How it fits together
Irys One is built on three primitives — Workspace, Matter, and Library — that work together. This page explains how the three relate, and how a document flows between them.
The three primitives
| Primitive | One-sentence rule |
|---|---|
| Workspace | If you're in the Workspace, you can see its Matters. |
| Matter | A Matter is where the work happens. |
| Library | The Library is where documents live. |
A Workspace contains Matters and Members. A Matter contains documents (linked from the Library), conversations, notes, drafts, and tasks. The Library holds every document accessible in the Workspace, plus a Personal Library and an Org Library where one exists.
How a document gets into Irys One
A document enters the Library in one of these ways:
| Entry point | What happens |
|---|---|
| Upload from the Library | The document lands in whichever folder is currently selected in the sidebar. |
| Upload from a Matter's Documents panel | The document appears in both the Matter's Documents panel and the Matter's auto-created Library folder. They stay in sync. |
| Generated by Drafting Assistant | When a draft is created inside a Matter, the document appears in the Library with a Generated origin and a status that progresses Draft → Pending → Processed. |
| Returned from Sign | An executed envelope returns the signed PDF to the Library with a deep-link back to the envelope. |
How a document is acted on
Once in the Library, a document can be acted on from the preview pane, a row's right-click menu, or its actions menu. Every action launches the relevant Practice Tool with the document pre-loaded; results return to the Library or to the Matter the action was scoped to.
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| View / Download | Opens in the in-app viewer or downloads the original file. |
| Move to Folder | Updates the document's Location in the Source column. Matter linkage is independent of folder placement. |
| Link to Matter | Adds the document to a Matter's Documents panel without duplicating it. The same document can be linked to multiple Matters. |
| Sign document | Routes the document into Sign. After execution the signed PDF returns to the Library with a deep-link to the envelope. |
| Open in Drafting Assistant | Opens the document in Drafting Assistant. Drafts created here return to the Library with a Generated origin. |
How AI sees documents
A document becomes part of a Matter's AI context as soon as it is uploaded to or linked into that Matter. The floating Ask Irys window inside a Matter, the standalone AI Assistant when scoped to that Matter, and Multi-Doc Analysis runs scoped to that Matter all read the same set of documents.
AI retrieval is scoped to the active Workspace, so each Workspace's documents stay within its own context.
What stays scoped to where
| Scope | What it sees |
|---|---|
| Personal Workspace | Personal Library + Personal Workspace's Matters. Does not aggregate other Workspace libraries. |
| A specific Workspace | The Workspace's library + Personal Library + Org Library (if one exists). Other Workspaces are invisible. |
| A Matter inside a Workspace | The Matter's documents (uploaded or linked), plus the AI context the Workspace and Org levels provide. |
Related
- Workspaces — the access boundary
- Matters — the unit of work
- Library — the document repository