Internal Knowledge Base: Setup and Getting Started

This guide walks you through everything you need to go from a fresh Internal KB workspace to a published, team-accessible document. You'll configure your profile, understand how the three content types relate to each other, create your first piece of content, and bring your colleagues on board. By the end, your team will have a working foundation for governed, structured internal documentation.

Before You Begin

Make sure you have:

An active Internal KB account (check your email for an invitation link from your workspace administrator)
Your role confirmed — Editor roles can create and edit content; Admin roles can also manage members and permissions
A process, procedure, or standard in mind that you want to document first

SOPs, How-To Guides, and Standards — what's the difference?

These three content types serve distinct purposes, and choosing the right one matters for governance and discoverability:

SOP (Standard Operating Procedure): A formal, step-by-step document for a repeatable business process. Use it when there's one correct way to do something and compliance or consistency is critical — for example, Employee Offboarding Process or Monthly Financial Close Procedure.
How-To Guide: A concise, task-focused reference for completing a specific action. Use it when team members need a quick answer — for example, How to Submit a Reimbursement Request or How to Rotate an API Key.
Company Standard: An authoritative definition of your organization's expectations or rules. Use it when you're setting policy rather than describing a process — for example, Brand Writing Style Guide or Information Security Acceptable Use Policy.

When in doubt: if it has a defined process with roles and steps, write an SOP. If it answers "how do I do X?", write a How-To Guide. If it defines rules or expectations, write a Standard.

Setup Steps

Set Up Your Workspace Profile

Complete your profile so collaborators and reviewers can identify you in comments, approval workflows, and version history.

Click your avatar in the top-right corner and select Profile Settings.
Enter your full name, job title, and department. These fields appear on every document you author or approve.
Upload a profile photo — this makes it easier for teammates to spot your review requests.
Under Notification Preferences, turn on alerts for:
- Documents assigned to you for review
- Comments and replies on documents you own
- Upcoming review-cycle deadlines
Click Save Changes.

Set your Default Content Type in Profile Settings to the type you author most often — SOP, How-To Guide, or Standard. The "New Document" button will pre-select that type, saving you a click every time.

Understand the Content Structure

The Internal KB organizes all content into a three-level hierarchy: Workspaces → Collections → Documents.

Workspace: Your organization's top-level environment. Most companies have one workspace; larger enterprises may have separate workspaces for distinct business units.
Collections: Folders that group related documents by team, function, or topic — for example, HR Policies, Engineering Runbooks, or Sales Playbooks. Collections also carry default permission settings inherited by all documents inside them.
Documents: The individual SOPs, How-To Guides, and Standards. Each document belongs to exactly one Collection and has its own version history, review workflow, and permission overrides.

Navigate to Collections in the left sidebar to browse existing content. If your workspace is new, you'll see a default set of starter collections. You can rename, reorganize, or add collections at any time from Settings → Collections.

Workspace
└── Collections
    ├── HR & People
    │   ├── [SOP] Employee Onboarding
    │   ├── [SOP] Employee Offboarding
    │   └── [Standard] Remote Work Policy
    ├── Engineering
    │   ├── [SOP] Incident Response Runbook
    │   └── [How-To] Rotate AWS IAM Credentials
    └── Finance
        ├── [SOP] Monthly Close Procedure
        └── [How-To] Submit an Expense Report

Documents marked Draft are only visible to their authors and assigned reviewers. A document must pass all approval stages and be explicitly published before it appears to the broader team.

Create Your First Piece of Content

Now that you understand the structure, create your first document.

Click + New Document in the left sidebar (or press N from anywhere in the app).
Select a Content Type: SOP, How-To Guide, or Company Standard.
Choose the Collection this document belongs to. If the right collection doesn't exist yet, click Create Collection, give it a name, and set a default permission level.
Enter a Document Title. Use the imperative for SOPs and How-To Guides (Process Vendor Invoice Payments) and a noun phrase for Standards (Vendor Communication Style).
The editor pre-populates with the template for your chosen content type. Fill in each section:

For SOPs: Purpose, Scope, Roles & Responsibilities, Prerequisites, Procedure (numbered steps), Exceptions, Revision History.

For How-To Guides: Overview, Prerequisites, Steps, Expected Outcome, Troubleshooting.

For Standards: Purpose, Applicability, The Standard (rules and rationale), Examples, Enforcement.

Use the toolbar to add callouts (/note, /warning, /tip), code blocks (```), tables, and embedded links.
When your draft is ready for review, click Submit for Review in the top-right corner. Select the reviewers from your team — the workflow will notify them automatically.

Do not click Publish directly unless your workspace administrator has granted you bypass permissions. Publishing without review skips the approval workflow and removes governance protections for that document. Always go through Submit for Review first.

Invite Team Members and Set Permissions

With your first document underway, bring the rest of your team into the workspace.

To invite members:

Go to Settings → Members in the left sidebar.
Click Invite Members and enter one or more email addresses, separated by commas.
Assign each invitee a workspace role:

Role	Can Do
Viewer	Read published documents only
Commenter	Read and leave inline comments
Editor	Create, edit, and submit documents for review
Reviewer	All Editor permissions plus approve/reject review requests
Admin	Full access including settings, billing, and member management

Click Send Invites. Each invitee receives an email with a link to join your workspace.

To set Collection-level permissions:

Navigate to Collections and hover over the collection you want to restrict.
Click the ⋯ menu and select Manage Permissions.
Override the default workspace role for specific members or groups — for example, granting a contractor Editor access to one collection without giving them workspace-wide access.

Use Groups (under Settings → Groups) to manage permissions for entire departments at once. Create a group called Engineering, add all engineers to it, and assign that group Reviewer access to the Engineering collection. When someone joins or leaves the team, update one group instead of editing every document.

Navigating the Internal KB

Once your workspace has content, finding the right document is fast.

Browse by Collection: The left sidebar lists all Collections you have access to. Click any Collection to see its documents, filtered by content type or sorted by last modified date.

Global Search: Press Cmd+K (macOS) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) from anywhere in the app to open the search bar. Search supports:

Full-text search across all document titles and body content
Filters for content type (type:sop, type:guide, type:standard)
Filters for status (status:published, status:draft, status:in-review)
Author filters (author:jane.smith)

Example search queries:

vendor onboarding type:sop status:published
expense report type:guide
security policy author:compliance-team status:published

Recently Viewed: Your five most recently opened documents appear at the top of the left sidebar under Recents, so you can jump back to active work without searching.

My Documents: Click My Documents in the left sidebar to see every document you've authored, regardless of which Collection it lives in — useful when you're tracking drafts across multiple teams.

What to Do Next

You've set up your profile, learned how content is structured, created your first document, and invited your team. From here, dive into the specifics of each content type to write with confidence and consistency.

Writing an SOP

Learn SOP structure, template sections, and best practices for writing procedures that are clear, complete, and audit-ready.

Creating a Guide

Build task-focused how-to guides your team can scan quickly, including tips for formatting steps and troubleshooting sections.

Writing Style Standards

Apply your organization's writing conventions to every document so internal content reads consistently across all teams.