Memory, skills, and knowledge
Your teammates get better at your work over time, and they draw on three different kinds of knowing. This page explains what each one is and how they differ, so the rest of the Portal makes sense.
Think of a new colleague’s first months
Section titled “Think of a new colleague’s first months”When someone new joins a team, three things make them more useful as time goes on. They pick things up as they work (“the client always wants the invoice by the 5th”). They follow procedures the team has written down (“here’s how we close the books each month”). And they read the company handbook you hand them on day one. None of those is the same thing — and a digital employee knows in the same three ways.
Memory — what a teammate learns
Section titled “Memory — what a teammate learns”Memory is what a teammate picks up as it works and keeps for next time. After finishing a piece of work, a teammate quietly notes anything worth remembering — a useful fact, a preference you mentioned, a constraint it ran into — so it doesn’t start from scratch the next time something similar comes up.
This happens on its own. You don’t have to write memories for your teammate; it does it for itself, and the next time you ask for something related, it remembers. Over many conversations this is what makes a teammate feel like it knows you, not like a fresh chatbot every time.
Memory comes in two flavours, in plain terms:
Private memory
Something one teammate learned, kept to itself. Most of what a teammate remembers starts here.
Shared memory
A lesson useful enough that the whole team should know it. A learning gets shared deliberately, never by accident.
Skills — what a teammate is taught
Section titled “Skills — what a teammate is taught”A skill is a saved how-to your teammate can follow — a reliable recipe for doing a particular job well, so it doesn’t have to figure out every step from scratch each time. “Write a weekly newsletter in our voice”, “run a three-email follow-up sequence”, “check a draft against our brand guidelines” — each can be a skill.
The difference from memory: a skill is taught, not picked up. It’s a deliberate procedure, written down once and reused by the team. Because a skill changes how the whole company works, adding or editing one is a considered step rather than something that happens quietly in the background.
Business knowledge — what you give them
Section titled “Business knowledge — what you give them”Business knowledge is the documents about your business that you upload for your teammates to read — your brand guide, your price list, your standard contract, notes about your clients. When a teammate works on something, it reads the relevant documents so its answers fit your business, not a generic one.
The difference from the other two: business knowledge is yours to write. You upload and organize it; your teammates only read it. And you control who sees what — you can keep a folder readable by one part of your team and not another, so sensitive documents stay where they belong.
The three side by side
Section titled “The three side by side”| What it is | Who creates it | How it grows | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memory | What a teammate learned | The teammate, on its own | Quietly, as work gets done |
| Skills | A saved how-to to follow | Taught deliberately, team-wide | When you add or edit one |
| Business knowledge | Documents about your business | You upload them | When you add files |
Your business knowledge and your conversations are yours. Nothing about how a teammate learns changes that — for the full promise, see Trust and safety.
Frequently asked questions
Section titled “Frequently asked questions”Do I have to set any of this up before I start?
No. A new teammate arrives with skills for its role, builds memory as it works, and reads any business knowledge you’ve uploaded. You can start asking for work right away and add to all three over time.
Will my teammate remember what I told it last week?
Yes — that’s what memory is for. When you ask for something related, it draws on what it learned before, so you’re not repeating yourself.
What's the difference between a skill and business knowledge?
A skill is a how-to — the steps for doing a job. Business knowledge is facts about your business — your brand, prices, clients. A teammate follows skills and reads knowledge.
Can my teammates change my uploaded documents?
No. Business knowledge is yours to edit; teammates only read it. Anything a teammate figures out lives in its own memory or in a skill, never in your documents.