Always-on SOPs

RAG retrieves the right document when it’s relevant — but some material should always be present. That’s what a standard operating procedure (SOP) is for.

What you’ll learn

• The difference between RAG retrieval and an always-on SOP.
• Where SOPs live: the Company OS and the scoped Library.
• When to reach for an SOP instead of a plain Library item.

Retrieved vs. always-on

Most Library items are pulled in by RAG only when they match the task at hand. But your non-negotiables — brand voice, doctrine, compliance notes, escalation steps — shouldn’t depend on a worker happening to ask the right question.

The Company OS (open a Company → ⚙️ Company OS) is the team’s shared “operating system”: brand voice, doctrine, cadence, SOPs, compliance, and vendors. It’s the context every scoped worker inherits automatically — so an SOP recorded here is always present, not merely retrievable.

Two ways an SOP reaches a worker

1. In the Company OS — inherited by every worker on that team whenever a chat is scoped to the Company.
2. As a Library document — when a conversation is scoped to a Company (or for 🌐 Workspace items, always), the Library is folded into the worker’s context via RAG. Scope decides the audience: Workspace items reach every worker; Company items stay with that team.

Put your rules where they belong

Brand voice and compliance usually belong at Workspace scope (or the OS) so the whole organisation stays consistent. A team-specific runbook belongs at Company scope.

Keep SOPs lean

Anything always-on rides along in every relevant worker’s context. A short, sharp SOP beats a sprawling one — be deliberate about what truly needs to be ever-present.

Three SOPs worth writing first

If you only ever write three, write these. Each removes a category of mistake permanently:

Your voice, in specifics. Not “professional and friendly” — that’s useless to a model. Write the rules: “Never open with ‘I hope this email finds you well.’ Use short sentences. Prices always net, always in euros, always with ’+ VAT’. Sign off ‘Best, Theo’.” Concrete constraints change output; adjectives don’t.

What must never go out without a human. Anything touching a refund, a legal commitment, a discount beyond your standard, or a complaint. Write the list, and write what the worker should do instead: draft it, flag it, and say why it stopped. This turns a vague worry into a rule the whole team inherits.

How to handle the question you get twenty times a week. Take your most repetitive customer question and write the answer once — including the edge cases and the point at which it becomes your problem rather than the worker’s. From then on every worker in that Company answers it the same way, in your words.

Write it after the mistake, not before

The best SOPs are corrections. When a draft comes back wrong, don’t just fix that draft — spend two extra minutes turning the fix into a rule. That’s how the same mistake stops happening, instead of being caught again next week.

Recap

An ordinary Library doc is retrieved when relevant; an SOP — in the Company OS or scoped in the Library — is always there for the workers in its scope. Use SOPs for the rules that must never be missed. Next, we go further: training a worker so a body of knowledge becomes part of who it is.

📖 Reference in the docs: Library · Company profile

➡️ Next: Train a worker