Onboard a new hire with your bot

There's no separate onboarding product here — you build it out of the bot you already have. Load it with the files a new hire needs, tell it how you like to bring people up to speed, and point the new hire at it on day one.

Who this is for

You're bringing someone new onto the team and don't want their first weeks to depend on whoever's free to answer questions. This guide sets your bot up as the thing they ask first — for "where do I find this," "who owns that," "how do we do this here" — so your team's time goes to mentoring, not repeating the basics.

Before you start

• Company files loaded. Your bot answers from what it's been given, not general knowledge — get policies, the handbook, and how-things-work docs into its reach first. See Resources: your org's file drawer, or Managing what your bot remembers for facts you'd rather the bot hold directly.
• Slack connected, if that's where onboarding will happen. For a shared channel instead of a private chat, connect to Slack and bind the channel first.
• Roughly know what you want covered. Bullet points, an old email, or just what's in your head is enough — the bot can help turn it into a plan.

Steps

1. Load the company knowledge. Upload your handbook, policies, and any "how we do things" docs to your org's file library, then have the bot check its own work: "Here's our employee handbook and our engineering setup guide — make sure you can answer questions from these." The bot indexes the files so their content becomes searchable, and can read back what it finds before anyone starts asking.

2. Teach the bot your ramp plan. Give it the shape of a good first few weeks, in plain language: "Here's our onboarding checklist — remember it and walk new people through it: week one is tools and intros, week two is their first small task, week three is a real ticket." The bot writes this into durable memory, so it's still there next month, and for the next hire after this one.

3. Give the new hire access. There's no separate onboarding account — they reach your bot the same way anyone else does. Pick whichever fits:

   • A GATE account of their own, if they're joining properly and will keep using the bot after ramp-up. Dashboard-only — ask your admin to invite them (magic-link sign-in, no password).
   • The Slack channel your bot is already bound to, if onboarding lives in a shared channel they're added to on day one.
   • A guest channel, if they need to start before their account exists — before their start date, or as a contractor who won't get a full account. Ask your bot: "open a guest channel for our new hire, call it 'Onboarding — Jordan'" and send them the link and passphrase. See Sharing your bot with others.

4. Introduce them on day one. Send the new hire to wherever you set up in step 3, and give your bot the heads-up: "Jordan starts today — say hello and walk them through week one." The bot greets them and answers from there in its usual voice — no separate "onboarding mode" to configure.

5. Let the first-weeks rhythm run itself. The new hire asks questions as they come up — "where's the design system," "who do I ask about deploys" — and the bot answers from the files and plan you gave it, pointing at the right doc or person instead of guessing. Check in occasionally: "what has Jordan been asking about?" is a good read on where the gaps are.

What you'll see

• In chat or Slack: the bot's greeting on day one, its answers to the new hire's questions (each traceable to a file or memory you gave it), and its replies when you ask what's come up.
• In your org's file library: the handbook, policies, and other docs you uploaded, searchable by the bot from day one.
• In your bot's memory: the ramp plan you dictated, still there for the next hire without you repeating yourself.

Troubleshooting

• The bot doesn't know an answer it should. The file covering it was never loaded, or memory never got the detail — add the doc or tell the bot to remember it, then ask again to confirm it sticks.
• The new hire asks in a channel the bot isn't in. Bindings are per-channel — a bot bound to #onboarding doesn't hear #general. Add a binding for the new channel, or point them at the channel or guest link that's actually wired up.
• Answers reference an old policy. Fix the source doc, or tell the bot directly ("that PTO policy changed, update your notes") so the correction applies to every future question, not just this one.
• No GATE account yet and can't wait. Don't block on the invite — open a guest channel so they can start today, then move them over once the invite lands.

Going deeper

• Managing what your bot remembers — how durable memory works and how to correct it
• Resources: your org's file drawer — loading and searching company files
• Sharing your bot with others — guest channels for pre-start or account-free access
• Connect to Slack — binding a shared channel for onboarding questions