Company Brain Framework

A Company Brain is a maintained map of how an organization works. It connects workflows, source records, owners, definitions, decisions and permissions. Begin with one workflow where people repeatedly hunt for an answer or disagree about which source governs.

Six stages, one workflow

1. Scope one workflow

Input: a real workflow, its users and the questions they need answered. Owner: the person accountable for how that work is performed.

Output: a boundary card naming the trigger, steps, decisions, outputs and excluded work. Failure: a broad request to capture everything. Pass gate: users can name the questions this knowledge should answer.

2. Inventory sources and owners

Input: the workflow boundary and representative records. Owners: the workflow owner and each source owner.

Output: an inventory of documents, systems, tickets, messages, definitions and people who hold missing context. Record each source's owner, audience, sensitivity and review date. Failure: treating accessible information as approved knowledge. Pass gate: every material statement has a source or is marked unresolved.

3. Structure knowledge records

Input: the source inventory and operating map. Owner: the person maintaining the knowledge collection.

Output: small records that connect a statement or definition to its source, owner, audience, state and effective period. Link records to workflows, decisions and related terms. Failure: copying prose into a new repository without provenance. Pass gate: a reader can trace each answer back to its governing evidence.

4. Resolve authority and conflicts

Input: source statements that disagree or lack clear authority. Owner: the person authorized to decide that subject.

Output: a contradiction log and a dated decision linked to its evidence. Separate source statements from inference. Failure: selecting whichever source is easiest to retrieve. Pass gate: an authorized owner resolves the conflict or the affected answer stays disputed.

5. Publish permitted views

Input: reviewed records, audience rules and source permissions. Owners: the knowledge owner and platform owner.

Output: searchable pages or answers with source links, effective dates, known gaps and a correction route. Failure: a confident answer that exposes restricted evidence or hides uncertainty. Pass gate: permitted users can trace an answer; disputed, stale or inaccessible evidence is visible as a limit.

6. Maintain, correct and retire

Input: changes, user corrections, failures and operating results. Owner: a named operator with a backup.

Output: a freshness ledger, correction history and retirement decisions. Remove superseded material from current views and downstream indexes. Failure: corrections stay in chat while old answers keep circulating. Pass gate: a correction reaches the source record and every affected view.

The minimum knowledge record

Start in approved shared documents and a register. Add retrieval or automation when a workflow requires it. A graph database is optional.

• Stable record ID, type, statement or metric definition.
• Source reference and version; source owner and workflow owner.
• Decision authority, permitted audience and data sensitivity.
• Evidence status, effective date, next review date and reviewer.
• Unresolved conflicts, correction history and replacement record.

Knowledge has a lifecycle

Proposed

A candidate claim. Available for review; excluded from authoritative answers.

Reviewed

Usable within its approved purpose, permissions and effective period.

Disputed

Conflicting evidence requires an owner's decision. Block affected recommendations.

Stale

A review date or change trigger has been reached. Require revalidation before operational reliance.

Retired

Excluded from current answers and tools. Preserve restricted history according to the applicable retention rule, with a replacement link where one exists.

Ownership that keeps knowledge usable

Every record needs owners with distinct responsibilities. One person may hold several roles where appropriate.

Workflow owner

Defines how the work is performed and which questions the knowledge must answer.

Source owner

Maintains the underlying record, definition or system and approves its permitted use.

Decision authority

Resolves conflicting claims for a specific subject and sets the effective period.

Knowledge steward

Maintains links, states, review dates, correction history and replacement records.

Platform and security owner

Enforces identity, audience rules, retention and removal across retrieval systems.

Ownership lives at the subject level. A policy owner may decide reimbursement rules while a sales operations owner maintains account definitions. The system records each boundary.

Permissions follow the knowledge

Search, summaries and generated answers must preserve the restrictions of their source material. Every published view needs an intended audience and a responsible owner.

• Resolve users through trusted identity and groups.
• Filter records before retrieval or generation.
• Review whether a summary reveals sensitive facts from restricted sources.
• Carry source references without exposing inaccessible content.
• Remove revoked or retired material from indexes, caches and saved answers.
• Keep audit records limited to what operators need.

A link can preserve traceability while the linked source remains restricted. The answer should state that evidence is unavailable to the current user.

Connect knowledge where work happens

Start with approved documents and a controlled register. Add technical connections when people need the knowledge inside another workflow.

Each connection records its owner, audience, source set, refresh rule, failure behavior and disable path. Tool descriptions and model instructions cannot grant access.

Corrections must propagate

1. A user flags the answer and identifies the affected record or source.
2. The source owner verifies the change. The decision authority resolves any conflict.
3. The steward updates the record state, effective period and replacement link.
4. Retrieval views, indexes, caches and connected tools receive the correction.
5. A regression check confirms the old answer no longer appears as current.

Example: conflicting travel guidance

Fictional example. An employee handbook lists one meal limit. A finance FAQ lists another. A recent message mentions a separate international rule with no effective date.

The Company Brain records each statement with its source, owner, audience and date. The reimbursement answer stays disputed while the finance policy owner checks the governing policy and any approved exception.

The resolved record names the limit, scope, effective period and next review trigger. The handbook and FAQ link to that record. Search results show the current answer and preserve the older sources as restricted history where policy allows.

A correction check confirms that search, summaries and connected tools stop presenting the retired limit as current.

Ready to rely on the knowledge?

• Each material statement has a traceable source and accountable owner.
• Decision authority is recorded for subjects where sources can conflict.
• Audience and permission rules work across search, summaries, caches and connections.
• Effective dates and review triggers identify stale records.
• Disputed or inaccessible evidence limits the affected answer.
• Corrections and retirement reach every current view.

Use the Company Brain workbook to capture the workflow boundary, source inventory, knowledge records, ownership, permissions, conflicts, connections and correction flow.

Related resources: AI Agent Design Framework and AI governance checklist.