- boxes
- legal
- workspace
How to ask AI about several case files or projects at once (without mixing the files up)
Connect the Boxes you need to cross-reference, choose whether the whole Box or only some folders come in, and ask. Every citation says which Box and which page it came from, and each project's files stay where they were.
A case file is rarely answered from its own documents. The question about the contract needs the purchasing policy; the answer about the lawsuit needs the contract; the bid proposal needs all three. The usual fix, copying everything into one shared folder, scrambles the projects and duplicates files until nobody knows which version is the right one. Connecting Boxes does the same job without moving anything.
What does an AI tool need to cross-reference several projects well?
The cross-reference must not wreck the organization. If asking about two case files means merging them, in three months there are no case files, just one folder with 2,000 documents and three versions of every contract.
Every citation must say where it came from. When an answer mixes sources from several projects, "according to clause 7" is not enough with three contracts open; "according to clause 7 of the contract in the Vendor X Box, page 14" is. And permissions must keep ruling: cross-referencing projects cannot become a way to read what you could not read before.
BrainBox is an AI workspace for documents that answers with citations to the exact page. Box connections take that same citation one level up: file, page and source Box.
How do you connect Boxes, step by step?
Open the main Box
The main Box is the one in the URL: the project you are working on and where the chats are saved. Everything you connect feeds this Box's chats.
Open the connections panel
In the chat sidebar, the Connected section lists the Boxes already linked and, below it, the other workspace Boxes you have access to. You can search them by name or view them grouped by tag.
Connect the whole Box or pick folders
Connecting the whole Box includes all its eligible files, and files uploaded later come in on their own. To narrow it, expand the Box and tick specific folders or files; new files inside a ticked folder also come in automatically.
Save the connection
Once saved, the Box shows as Connected. From then on it feeds every chat in this main Box. There is no per-chat switch: if something should not come in, adjust the scope or disconnect.
Ask as usual
Answers cite file, page and source Box. The sources panel groups documents by Box, so you see at a glance which project contributed what.
For one-off lookups, use @
Type @ in the chat and pick a Box: it is activated for that conversation only and shows as This chat rather than Connected. It creates no saved connection.
What does an answer that crosses three Boxes look like?
A legal team has the Box for a vendor contract open and has connected last year's litigation file and the internal policies Box. The question crosses all three:
Is the penalty clause in the contract consistent with our purchasing policy and with what we argued in last year's lawsuit?
Partly. Clause 9.2 of the contract sets a penalty of 0.5% per day capped at 20% of the contract value.1 The current purchasing policy requires any penalty to exceed 1% per day for critical contracts, and this one is classified as critical.2
In last year's lawsuit we argued that a 20% cap was insufficient to cover the actual damage, and the court accepted that argument.3 Keeping 20% here contradicts that position.
Footnotes
- 1.Vendor X Contract v3.pdf- p. 14
- 2.Purchasing Policy 2026.docx- p. 6
- 3.Judgment 2025-0142.pdf- p. 31
In the interface, each footnote opens the document at that page and the sources panel shows the Box it belongs to: the contract from the main Box, the policy from the Purchasing Box and the judgment from the Litigation 2025 Box. It is the same mechanism that lets you verify an AI answer against one document, applied to three projects.
What rules do connections follow?
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Scope | Same workspace; only Boxes you already have access to |
| Ownership | Personal: each user has their own connections per main Box |
| Modes | Whole Box, or selected folders and files |
| New files | Whole Box: they come in on their own. Selected folder: they come in on their own inside that folder |
| Privacy | Other users' Private files and their Private folder are excluded |
| Permissions | Verified on the server on every question |
| Writing | The assistant only writes in the main Box; connected Boxes are read-only |
| Temporary | @Box activates a Box for the current chat only, with no saved connection |
| Disconnect | Removes the connection; the files stay untouched in their Box |
When should you connect the whole Box, and when only folders?
Connect the whole Box when the other project is small or when all of it is legitimate context: internal regulations, the templates archive, the closed case that serves as precedent.
Pick folders when the other Box is large and only part of it matters. A litigation file with 800 documents may only need its Judgments folder; connecting all of it dilutes the answers and spends more intelligence units per question.
Use @ when the need is one-off: "what does the vendor manual say about this?" does not justify a permanent connection.
How is this different from uploading everything into one chat?
| One chat with all the files | Connected Boxes in BrainBox | |
|---|---|---|
| Organization | One shared folder, duplicated files | Each project keeps its structure |
| Citation provenance | File name | File, page and Box |
| New files | Have to be uploaded again | Come in on their own according to scope |
| Permissions | Whoever uploaded them | Each Box's own, verified on every question |
| Privacy | Everything visible to everyone | Other users' Private files never come in |
| AI writing | Anywhere | Only in the main Box |
NotebookLM works with one notebook and its sources at a time; to cross two topics you load the sources into the same notebook. In BrainBox the projects stay separate and are crossed by connection, each with its own permissions.
For legal teams, the typical case is contract + precedents + internal policy. For research, it is crossing the Box for one paper with the group's literature review Box. For tenders, it is the current bid documents connected to the folder of past proposals, where the requirements you already met before usually live.
A connection is resolved again on every question: permissions, folders and new files are checked at that moment, not when you saved it.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a Box connection?
- A saved link between the Box you have open and another Box in the same workspace, so the second Box's files feed the first one's chats. You can connect the whole Box or only specific folders and files. The connection is saved and used in all your chats in that Box until you disconnect it.
- Do other members see my connections?
- No. Connections are personal: they are stored per user and per main Box. Someone else opening the same Box does not see your connections or their files unless they create their own.
- Can I connect any Box?
- Only Boxes in the same workspace that you already have access to. Permissions are checked on the server on every question: if your access to a connected Box is removed, its files stop feeding answers.
- What about other users' private files?
- They never come in. When a connection is resolved, files that other users keep in their Private folder are excluded. Your own private files can show up for you, the same as in the normal Box.
- If someone uploads a new file to the connected Box, does the AI see it?
- It depends on the mode. With the whole Box connected, yes, automatically on the next question. With selected folders, new files inside those folders come in on their own; files uploaded elsewhere do not, until you widen the selection.
- Can I use another Box for just one question, without connecting it?
- Yes. Type @ and pick the Box: it is activated for that chat only and does not create a saved connection. Useful for one-off lookups.
- Can the AI modify files in a connected Box?
- No. Connected Boxes are read-only for the assistant: it can cite them and reason with them, but it only writes, edits or moves files in the Box you have open.
Written by
BrainBox Team
Document intelligence, by ExaByte Company
We build BrainBox — the platform teams use to ask questions across their own documents and get answers with exact page citations.
Keep reading
How to compare two versions of a contract with AI and catch every change (with the page in each)
Mention both versions, ask for the table of differences, and verify each change on its page. Works for renegotiated contracts, tender documents with addenda, thesis drafts and any document that has passed through several hands.
BrainBox in 2026: the workspace for professionals who work with documents
Research tools keep you anchored to your sources but stop at the answer. Chat tools write well but have never read your files. BrainBox is where both happen in one place.
How to turn a meeting recording into minutes with AI (and know who said what)
Upload the audio or video, wait for a speaker-separated transcript, and ask for the minutes. Every decision links back to the exact second it was said, so nobody argues later about what was agreed.