Dropbox

Your assistant can search your Dropbox by file name and by content, page through the results when there are more than a hundred, and then read the metadata on the ones that look right. It can also list the folder around a hit, which is usually how you tell the live copy from the version somebody duplicated in March. Nothing moves and nothing is renamed by looking.

What you end up with. The file you meant, with its full path, its size, and when it was last changed.

Start with it bringing you the information and you deciding.

Never without. Ask for the full path on every result rather than the file name alone. Dropbox search matches everywhere your account reaches, including team folders you forgot you were in, and two files with the same name is the normal case, not the odd one.

Built on: Search files and folders / Continue Dropbox Search / Get file or folder metadata / List files in folder

There is an action that returns the contents of a file, so the assistant reads the document rather than inferring from its name. Point it at one named folder, let it list what is inside, and it can work through the files and answer questions across all of them. For a whole folder at once it can also pull the contents down as a zip.

What you end up with. Answers drawn from inside the documents, with the specific file each point came from.

Start with it bringing you the information and you deciding.

Never without. Name the folder yourself instead of letting a broad instruction pick the scope. Reading a file pulls its real contents into your assistant's context, and a folder of client work or HR documents should be a decision you made, not one that happened.

Built on: List files in folder / Read a file / Get file or folder metadata / Download Folder as Zip

Access to a Dropbox item comes from two directions, and the assistant can read both. It can list the shared links that exist on your account, filtered to one path, and check what each one allows and when it expires. Separately it can list the people invited directly to a file or a folder. Together that is the answer the interface makes you click around for.

What you end up with. One list of everyone with access to an item and every link that still works, with the access level on each.

Start with it bringing you the information and you deciding.

Never without. Have it check the parent folders as well as the file. A file with no members and no link of its own is still open to everyone who was invited to the folder above it, and Dropbox does not show that on the file.

Built on: List shared links / Get shared link metadata / List file members / List folder members / Get shared folder metadata

Dropbox keeps prior revisions and the assistant can list them with the timestamp and size on each. Because it can read file contents, it can go further than the version panel does and tell you what the earlier revision said differently. Putting an old revision back is a separate action, and it writes over what is currently there.

What you end up with. A plain-language version history saying which revision is current and what changed between it and the one before.

Start with it doing the work and checking with you.

Never without. Approve the restore by revision ID, not by date. Restoring replaces the current file for everyone who shares it, immediately and with no notice to them, and any edits made since that revision only survive as another revision you would have to find.

Built on: List file revisions / Read a file / Get file or folder metadata / Restore file to specific revision

Creating folders, copying, and moving are all available, so the assistant can build your standard project structure and put the starting documents into it. A copy leaves the original alone; a move does not, and in Dropbox a move is also a change to who can reach the file. Ask it to list the moves it intends to make before it makes them.

What you end up with. A project folder built to your usual structure, the starting files in place, and a written list of what was copied and what was moved.

Start with it doing the work and checking with you.

Never without. Review the moves before they run. Moving a file out of a shared folder takes it away from everyone whose access came through that folder, they get no notification, and to them it simply looks like the file vanished.

Built on: Create folder / Copy file or folder / Move file or folder / List files in folder

Your assistant can create a shared link, set what the link allows, and change those settings afterward. It can also invite named people to a file or a folder and adjust what an existing member can do. The setting worth stating out loud is the audience, because a Dropbox link can be scoped to your team or open to anyone holding the URL, and the difference does not show up in the link itself.

What you end up with. A working link or invitation with an audience, permission level, and expiry that you chose, plus a read-back of what was created.

Start with it doing the work and checking with you.

Never without. Put the audience, the permission level, and the expiry in the instruction, then read back what was made. Password protection and expiry are paid-plan features on Dropbox, so a link created without them is simply open, and it stays open and forwardable until someone goes and removes it.

Built on: Create shared link / Modify shared link settings / Add file member / Update file member / List shared links

The assistant can list every live link on a path and revoke the ones you point at. Revoking is the fast half of the job and the incomplete half: the link stops working, but it cannot be restored, and anyone who already downloaded the file still has it. If a parent folder has its own active link, the file remains reachable through that.

What you end up with. The named links dead, and a list of what was revoked plus any parent-folder link that still reaches the same file.

Start with it doing the work and checking with you.

Never without. Approve the exact list of links first and check the parent folders in the same pass. A revoked link cannot be brought back, so anything legitimate that was running through it breaks at once, and Dropbox's own guidance is that revoking a file link does not close off access granted by a folder link above it.

Built on: List shared links / Get shared link metadata / Revoke shared link

The assistant can list a folder, read the metadata to work out what has gone stale, propose a list, and delete once you approve it. Dropbox describes this action as permanently removing the file and everything inside it. Recovery depends on your plan's file recovery window and on nobody having emptied it, which is a thin thing to be relying on.

What you end up with. A cleaner folder and a written record of every path removed, so anything wrong can be looked for while the recovery window is open.

Start with it doing the work and checking with you.

Never without. Approve the path list by hand, and check your plan's file recovery window before anything runs. Deleting a folder takes everything under it, the connector describes the removal as permanent, and once the recovery window has passed there is nothing left to restore from.

Built on: List files in folder / Get file or folder metadata / Delete file or folder