Files

Every project can have files the agent can read, write, and edit. They're stored in Avi's cloud storage, scoped to your project. The agent can:

  • Search and list files across the project — one federated search that also covers a connected Google Drive or ShareFile account.
  • Read any file. Text files (markdown, CSV, JSON, code, etc.) come through as text. Images are seen directly, and PDFs are read on any model — their text, or the page itself when it is a scan. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files (.docx/.xlsx/.pptx) are read as extracted text — spreadsheets come through sheet-by-sheet so Avi can reason over the rows — and when layout matters (a table, a slide, a chart), Avi can look at the file as rendered pages instead. Avi can also check a file's size, checksum, and an image's pixel dimensions without reading it. Avi can also change the wording of a Word document for you, in place, with its formatting preserved.
  • Write new files (text, or binary from generated bytes) and download files from the web by URL.
  • Edit parts of existing text files in place.
  • Create notes, make business documents — quotes, invoices, engagement letters and more — as Word documents from your own templates in Avi's document design (working out every amount and total itself; a detail it doesn't have — your address, a phone number — is left out rather than left blank, and added when you give it; the typeface travels inside the file, so it looks right for everyone), and produce new files as it works — exported PDFs, converted or resized images, Office files exported to PDF or converted between formats (an old .doc to .docx, a spreadsheet to CSV).
  • Fill out fillable PDF forms, accurately and completely (see PDFs).
  • Move and rename files or whole folders (moving a file under the Google Drive or ShareFile root uploads it there).
  • Delete files (recoverable for about a week — ask Avi to undo a delete, or restore from Drive's Recently deleted).
  • Create and change Excel workbooks: values and formulas, rows and columns, formats, sheets, tables, dropdowns, highlighting rules, charts and summaries, with every formula recalculated (see Excel workbooks).
  • Write and format Word documents with real styles, numbered clauses, lists, tables, and page numbers; redline them with tracked changes in your name (and a clean copy that carries no editing history); comment, reply, and resolve; compare two versions; and export to PDF, PDF/A, A4, or one section.

All of this happens through the Drive app's tools — files (Word documents included) and notes are one tree with one set of tools.

Getting files in

There are four ways to put a file into a project:

  • Drive panel: open the Drive app from the project sidebar and drag files in (or pick from your computer). They appear in the tree and are immediately readable by the agent.
  • Paste or drop in chat: paste a screenshot from the clipboard, or drag a file onto the chat composer. Attachments are saved into the project's Attachments/ folder automatically, so they show up in Drive and Avi can come back to them in later conversations. Limits: 8 attachments per message, 10 MB each. Very large images are automatically downscaled before they're shown to the model (the stored file keeps its full resolution).
  • Let the agent create them: Avi can write new files as it works (a generated report, a chart, a transformed CSV).
  • Pull them in from connected apps: with the Email and Drive apps connected to your Google account, ask Avi to save an email attachment, a Google Drive file, or a ShareFile file into the project — "grab the invoice PDF from Dana's email and review it". The file lands in the project's files (attachments default to an email-attachments/ folder), and since PDFs and images are read natively, Avi can review the contents right away. Files up to 10 MB.

Files persist for as long as the project exists.

Getting files out

Project files also travel the other way. With the Email and Drive apps, Avi can attach project files to emails it sends or drafts ("send the Q3 report to Dana as an attachment" — up to 18 MB of attachments per email) and upload project files to Google Drive or ShareFile byte-exact, including binary files like PDFs and images — optionally converting them into native Google Docs or Sheets on the way.

Editing files safely

When Avi edits part of a file in place, it has to point at a snippet that's unique in the file — otherwise the edit might land at the wrong copy of a common phrase. If your file has the same exact line in two spots, Avi will ask for more context to disambiguate, or you can tell it explicitly to replace every occurrence.

Edits and overwrites are also protected against collisions: if a file changed between Avi reading it and writing it back (say, a teammate re-uploaded it), the write is refused and Avi re-reads before retrying — so nobody's changes get silently overwritten.

A file you have open follows a rename. If Avi (or you, in another tab) renames or moves the file on screen, the view moves with it and says where it went — it never closes as if the file were gone.

Nothing is lost when a file is replaced. Whenever Avi overwrites, edits, or replaces one of your files, the previous version is kept in a hidden working area for about 7 days (the twenty most recent versions of a file that changes a lot) — open Working files from the Drive panel's root menu to see it, and ask Avi to restore it if a change should be undone. Avi also uses the same area to stage things it produces (a converted image, a filled PDF) so it can double-check the result before placing it in your tree; anything left unplaced cleans itself up after a week.

Notes get the same protection. Avi can't replace a note's whole body without having just read it — a blind rewrite is refused outright, and targeted edits only ever change the exact passage they name. Whenever a note's content does change, the previous body is kept in the same working area for about 7 days, so any edit can be undone by asking Avi to restore it.

Word documents

Avi works on Word documents (.docx) itself, right in the conversation — there is no separate agent to hand the work to, and the answer comes back in the same reply. When a request is about a document (you mention one, attach one, or have one open in Drive), Avi brings its Word know-how to it automatically.

  • Everyday changes. "Change 30 days to 45", "add our address to the letterhead", "make the headings dark green", "the pricing table should be one row and a total" — done in place, in seconds, with the formatting kept.
  • Rearranging. "Delete the second paragraph under Terms", "put these four lines in two columns", "move the client details to the top right", "move Terms above Pricing", "turn this list into a table" — paragraphs and tables can be removed, moved, and rebuilt; lines that are only being moved keep their formatting exactly.
  • Business documents from your templates. Quotes, estimates, engagement letters, statements of work, invoices, one-pagers, and cover letters, made from your own template (your own template for a document type is what Avi starts from — the built-in design only when you have none; or whichever you mark as the default for that type) in your Documents folder. Avi fills in every detail it knows, writes the line items, and works out every amount, tax, and total itself. Templates are covered too: making one, changing its wording, giving it a logo, making it the default.
  • Tracked changes. "Redline", "mark up", or "propose" means tracked changes on the document itself, one per change you asked for, credited to you. Avi never rebuilds the document or renumbers clauses you did not mention. Templates are changed directly, never with tracked changes.
  • Comments: adding, replying, resolving.
  • New documents with real headings, numbered clauses and numbered lists.
  • Accepting or rejecting changes, and producing a clean copy with the editing history scrubbed.
  • Comparing two versions into a redline, when you give it both.
  • It looks at the pages. After making a document or changing its layout — a new row, a signature block, a moved section — Avi looks at pictures of the pages the change landed on before answering: that the change is there, that it matches its neighbours, that nothing was pushed onto a new page or cut in two. If something is off it fixes it once more and looks again; if it still is, it tells you exactly what.
  • PDFs only when you ask. A document is done as a Word file you open in Drive; it exports to PDF (clean, archival PDF/A, A4, one section, with bookmarks) when you say so, never on its own. When you change a document that has a PDF of it beside it, Avi tells you that PDF still shows the old version.

It works the way a document professional does: one tracked change per edit, never accepting its own changes, never touching the other side's changes or comments unless you say so, and a clean copy only when you ask. When an edit moves clause numbers or touches a defined term, it lists the cross-references for you to decide on rather than changing them silently. When something can't be done with a Word document yet (a footnote, an image in the text, merged table cells), Avi says so plainly instead of trying things out on your file.

Excel workbooks

Avi works on Excel workbooks (.xlsx) itself, right in the conversation. When a request is about a spreadsheet (you mention one, attach one or a CSV, or have one open in Drive), Avi brings its Excel know-how to it automatically.

  • New workbooks. "Make a budget tracker for the first half of the year", "build a price list with a margin column", "turn this CSV into a spreadsheet with totals" — a real workbook with a header row, number formats, and formulas for everything that is calculated.
  • Everyday changes. "March rent went up to 2,400", "add these three orders", "add a tax column at 8%", "sort by amount, largest first" — done in place. New rows go above the totals row and the totals grow to cover them.
  • Formulas, not typed-in numbers. Totals, margins, lookups and summaries are written as formulas, so they keep working when you change the data. Avi never types a number over a formula without telling you. Ask for a calculated number to come out at a target ("make the total 250,000") and Avi says what it is calculated from and asks which numbers to change before changing any.
  • Always recalculated. Every change is recalculated straight away, and Avi reports the numbers the formulas now show. A change that would leave a new error such as #REF! or #DIV/0! is not saved; Avi fixes it or tells you why.
  • Rows, columns and sheets. Insert or delete rows and columns, rename, add, copy, hide or delete sheets — every formula, chart and named range that pointed at the moved cells follows.
  • Summaries. "Revenue and order count by region on a summary sheet" — built with live formulas, and a chart if you want one.
  • Formatting and rules. Currency, percent and date formats, column widths, frozen headers, filters, tables, dropdown lists, and highlighting rules ("flag anything overdue in red") that stay true as the data changes.
  • Charts. Column, bar, line, area, pie, doughnut and scatter charts, as real Excel charts that follow their data.
  • Questions. "Which month had the best margin?" — answered from the cells, naming where the answer was read.
  • A real spreadsheet view. In Drive a workbook opens as a grid with sheet tabs and a formula bar. Click a cell, type, press Enter — it saves and recalculates. Select cells and ask Avi about "these". Highlighting rules show in the grid, including ones that light a whole row or match text. Charts, data bars and top-10-style rules aren't drawn in the grid; Export to PDF (in the ⋮ menu) shows charts.
  • Everything else is left alone. Charts, pivot tables, macros and pictures already in your workbook are kept exactly as they were.

A few things Avi can't do in a workbook yet, and says so rather than trying things out on your file: creating or changing pivot tables (it builds the same summary with formulas instead), changing an existing chart's design, editing macros, and opening password-protected workbooks. Older .xls files are converted to .xlsx first. Excel recalculates everything again when you open the file, so its numbers are always the final word.

PDFs

Avi reads PDFs, fills their forms, writes on their pages, and signs them — and shows you a picture of what it wrote before calling it done.

  • Reading. Ask what a PDF says, or anything about it — a schedule, a contract clause, an invoice total. Avi reads the text of the pages it needs, on any model. A scanned page has no text to read, so Avi looks at the page itself, the way you would.
  • Any PDF you throw at it. Files locked against editing read like any other. A file that needs a password to open: give Avi the password and it reads it. A damaged file (cut short, exported badly) is repaired and read. Sideways and cropped pages are handled.
  • Filling forms. Avi reads the form's real field list — each field with the words printed beside it — so every value goes in the right field, even when the fields have cryptic internal names. A fill is all or nothing: a value that doesn't fit its field (a choice that isn't one of the options, text longer than the field allows) stops the fill, and Avi fixes it first. Every value is read back from the saved file, and Avi tells you which fields are still empty.
  • Writing anywhere. On a flat or scanned form — no real fields — Avi writes straight onto the page: a name in the blank after "Name:", a date beside a signature, an X in a printed checkbox, an image. It places things against the words printed on the page, so they land on their lines.
  • Signing. "Sign this for me" puts your signature on the document's signature line: your name in a handwriting style, or your own signature image if you've saved one in Drive (a PNG with a transparent background works best). When a document has more than one signature line, Avi asks whose is whose rather than guessing. This is a visual signature — how a signed page looks — not a certificate-based digital signature. Avi only ever signs as you, and only when you ask: asked to sign for someone else, it declines and offers to send them the document to sign themselves.
  • Checked before it's done. Avi won't write over existing words or off the edge of a page, and every write is verified by comparing the page before and after. Then Avi looks at a picture of each place it wrote, and fixes anything that sits wrong before telling you it's finished.
  • Your original stays safe. Changes are made on a working copy. Avi saves the result beside the original under a clear name — a filled form as "… (filled).pdf", so the blank stays blank — or replaces the original when that's what you asked for (the previous version is kept for about a week).
  • Your call. A form the publisher marked against changes, or a document that already carries a digital signature, is only changed after you say so — a change removes the protection or invalidates the signature.
  • Pages. Merge PDFs, pull out or reorder pages, rotate a sideways scan. The originals are never modified.
  • International text. Names in Cyrillic, Greek, or extended Latin alphabets (ł, ő, đ…) are written correctly.

Not yet: turning a long scan into searchable text, changing words already printed in a PDF, redacting (a box drawn over text leaves the text in the file, so Avi won't pass one off as a redaction — it suggests removing it from the source document instead), certificate-based digital signatures, and Adobe "LiveCycle" (XFA) forms. Avi says so when it meets one.

Getting documents signed by others

Connect a ShareFile e-signature account (RightSignature; Drive → settings → E-signature) and Avi sends documents out for other people to sign, straight from the conversation.

  • Ask for it. "Send the Globex agreement to Dana at Globex and Casey to sign." Avi finds the signature lines on the document, marks where each person signs (and dates), and shows you the marked page — each box named for its signer — with a link to the file, before anything goes out. A Word document works too — it is sent as a PDF; your original is never changed.
  • You say send. Nothing is emailed until you've seen who signs where and said so. RightSignature then emails each person their own signing link.
  • Follow it. "Has everyone signed?" tells you where it stands, read from RightSignature. "Remind them" nudges whoever hasn't signed. "Cancel it" voids the request.
  • It comes back on its own. When everyone has signed, the signed copy and the signature certificate are saved beside the original as "… (signed).pdf" and "… (signature certificate).pdf".
  • When Avi can't find the place. It asks you where each person signs, or hands you RightSignature's own screen to place the fields on that document — Avi still tracks it from there.

This is different from "sign this for me", which puts your signature on a page as a picture. Signatures from other people go through RightSignature, with their emails, links and certificate. Only RightSignature is supported today, and its API needs a ShareFile plan that includes e-signature.

Finding files

Avi's project-wide search covers files too — by name, and by content for text files. "Find the Q3 budget spreadsheet" works even when the filename doesn't say Q3.

Large files

Avi can read very large text files (logs, big CSVs) in pages — by byte range — rather than swallowing the whole thing at once. You don't have to think about this — Avi will page through automatically when a file is big.

Browsing files

Your project's files live in the Drive app alongside your notes, document templates, and connected cloud storage — one tree for everything. Select text in an open note or Word document and Avi knows what "this" means: ask "rewrite this" or "what does this clause say" and it works on exactly the highlighted part. Your files are yours until you share them: a file, a folder, or a document template can be shared with specific people or with everyone in your org, to view or to edit (Share… in its menu). What others share with you is in Shared with me at the top of your Drive. Open Drive from the project sidebar to browse folders, preview files inline (images, PDFs, and Word documents render right in the panel — and a .docx can be edited and saved in place), download, upload by drag-and-drop, and manage folders. See Drive's own docs for the full tour.

The Attachments/ folder is special: chat uploads land there and messages reference those paths permanently, so it can't be renamed or deleted.

Custom metadata on files

Every file carries a freeform metadata JSON object — the same extensibility surface Tasks, Notes, and Contacts have (Data Types). Use it to attach cross-system identifiers (stripe.invoice_id, hubspot.attachment_id), workflow state (reviewed_by, team_owner), or any tag you'll later want to filter on. Two systems writing different top-level keys never clobber each other.

You can read or write a file's metadata from the agent (Avi sets keys as part of a file write, patches them alone, sees each file's bag in listings, and filters listings by metadata containment), from apps, or from the HTTP API directly. See the Data Types page for the full merge semantics and query shape.

When you list a directory with a metadata filter, directories with no matching files inside are hidden — the filtered view is focused, not a tree of empty folders. List without a filter to see the full structure.