Search Nextcloud and ownCloud your own document storage in your AI knowledge base.

Your self-hosted storage – project folders, contracts, minutes, file notes and scans – goes into the knowledge base. The folder structure feeds into visibility as an attribute, while the permissions themselves are tied to document types and roles. Processing happens in a dedicated instance in the EU.

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Nextcloud / ownCloud

subject to a feasibility check · folder

Example question

“Which version of the maintenance contract for the property at Bahnhofstraße 12 is in the group folder?”

1 Answer with source

Connection

How the connection works

There are two routes. In the first, the directory where your installation stores its files is mirrored to your own instance, encrypted and over outbound connections only. In the second, files are read through an approval using your installation’s access credentials. Which route suits you depends on the version, edition, storage location and whether server-side encryption is enabled – we check this with you before we start. Either way, access is read-only and nothing in your installation is changed.

Once set up, synchronisation runs automatically: new and changed documents from Nextcloud / ownCloud are added without anyone having to upload anything.

Set-upOnce the feasibility check is done, we estimate the effort and agree it with you before anything is set up – ideally with your administrator. The storage location, server-side encryption and the chosen route all feed into the estimate. The connection is set up for you rather than switched on in one click, and is charged on a time-and-materials basis, agreed in advance.

Documents

Typical content: Nextcloud / ownCloud

Group folders – called team folders in some versions – shared with the whole company or a department: files, model contracts, templates
Each member of staff’s personal area, where drafts are kept before they go on file
Scanned post that a network scanner saves straight into an inbox folder
Documents that clients have uploaded themselves to an upload folder through a shared link
Documents from Nextcloud Office that two people work on together – drafts as odt or docx
Tags and favourites your staff have added to files themselves, for example by file, year or member of staff

Example questions

Questions you might ask your documents

“Which version of the maintenance contract for the property at Bahnhofstraße 12 is in the group folder?”
1 Answer with source
“What did the March file note on the Berger matter record?”
2 Answer with source
“Where is the signed contract for project 2024-118, and what deadline does it set?”
3 Answer with source

Start

Before a connection is set up

This connection is set up for you rather than switched on in one click. Every source has its own logins, permissions and folder structure – so before we start, we check with you whether and how it can be connected at your company. Set-up and maintenance are charged on a time-and-materials basis, agreed in advance; the amount depends on the source.

You can also upload files, whole folders, emails, photos and voice notes at any time. In the demo you see the answers using sample documents from your industry; you check them against your own documents in the first weeks after go-live.

Preliminary check

What we check in advance

Before we start, we check whether server-side encryption is enabled, where the storage is located and whether external storage is mounted as folders – this decides which route is possible. Tags, comments and favourites are stored in your installation’s database, not in the files; whether they can be included depends on the route and your version. Folders with end-to-end encryption are deliberately readable only by authorised users, and we don’t change that. Talk chat posts, calendars, task cards and polls are not files and are not included.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about this connection

Our group folder holds twelve years of files, many of them scans without a text layer. Is that useful?

Yes. Scanned pages without a text layer go through text recognition (OCR) in your instance, so older documents become searchable. How well this works on faint copies or handwritten margin notes only becomes clear from the documents themselves. If the system finds nothing reliable for a question, it tells you so rather than inventing a source. The first run over many years takes longer than the ongoing sync; we plan for this in the initial meeting.

Our group folders are divided by department, not by file. Does that work?

Generally, yes, because the search works on content: a file note is found by the client’s name and the facts of the matter, whichever department it sits under. We still carry over the folder level as an attribute, because it often shows what kind of document is stored there. If the same contract is in two departments, the answer names both sources, and the date and folder show which is more recent. In the first weeks after go-live, we go through the answers with you using real questions about your own storage.

We update our installation ourselves regularly. Is there anything we need to watch out for?

Two things. No add-on app is installed on your side that an update could break, and as long as the files sit in the data directory under their own names, nothing needs doing on the mirrored route. If, however, you enable server-side encryption later or move the storage, there will no longer be any readable files there. Let us know about such changes in advance and we’ll switch to the approval route in good time.

Our groups control who sees which folder. Is that carried over?

The two are kept separate. Your groups still decide who can open a file in Nextcloud or ownCloud – none of that changes. Who gets answers from which documents in the knowledge base is decided by role, tied to document type: files for the department, HR documents and fee notes for a smaller group. That way, an HR document that has ended up in the open group folder by mistake is still only visible to the smaller group.

Industries

Typical for these industries

Request a demo – with examples for Nextcloud / ownCloud

In a 30-minute video call, we use sample documents to show what answers with sources look like. Before we start, we check whether and how Nextcloud / ownCloud can be connected at your company.