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The moment it happens

Answer questions from your Drive documents, with the source named

Send a question and get an answer drawn from your company documents in Drive, quoting the file and passage it came from.

Runs
The moment it happens
Apps
Google Drive, Pinecone
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Pinecone read; Drive read

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when a question is sent to this link, search my Pinecone index of Drive documents and post an answer to #ask-docs that names the file and quotes the passage.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Teams ask the same questions again and again: what is the travel policy, how many days notice for leave, which template for a contract. The answers are in Drive, but finding the right document and the right paragraph takes longer than asking someone, so the same people get interrupted all day.

Operations, HR and support teams use it to let anyone get a sourced answer from the company's own documents, so the experts can get on with their work.

What you get out of it

  • Answers with proof

    Each answer names the file and quotes the passage, so people can trust it or check it.

  • Fewer interruptions

    Routine questions are answered without pulling in the person who knows.

  • Finds meaning, not keywords

    A question about time off finds the leave policy even if it never says time off.

  • Honest when it doesn't know

    If the documents do not cover the question, the answer says so instead of guessing.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. When a question arrives at your automation's link, ClickRuntime receives it straight away.

  2. Your Pinecone index is searched for the passages from your Drive documents that best match the question.

  3. AI writes an answer using only those passages, naming the file and quoting the relevant line.

  4. The question and answer are posted to your Slack channel.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google Drive
  • Connect Pinecone
  • Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens
Answer questions from your Drive documents, with the source namedjust nowSucceeded
Slack · #ask-docsQ: How much notice do I need to give for annual leave? Two weeks for up to five days [Leave policy 2026]: "Requests of up to five days need 14 days' notice."

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Google Drive and Pinecone steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
answer_questions_from_drive_documents_with_cited_sources.pyexample
from clickruntime import on_event, credentials, http, notify, ai

HOST, NS = "https://docs-abc123.svc.aped-1234.pinecone.io", "company"  # your index host and namespace
def search(text, k=5):
    r = http.post(f"{HOST}/records/namespaces/{NS}/search", json={"query": {"inputs": {"text": text}, "top_k": k}}, headers={
        "Api-Key": credentials.secret("PINECONE_API_KEY"), "X-Pinecone-API-Version": "2025-04"}).json()
    return [h["fields"] for h in r["result"]["hits"]]

@on_event
def handle(event):
    question = str((event.json or {}).get("question", "")).strip()[:500]
    if not question:
        return {"skipped": "no question"}
    hits = search(question)
    context = "\n\n".join(f"[{h.get('file_name')}] {h['chunk_text']}" for h in hits)
    answer = ai.generate(f"Answer using only these passages. Name the file in brackets and quote the key line. If they "
                         f"don't answer it, say so.\n\n{context}\n\nQuestion: {question}", max_output_tokens=500).text
    notify.slack(f"*Q:* {question}\n{answer}", channel="#ask-docs")
    return {"answer": answer, "sources": sorted({h.get("file_name") for h in hits})}

FAQ

Common questions

Where can questions come from?
Any form, chat widget or tool that can send a question to a web link. Answers are posted to the Slack channel you choose.
What if two documents disagree?
The answer quotes both sources and points out the difference, so someone can fix the outdated one.
How current are the answers?
As current as your index. Pair it with the Drive folder sync so edited files are updated within minutes.
What permissions does it need?
Pinecone read; Drive read. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run for each event the app sends.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Answer questions from your Drive documents, with the source named” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.