Manage Canon Documents
3 min read
Use the document table to see which documents the AI is using, fix the ones that failed, and remove the ones that are out of date.
The Document Table
Section titled “The Document Table”| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Document | The title. Select it to open the document. A failed document shows the reason underneath |
| Status | Queued, Reading, Indexing, Grounding or Failed. See Document statuses |
| Type | The file type, for example PDF or DOCX |
| Passages | How many passages (short sections) Canon found. Shows — until the status is Grounding |
| Scope | Project or Workspace. See Scope and permissions |
| Added | When the document was added |
Use the folder tree on the left to group project documents: drag a row onto a folder, or use the Move to folder icon. With more than six documents, a Filter documents box appears.
Check the passage count
Section titled “Check the passage count”A long document with very few passages means Canon found little text in it, for example a PDF that is mostly diagrams. Open it, check how much is real text, and upload a better copy if needed.
Update a Document to a New Version
Section titled “Update a Document to a New Version”Canon reads a document once, when you add it. When your spec changes:
-
Upload the new version. See Add documents to Canon.
-
Wait until its status is Grounding.
-
Remove the old version, or the AI may keep citing it.
Re-index a Document
Section titled “Re-index a Document”Re-index reads the same file again from scratch. Use it when a document failed for what looks like a temporary reason, or seems stuck.
-
Select the Re-index icon on the document’s row. On a failed document it is labelled Retry.
-
The status goes back to Queued and works through to Grounding again. The old passages are replaced.
Re-index won’t fix a problem in the file itself. For that, fix the file and upload it again.
Retry Failed Documents
Section titled “Retry Failed Documents”-
Select Retry failed documents in the action rail on the right. Its count shows how many documents failed.
-
Watch the Status column. Any document that fails again has a problem in the file. Use the table below to fix it.
When a Document Fails
Section titled “When a Document Fails”The reason appears under the document’s title.
| Message starts with | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Canon cannot read .xxx files | The file type isn’t supported | Save it as PDF, DOCX or Markdown and upload it again |
| The file is empty | The file has no content | Check you uploaded the right file |
| Could not open the PDF / document | The file is damaged | Export it again and upload the new copy |
| This PDF is password protected | Canon can’t open locked PDFs | Upload an unlocked copy |
| This PDF appears to be scanned images | The PDF is pictures of pages with no selectable text. Canon can’t read text from images | Export a PDF with selectable text from the original document |
| No readable text was found | Canon opened the file but found no text in it | Check the file contains text, not only images or diagrams |
| The uploaded file is no longer available | The file behind the document is gone | Upload the document again |
Remove a Document
Section titled “Remove a Document”Remove a document when it is out of date or wrong. An outdated spec is worse than none, because the AI will cite it and reviewers will trust it.
-
Select the Remove from Canon (trash) icon on the document’s row.
-
The document leaves the list straight away and the AI stops using it.
Re-index, rename and move need the Canon Update permission; remove needs Delete. See Permissions.