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A Team Brain is a Brain your colleagues can open too. Everyone you share it with asks the same documents and gets the same cited answers. You choose who can open each Team Brain and what they can do in it.
Available in Team workspaces. Owners and Admins create Team Brains. See Roles and permissions.

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Before you start

  • You are in your Team workspace. Switch with the Workspace switcher at the top of the sidebar.
  • To create a Team Brain, you are the Owner or an Admin.
  • To share one, you are the Owner, an Admin, or that Brain’s Manager.
  • The people you share with have joined the Team. See Invite members.

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Steps

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Create a Team Brain

1

Open Team Brains

Go to Team Settings › Team Brains. In a Team workspace, New Brain (⌘B on Mac, Ctrl+B on Windows) opens this screen too.
2

Name it

Under New Team Brain, type a Brain name, for example “Client Files” or “Smith v. Jones”.
3

Create it

Click Create Team Brain. You become its first Manager. The row shows “Ready. Open it from Brains to add files.” once it is set up, which usually takes seconds.
4

Add your documents

Open the Brain from Brains and add your files. See Add files and folders.

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Share a Team Brain

1

Open who has access

In Team Settings › Team Brains, open Who has access under the Brain’s row.
2

Pick a person

Under Share with a member, choose someone in Choose a member….
3

Choose their role

Click Manager, Contributor or Reader. Elephas confirms the share and delivers their key in the background.

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Archive, restore or delete

Use the menu on the Brain’s row:
  • Archive hides the Brain from day-to-day use. Owners, Admins and the Brain’s Managers can archive it, and Restore brings it back.
  • Delete Permanently removes the Brain for everyone. Only the Owner can do this, and it cannot be undone.

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How it works

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Brain roles

Team roles do not give Brain access. An Owner or Admin who is not on a Brain’s list can see its name in Team Brains, but cannot open its documents.

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Personal Brains and Team Brains

Your Personal Brains never move into the Team, and you can’t ask a Personal Brain and a Team Brain in the same question. To share documents from a Personal Brain, add the files again to a Team Brain.

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Keys and new people

Every Team Brain is end-to-end encrypted with its own key. When you share a Brain, a Manager’s computer delivers the key to the new person’s approved computers. The row can show “Ready. Delivering the key to another device or member in the background…” while that happens. A Brain appears under Brains on their computer once its key arrives. The server never receives a Team Brain’s name or its key.

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Troubleshooting

New Team Brains are confirmed by the sign-in service. “This usually takes seconds; it is retried in the background until it succeeds.” If it stays stuck, Owners and Admins can click Retry Stuck Provisioning.
Their computer must be approved in Team Devices, and a Manager’s computer must be online to deliver the key. Ask them to keep Elephas open for a minute.
You can only share with people who have joined. Invite them from Members first. See Invite members.
More fixes in Team errors.

Roles and permissions

Create and manage Brains

Invite members

Ask questions about your documents