How the Dataroom index works

The Dataroom is the numbered index external users navigate. It is built from two kinds of node, folders and placeholders, and filled by mapping uploaded files onto placeholders. This guide explains the model and where each control lives; the task guides linked at the end walk through building and filling it.

Essential concepts

• Workspace and Dataroom. Uploads land in the Workspace, the working area only your team sees. The Dataroom tab shows the curated index. A file appears in the Dataroom only once it is placed.
• Folder. A section of the index, such as 1 Corporate & Governance or 1.2 Board of Directors & Committees. Folders nest, and every folder carries an index number.
• Placeholder. An expected document inside a folder, such as 1.2.1 Board Meeting Minutes. A placeholder exists before any file does, so the index shows what is still missing. It can hold several files: the demo's Board Meeting Minutes placeholder maps four quarterly minutes.
• Mapped files. The Workspace files attached to a placeholder. Mapping keeps the original upload; the Dataroom shows the placeholder's name and, below it, each file with its own number.
• Index number. Every folder, placeholder and file has one, derived from its position: 1.2.1.1 is the first file under the first placeholder in the second folder of section 1. External users see and quote these numbers.
• Placement suggestion. A proposal, made by the AI, that a particular Workspace file belongs at a particular folder or placeholder. A suggestion is not a placement: the file stays in the Workspace until someone accepts it.
• Completion. The counter at the bottom of the Dataroom, for example 45/45 · 100%, is the share of placeholders that have at least one mapped file. A placeholder with one file counts exactly as much as one with four; the counter measures slots, not documents. Placeholders marked Not applicable are excluded from both numbers.

The demo deal's index: six sections, 45 placeholders, all filled.11.Dataroom tab22.Edit placeholders33.State chip and Publish44.Completion counter

Where the controls are

The menu next to Upload holds the index-wide actions.11.Menu next to Upload22.Recreate index numbers

The structure editor

Edit placeholders turns the Dataroom into an editable tree. Each row shows its number, name and state, and on hover the row actions: rename, place files, add a subfolder, add a placeholder, delete. Selecting a row opens the inspector on the right.

Green counts are mapped files; Unfilled marks an empty placeholder.11.New placeholder22.New Folder33.Done editing

The inspector for a placeholder holds:

• Placement instruction. Free text that tells colleagues and the AI what belongs here, for example Signed board minutes, one file per meeting. Exclude drafts. It drives the placement suggestions.
• Not applicable. Keeps the placeholder in the list but removes it from the completion score and the missing-files export. Use it for documents this deal will never have.
• Mapped files. The files currently attached, with Place files here to attach more from the Workspace.
• Validation rules. The checks attached to this placeholder, with New rule.
• Delete. Removes the placeholder. Its mapped files stay in the Workspace.

The inspector for a folder shows its placement instruction, how many placeholders it contains and how many are filled, and the rules that use its placeholders.

Changes save as you make them; the editor shows Saved at the top. Select Done editing to return to the normal view.

AI placement suggestions

Filling a large index by hand is slow, so the app can do the first pass. There are two ways to start it, and both need a Dataroom structure to place into: the AI matches files against your folders, placeholders and their placement instructions, so until the Dataroom has at least a first structure there is nothing to match against and neither entry point is offered.

• Place with AI in the upload dialog. The files are uploaded to the Workspace, and as soon as each one has been processed the app creates its placement suggestion automatically. You do not run anything afterwards; the suggestions are simply waiting for review when the upload finishes.
• Scan Workspace, in the ⋮ menu next to Upload, for files that are already in the Workspace. It reads every file that is not yet placed and creates a suggestion for each one that clearly fits.

In both cases a file without an obvious fit gets no suggestion and stays in the Workspace; the AI never guesses.

Suggestions appear as markers in the Workspace's Index column and are handled in Review Index suggestions, where each one shows its target, the AI's rationale and the name the file will carry in the index. Accepting a suggestion is exactly the same as placing the file by hand; retargeting moves it to a slot you choose first; rejecting leaves the file where it is. Two things make suggestions better: specific placement instructions on placeholders, and the AI file naming convention under Dataroom settings, which the AI follows when it proposes index names. Place documents with AI walks through the review.

Validation rules

The Validation rules library defines reusable AI checks, each with a name and a type, that run when documents are placed into the placeholders they are attached to. Attach a rule from a placeholder's inspector. The results roll up per placeholder as passed, issues and pending.

Rules are project-wide and reused across placeholders.

Numbering

Numbers follow the order of the tree, and how they behave depends on the data room's state.

• In Preparation, applying a template, generating a structure, cloning or importing renumbers everything from 1 in tree order. Editing before you publish never needs a manual renumbering.
• After publication, numbers are stable: a new folder, placeholder or file gets the next unused number under its parent, and existing numbers are never shifted, because buyers are already quoting them. A file that fails to upload, is retracted or is deleted keeps its number reserved, so gaps appear, and a node added later sits numerically after its siblings even if you place it between them.

Recreate index numbers in the ⋮ menu is the one operation that recomputes every number from the live tree. It previews the outcome first: how many folders and files are affected, how many numbers change and how many gaps disappear, with the current and new number for every item. Two options change the result: Renumber in alphabetical order (A–Z by name instead of current order, which is what you want after uploading a folder structure that was alphabetical on your computer) and Folders first (subfolders numbered before files within each folder). Names and locations never change. On a published room the dialog warns that exports and references using the old numbers become stale; share a fresh Export index afterwards.

Review every change before applying. Renumber before publishing where you can: external users quote the numbers.11.Renumber in alphabetical order22.Folders first33.Recreate index numbers

Two further rules follow from this. A published room that still uses the older numbering scheme from before stable numbers were introduced cannot take new placements until it has been renumbered once; the app asks you to run Recreate index numbers and then continues the placement you started. And a placeholder is a single-file destination for each action: to map several files to it, place them one by one, which is how the demo's Board Meeting Minutes came to hold four.

Naming

Two settings shape names:

• Index file names, in the ⋮ menu, and the Index names toggle at the bottom show placement names instead of upload filenames. The original filename stays available either way.
• Dataroom settings (the gear in the editor) holds the AI file naming convention: free-text guidance the AI follows when naming files it places, with tokens such as Document Type, YYYY, Counterparty and Version.

Starting points for a new index

An empty Dataroom offers four ways to create the structure: Apply default template (a library of due-diligence indexes with their category and document counts), Generate with AI from the project's description, Clone from a project, or Import from file (one XLSX, XLS, DOCX, PDF or CSV file of up to 50 MB, optionally with a note telling the AI how to read it). Every account's demo project ships with a finished index to learn from.

The four tiles appear only while the Dataroom is empty. To switch from one method to another after applying it, delete every folder and placeholder in the structure editor first; the tiles come back once the tree is empty. Import reads one file at a time, so several checklists from different advisers have to be merged into one file, or imported as the first structure and then extended by hand. Cloning copies the folders and placeholders together with the source project's AI file naming convention and its validation rules, and replaces any rules the destination already had.

Exports

Export index in the ⋮ menu downloads the whole index as an Excel file, the document to share with a counterparty or attach to an agreement. Export missing files, in the completion panel, downloads only the placeholders that still have no file, which is the request list to send to the company or the seller's advisers. Both respect Not applicable.

Availability and limitations

• In Preparation the structure changes freely. After publication you can still add and move folders, placeholders and files, and you retract instead of deleting; after locking nothing changes. The data room lifecycle lists every difference.
• Two deletes behave differently. In the structure editor, a folder that still contains placeholders or subfolders cannot be deleted until they are removed or moved out. Delete in the folder tree's ⋮ menu removes the folder with everything inside; the mapped files stay in the Workspace.
• In the file list a folder opens with a double-click; in the structure editor a double-click renames the row instead.
• A placeholder or folder that an AI suggestion points to can be deleted meanwhile; the suggestion then shows Target missing or Placeholder missing in the review and needs a new target before it can be accepted.
• Renumbering is a whole-index operation and cannot be limited to one folder.

Next actions

• Build the Dataroom structure walks through folders, placeholders and instructions step by step.
• Place documents in the Dataroom covers mapping files by hand.
• Place documents with AI covers scanning the Workspace and reviewing the suggestions.