The wiki
The wiki is where the business keeps its memory: one page for every client, person and project, every fact citing the file it came from. It is how we know what a contract said without opening it again, and what our briefings and invoices read from. What stays ours is when to file and what is worth keeping; noticing new files and writing them up is done by a watcher and an assistant. This page shows how we used to handle new files, how they are filed now, and the parts underneath.
How we built ours
Every fact keeps a pointer to the file it came from. Then any page can be thrown away and rebuilt, and nobody has to trust memory.
How we used to do it
- Files would land in the shared folder: contracts, statements, notes, plans.
- We'd notice them when we went looking.
- Open each one and work out which client, person or project it was about.
- Copy what mattered into our notes, when there was time.
- Months later, try to remember where a fact had come from.
Nothing was lost, but nothing could be found quickly either.
What changed
We still decide when to file, and we still read what matters. Noticing new files and writing up what they say stopped being ours.
How we do it now
- Files land in the shared folder.
- Each morning the watcher logs every new file as a row on the board.
- When we're ready, we say "ingest".
- The assistant reads each file and writes its facts onto the page for that client, person or project.
- It closes each row against the page it updated, or with a reason when the file needed nothing.
One word from us, and the board shows what is still waiting.
The parts
A folder per part of the business, each with an inbox where files arrive. The wiki itself, organised by client, person and project and written only by the assistant, with a log of every file filed. The watcher's morning check and the assistant's ingest skill. The same memory does other work: we ask it questions and get answers with their sources, the morning briefing reads its client pages, and every invoice updates one. And one design choice that makes it trustworthy: the original files are read-only and every fact cites one, so an unsourced fact is flagged instead of filed, and any page can be rebuilt from the files.
What it took us
The folder layout and the rules came first, in writing. Filing is still started by us rather than on a schedule; running it unattended is on the list, not built.