How to create a private AI team wiki for employees

Create a new assistant and give it an unmistakable internal name such as “Internal Team Wiki”. In Configuration, choose an English default language for this capture, enter an internal-facing service and channel name and write a system role that answers from approved sources, admits missing information and points employees to the correct policy owner.

Start with a fast general-purpose model and a moderate temperature. A larger model cannot repair duplicate, outdated or contradictory policy documents. Keep this assistant out of the public website and record an operational owner before adding sensitive sources.

Begin with one department and one narrow topic. For example, an IT wiki can cover escalation paths and approved troubleshooting, while HR policies remain in a separately governed assistant until access requirements are confirmed.

Open Data Sources and add only maintained websites, files, Confluence spaces or Notion databases that this audience is allowed to read. Record a source owner, review date and sensitivity level outside the chatbot. Give every source a descriptive name and category so duplicates are easy to spot.

Prepare documents for retrieval: use clear headings, one topic per section, explicit dates and complete sentences. Remove obsolete versions, scanned-only pages and repeated copies before indexing. Wait for Completed instead of testing while indexing is still running.

The verified example uses the fictional file `internal-demo-knowledge-base.pdf` with one unique fact: “The internal escalation code for urgent service incidents is NORDSTERN-42.” This value is safe, memorable and specific enough to prove that the intended source was retrieved.

Stay inside the dedicated assistant, open Integrations and select AI Team Wiki. The card shows whether a wiki already exists and provides Create Team Wiki. Confirm the assistant name at the top so an internal wiki is never attached to the wrong source set.

Read the visible warning: Live chat and human takeover are not available inside Team Wiki. Decide where an employee goes when the answer is missing or urgent, such as an IT service desk, HR mailbox or incident hotline, and include that route in the welcome message or source content.

Select Create Team Wiki, enter a recognizable title such as “Northstar Internal Wiki” and choose a neutral subdomain that does not reveal confidential project names. Wait until the availability indicator turns green before continuing.

Choose access from the real audience and risk level. Public allows anyone with the link, so use it only for information approved for public disclosure. Password provides a shared gate but weak accountability. Login Required limits access to the owner and invited team members with individual accounts and is usually the stronger choice for revocation and audit.

For a pilot, write down who can approve each access change and how former employees are removed. Access to the wiki does not automatically make every connected document appropriate for every employee. Split assistants when departments need different source permissions.

Select Password and enter a strong, unique test secret through the UI. Do not reuse an employee, administrator or production password. The yellow warning explains the critical effect: an assistant protected this way becomes a dedicated Team Wiki assistant, and its normal website widget no longer works.

If a public website currently uses this assistant, stop here. Create a separate assistant, copy only approved internal sources and repeat the setup there. Otherwise enabling password mode could replace a working public chat experience with a password prompt.

A shared password is suitable only when your policy permits it and a rotation owner exists. Store and distribute it through an approved password-management channel, never in the welcome message, source documents, tutorial screenshots or video narration.

Upload an optional company-approved logo and choose a readable theme color with sufficient contrast. The welcome message should name the covered department and topics, the source review date, the fallback for missing or policy-critical answers and a reminder not to upload secrets.

Enable File Upload only when employees are allowed to send files into this conversation workflow and retention, access and deletion are documented. Leaving it off is the safer pilot default. “Activate wiki immediately” publishes the subdomain as soon as Create is selected; turn it off if a separate security or content review must happen first.

Before creating, read the complete form from top to bottom: title, subdomain, access protection, logo, color, welcome message, file upload and activation. Then select Create once. Repeated clicks can make troubleshooting harder while the service is provisioning.

Copy the generated subdomain and open it in a new private browser session with no dashboard login. Password mode must show Wiki Access before any title, source text or chat history reveals internal information. Login Required must send the visitor to the member-login flow instead.

Try one incorrect password first. Access must remain blocked without a revealing error. Then enter the correct test password and confirm that the wiki opens. Repeat the direct-URL test after logout; hiding the link in the dashboard is not access control.

For member login, test with one authorized pilot user and one unassigned account. Record only pass/fail evidence, never credentials. Remove test membership when the final capture is complete.

Ask the exact verification question: “What is the internal escalation code?” The expected result is NORDSTERN-42, because that fact appears once in the approved fictional source. In the verified run, the real Team Wiki answered: “The internal escalation code for urgent service incidents is NORDSTERN-42.”

Now ask a deliberate unknown, such as “What is the 2028 travel-expense limit?” when no approved source contains that policy. The safe expected behavior is to state that the information is unavailable and point to the owner or fallback path. A confident invented amount is a failed test.

Repeat both questions with two natural phrasings and, if the wiki serves multiple languages, in each supported language. Record question, expected fact, observed answer, source version, model and date. Re-run this small test set after source, prompt or model changes.

Return to Integrations → AI Team Wiki. The active card shows the subdomain, creation date and Active status. Confirm that the displayed address matches the tested private URL and record the service owner and next review date.

Use Open for routine checks and Edit for planned access, branding or option changes. Use Disable as the first response when the wrong audience can enter, a sensitive source was indexed, answers become unsafe or the owner is unavailable. Disable is reversible and reduces exposure while the incident is investigated.

Reserve Delete for deliberate permanent retirement after export, retention and communication obligations are complete. Review failed questions and source freshness on a schedule, remove duplicate or expired documents, rotate shared passwords and re-run the known/unknown test set before expanding to another department.