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Files give Collivo and your team the context needed to understand project work.

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Set up initial context

You don’t need everything ready before you start — much of a project’s content gets created in Collivo as you work. But if you already have material that’s relevant, bringing it in gives you, your team, and the AI a base to build on instead of starting from a blank page. If you have any of these, they make a useful starting point:
  • Direction — the project brief, goal, and requirements.
  • Plan — the current plan or approach, and important decisions made so far.
  • Background — research notes, meeting summaries, and draft deliverables.
  • Reference — policies, reference material, and source files.
  • Open questions — known risks, or anything still undecided.
  • Working material — the spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs, and documents your team needs to discuss.
Put shared material in the project’s folder so everyone can build on it, and keep personal drafts in your folder. Add the most relevant files to AI context when you chat.
Avoid uploading unnecessary sensitive information. If a file includes sensitive content, confirm that it belongs in the organization or project and that permissions are limited to the right people.

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Upload files

Files go inside a or folder (or a subfolder) — not directly under the project’s top level. Use for personal material or for team material. To start, open the target folder’s More options menu in the Files pane, and select Upload. Then choose one of these sources. from local — upload files from your computer. Select from local, then choose one or more files. Each file can be up to 10 MB; hold Ctrl or Cmd to select several at once. from cloud — import from a connected cloud account, such as Google Drive, SharePoint, or Box. Select from cloud, pick the Connected Account to import from, then browse it, tick the files you want, and select Import. If you have not connected an account yet, add one under Settings → Connected accounts first. After uploading or importing, confirm each item appears in the folder. If a file is still processing, wait for it to finish before relying on it in chat.
The same More options menu has a New option for creating items directly in Collivo — a file, folder, kanban board, whiteboard, or an item from a template.

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Organize with folders

Use folders to keep everything for one part of the work together — for example, by workstream, team, or deliverable type. To create a folder:
  1. Open the More options menu for , , or an existing folder.
  2. Select New, then New Folder, and give it a name.
Example folder patterns:
  • Research
  • Requirements
  • Design
  • Client materials
  • Meeting notes
  • Final deliverables
You can drag files and folders around in the Files pane to move them to another folder in the project. If an existing folder now holds work you want to recognize as a task, open its More options menu and select Convert to task folder. The folder stays where it is with its contents. Add task guidance and progress notes as needed; a regular folder can serve the same purpose. See Task folders for a setup guide. To rearrange existing work, open the file’s More options menu :
  • Move To — move the file to a different folder.
  • Copy To — place a separate copy in another location.
  • Create Shortcut — link to the file from another folder without duplicating it. See Shortcut.
  • Rename — change the file’s name.
  • Star — mark a file or folder for quick access under Starred.

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Keep context current

AI answers are more useful when project context is current. As the work evolves, use a file’s More options menu to keep things tidy:
  • Upload newer versions, and Delete files that should no longer guide the work.
  • Rename or Move To so files stay easy to find.
  • Lock document to prevent accidental edits to a file that should stay fixed.
  • Hide from AI to remove a file or folder from the AI’s view, so it can’t accidentally read work-in-progress or non-authoritative material and be misled. See how the AI’s view works.
  • Annotate a file or folder to attach standing guidance for your team and the AI. See Annotation.

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If upload fails

Work through these checks:
  • Check the file type. Collivo supports common documents (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, CSV), text and code files (such as TXT, MD, and JSON), images (PNG, JPG, and GIF), and whiteboards.
  • Check the file size. Each file must be under 10 MB. Compress or split a larger file before uploading.
  • Check the file itself. Make sure it is not empty or damaged — open it on your computer first to confirm it has content.
  • Try again. A failed upload is sometimes a temporary network or processing hiccup, so refresh the page and retry.
Older Office formats — .doc, .xls, and .ppt — are not supported. Save them as .docx, .xlsx, or .pptx and try again.
If the issue continues, contact support with the file type, approximate upload time, and the project where you uploaded it.