drive, and paste the link.
The index is the only file you add. It lists every current document and where to find it. Do not add your documents one by one.
When all three parts are done, go back to the dashboard and tick step 5.
6. Ask it a question
Ask your AI something only your own documents could answer. Check that the answer names the document it came from. If it does, the system is working end to end. Tick step 6.
If it does not, go to Troubleshooting.
A good first test
Ask a question. Then upload a newer version of the document that answered it, with the same title. Ask the same question again. The answer changes, and the old version is archived.