Guide
A searchable notes vault for your business questions
For this guide and its prompts we recommend:
Offers checked 21 Oct 2026
You can now ask your own notes business questions.
A notes vault where you can ask questions and get answers from your own notes.
What you need
- Your notes from phone apps, documents and paper
- A notes app with linked notes, and an AI search plugin for it
- Any AI chat assistant
- Granola
Recommended AI tools
GranolaThe exact words people used, ready to reuseFree plan
Steps
Collect notes into one vault
Export notes from the apps you use and move them into one notes vault, one note per topic. Give each note a clear title and a date. Leave passwords and bank details out of the vault.
WeakNotes 3, Misc, Untitled.
Better2026-10 Supplier - linen - prices and delivery, 2026-09 Shop - Saturday opening checklist.
Ask the vault questions
Add an AI search plugin and ask questions in plain words. A good answer points to the notes it used; open them and check. If the answer has no note behind it, treat it as a guess. For asking questions of longer documents, see /guides/ask-your-documents-answers-with-sources/.
ExampleQuestion: What did we agree with the linen supplier about late deliveries. Answer with links to the two notes from the September call.
Bring in meeting notes
After each call, copy the AI meeting notes into the vault under the person or project. Tell people at the start of the call that notes are taken, and keep only what you need.
Tidy once a month
Once a month, list notes that overlap or are out of date and ask for a suggested merge. You decide what to merge, keep or delete.
The full instruction
Copy it into any AI chat assistant and change only the first line.
Change only this line: BUSINESS = [a freelance interior design studio] You help me set up a notes vault that answers questions about my BUSINESS. First ask me, one question at a time: where my notes are now (for example phone notes, documents, meeting notes, paper) and which three to five questions I want the vault to answer. Do three things: 1. Suggest at most 8 folders or tags and a naming rule with dates. 2. For each of my questions, say which notes the vault needs so it can answer from them. 3. Write a monthly tidy checklist of at most 6 points. Remind me what must stay out of the vault (passwords, bank details, other people's private data). After my answers, start with the folders.
What you end up with
One notes vault with clear titles, answers that point back to your own notes, meeting notes in the right place and a monthly tidy that keeps it useful.
Common mistakes
- Trusting an answer that does not link to any of your notes.
- Putting passwords or bank details into the vault.
- Collecting everything and never tidying, so old notes give old answers.
Processes that need more than one tool
Each process below uses several tools, each for the job it does best. Any AI chat assistant works where one is named.
Collect notes in one place
Tools, in order: a notes app → a notes vault
- Export notes from the notes app on your phone and your other apps.
- Move them into a notes vault, one note per topic, with a date in each title.
The prompt for this process
Help me move scattered notes into one notes vault. Where my notes are: [list apps and places] Kinds of notes I have: [e.g. supplier calls, shop checklists, ideas, prices] Suggest at most 8 folders or tags, a title rule with the date first and a short template for a new note. Then list what I should not move into the vault, such as passwords and bank details. Start with the folders.
Ask the vault
Tools, in order: an AI search plugin for your notes → any AI chat assistant
- Install an AI search plugin for your notes and ask your first question in plain words.
- Open the notes it links to; if you want a cleaner answer, paste those notes into the chat assistant.
The prompt for this process
Answer my question using only the notes I paste below. Question: [your question] Notes: [paste the notes the vault search found, each with its title] Give a short answer and, for every point, the title of the note it comes from. If the notes do not answer the question, say so and say what note is missing. Do not add anything from outside my notes. Start with the short answer.
Bring in meeting notes
Tools, in order: Granola → a notes vault
- Take notes during calls with Granola, after telling people that notes are taken.
- Copy the cleaned notes into the vault under the person or project, keeping only what you need.
The prompt for this process
Turn my meeting notes from Granola into a note for my vault. Meeting: [who, date, topic] Notes: [paste] Write a vault note with: a title with the date first, three to five key points, decisions, open questions and next steps with names. Remove anything personal that is not needed for the business. Mark anything unclear with [CHECK?]. Start with the title.
Monthly tidy
Tools, in order: any AI chat assistant → a notes vault
- Paste the list of note titles from the vault into the chat assistant and ask which overlap or look out of date.
- Merge, keep or delete each one yourself in the vault.
The prompt for this process
Help me tidy my notes vault once a month. Note titles with dates: [paste the list] Group titles that look like they cover the same topic and suggest which to merge. List notes older than [months] that may be out of date, as questions for me. Do not suggest deleting anything without a reason. At most 10 suggestions. Start with the groups.
For this result we recommend these tools
This guide describes a result. These tools are one way to get there faster. Whether one pays for itself depends on your work, and we promise no result.
Granola
An AI notepad that turns your meetings into clean notes without a meeting bot.
From $14 per user per month (Business) (source, checked 2026-10-16)
Granola is an AI notepad for meetings that writes up your notes from the call audio, without a bot joining the call. In this guide it is used in “Bring in meeting notes”. It is used for client calls, interviews and team meetings, and it merges your own rough notes and the transcript into one clean summary.
Free plan (source, checked 21 Oct 2026)
We recommend a specialised tool for each process rather than one tool that does everything. Tools that try to do everything rarely do any one job really well, because no single function gets perfected. It is the same in life, in business and in relationships: spread your attention over ten places and nothing gets done properly.
Forward, without brakes
Now that the Kailiniai Heroes exist, you can have your own. Create one hero or several, and use them for goals that used to need a whole team or a big budget.
