On Monday, a new accountant asks Marta, who runs a nine-person accounting firm, about the terms of a contract with client Delta. The answer might be in a meeting note or a signed PDF, but no one remembers where. Marta wants to ask the AI Assistant - she can select sources in the conversation or use the AI knowledge base, rather than expect an answer with no company context.
The AI knowledge base and conversation sources are two ways to find documents
To get the AI Assistant to answer based on company agreements, you can select sources in a specific conversation or use the AI knowledge base. You control the first option, while an administrator manages the second in Settings → AI. The AI knowledge base is included in the Pro plan.
The difference matters when Marta asks about the contract terms. If she knows where the signed document is, she selects it as a conversation source. If she doesn’t, the AI knowledge base can find a relevant passage in an indexed note or file without her having to select it when asking the question. This process of finding passages in documents is sometimes called RAG: the model receives context retrieved from company materials.
These aren’t two names for the same button. Sources belong to a selected AI Assistant thread, while the knowledge base provides automatic context managed by an administrator. The page about company knowledge for AI also explains how both options work.
If you know which document you need, select it in the conversation
Select conversation sources using the Sources button below the title in the AI Assistant window. You can select several items at once - for example, a note, a task and a calendar - rather than limiting your question to one document.
On Wednesday, Marta opens a thread about client Delta, selects the folder with contracts and a meeting note, then asks about the agreed term. Tip: click a row to select a source. The › arrow opens it, and the ‹ bar takes you back a level. If Marta only remembers the word “Delta”, she can enter it in the search bar at the top of the window to find matching sources across everything she can access.
You can select your own tasks or a calendar showing the next seven days by default. You can ask about an entire Workspace of tasks and chats, or select a single task, chat or note. You can also select a folder with subfolders or an individual file from the Files module, which is included in the Pro plan. A folder in Documents includes the files and notes it contains. A selected task or chat also includes files attached to it, whether they were added in a message or through the Files module.
Each conversation has its own set of sources. A new thread starts with a general view - it can see only your tasks - so it won’t automatically inherit Delta’s contracts. To start a separate conversation using the same materials, select Duplicate with sources from the thread menu.
You’ll see a usage bar below the source list. If you select more content than the model can handle, the AI Assistant will tell you what it couldn’t include. Broad sources are dropped first, while specifically selected tasks are kept. So when asking about a clause in a contract, Marta starts with the specific document, not the entire Workspace.
The AI knowledge base finds passages without you having to select a file when asking a question
The AI knowledge base helps the AI Assistant find relevant passages in company materials, even when you haven’t selected a file in the conversation. This feature is included in the Pro plan and is managed by an administrator in Settings → AI, under “AI Knowledge Base”.
The model summarises tasks and chats, recording decisions, conclusions and agreements in the knowledge base. Notes and Files are added in their original form, split into passages. If Marta records a working arrangement in a note, the knowledge base can find it when an employee asks about it, without her having to attach the note to every thread.
By default, Automatic knowledge base updates is set to “Yes”: the knowledge base is refreshed in the background once a day. An administrator can select “No” and update it using the Update AI knowledge base button. The instructions recommend this option when there are a very large number of tasks or chats. A document moved to the bin is removed from the knowledge base at the next update, not when it is deleted.
Semantic search, which matches by meaning rather than exact wording, requires OpenAI or Gemini; it’s enabled by default for these providers.
| Question | Conversation sources | AI knowledge base |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides? | The user selects sources for the thread | An administrator manages the knowledge base in Settings → AI |
| Where does the content come from? | From selected tasks, chats, notes and other sources the user can access | From task and chat summaries, and passages from Notes and Files |
| When is it most useful? | When you know which document you need | When you’re asking about an agreement but don’t know which file it’s in |
| Which option? | Files and Mail as sources require Pro | AI knowledge base requires Pro |
Not every PDF is a document the AI can read
The AI Assistant can’t read a PDF that’s just a scan with no text layer, or an old binary DOC file. If you store contracts like these, create a PDF with text or save the document as DOCX before relying on it for answers.
When reading attachments, the AI Assistant supports text in TXT, CSV, MD, JSON, XML, HTML, DOCX, XLSX/XLS and PDF files. It can analyse JPG, PNG, GIF and WebP images visually if the selected model supports images; however, this doesn’t mean it can OCR a scanned PDF. The indexed knowledge base accepts text from TXT, CSV, Markdown, DOCX, XLSX and PDFs with a text layer.
An attachment in a message is read up to around 50 KB of text, a file selected as a knowledge source - up to 300,000 characters, and the knowledge base index stores up to 54,000 characters from each file. When a file is selected as a source, the AI Assistant reads the text in chunks of around 24,000 characters and fetches more as needed. If the answer concerns the final pages of a long contract, check it in the document rather than assuming each route covered the same part of the text.
A folder in a Workspace doesn’t give the whole team access
A file placed in a Workspace folder remains private by default. Access to Notes and files in the knowledge base follows their own permissions: you’ll only see documents you can open in an answer, and this rule also applies to administrators.
On Thursday, Marta can share a selected note with the accountant for viewing without sharing it with the whole office. Assigning a note to a Workspace doesn’t give others access. A file uploaded directly to a task or chat folder works differently: participants in that thread can see it. If an employee loses access to a source, the AI Assistant will leave it out the next time they ask a question.
Administrators have access to all tasks and chats, but this doesn’t give them access to other people’s private Notes and files. They can’t see private threads with the AI Assistant either. If you’re organising documents for several people, start with the rules for roles and permissions in Task Manager, then organise your sources.
Mail requires a separate decision, and your question is sent to the model provider
When you ask the AI Assistant a question, it and the relevant context are sent to an external model provider using your API key. Mail can be used as a conversation source only after an administrator enables the Allow Mail to be used as an AI knowledge source option; it’s disabled by default. The Mail module is part of the Pro option, and email messages are never added to the AI knowledge base indexed in the background.
Once the option is enabled, users can select only their own mailbox or their own email thread. Administrators can’t select someone else’s mailbox either. Disabling the setting also disconnects any Mail sources selected earlier. This requires a separate decision because correspondence may contain third-party data, and any content used as context is sent to an external AI provider.
Task Manager is installed on the client’s server, where the application data is stored. You can choose OpenAI, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude or xAI Grok and pay the provider directly, with no intermediary markup. The article on using your own AI key at work explains how to set up your key and keep track of costs.
For the Pro option on the Starter plan, for up to 8 people, you pay 1 990 zł; the Classic plan, for up to 20 people, costs 3 990 zł. It’s a perpetual licence with a one-off fee for the user seats and 12 months of updates included; renewal afterwards is optional. Check the current breakdown of options in the Task Manager pricing.
Tomorrow, choose one question that comes up regularly in your team. Find the document with the answer, check that it has a text layer, and select it in a conversation with the AI Assistant; then compare the answer with the original. You can explore how the software works in the Demo.
Frequently asked questions
Does AI send our documents to the internet?
Yes. The question, along with relevant context from the selected sources or AI knowledge base, is sent to an external model provider using your API key. This doesn’t mean that all company documents are sent. Your application data is stored on your server, but the model needs to receive the relevant content to generate a response.
Can the AI Assistant read a scanned PDF contract?
No. The AI Assistant can’t read a scanned PDF without a text layer because it doesn’t have OCR. Prepare a PDF with selectable text or copy the relevant content into a note.
Will an employee see a document in an answer if they don’t have access to it?
No. Notes and files retain their permissions in the AI knowledge base. This also applies to administrators; separately, administrators have access to all tasks and chats.
Does indexing documents increase your AI bill?
No. Indexing notes and files doesn’t use up model requests. The AI Assistant’s questions and the generation of task and chat summaries do use model requests.
Can the shared inbox be a source of knowledge for AI?
Yes, but an administrator must first enable the Allow Mail to be used as an AI knowledge source option, which is disabled by default. Users can then select only their own mailbox or thread, and Mail won’t be added to the knowledge base indexed in the background; the Mail module requires the Pro option.
Sources
The Task Manager Team - we write about teamwork, AI in business and keeping tasks organised, using examples from Task Manager, software installed on your own server. Task Manager has been developed by Blue Creation Group (Piotr Łącz) since 2013 and is used by organisations including Neonet, the Military University of Technology and Polpharma - read customer reviews. We check our articles against the user guide and the latest version of the software.
