Connections & setup

How to connect each source Sidenote reads from — and what to check when a connection misbehaves.

The basics

Connections live in two places: the Ingest card in the extension sidebar (it offers the right connect button for the page you're on), and the Connections page in the dashboard. Every connector uses the provider's official API with read-only access, and Sidenote only reads the documents you explicitly ingest. Disconnecting a provider deletes the stored access token immediately.

Google Docs

Connecting

Connect with a standard Google sign-in — there's nothing for a Workspace admin to deploy or approve org-wide. The required scope, documents.readonly, reads only the specific Doc you open; there is no Drive browsing or listing, no Sheets, no Slides, and no write access. A document is only ever read once you open and ingest it.

The Drive picker and the drive.file scope

Sidenote also requests the narrow drive.filescope. On its own it reaches nothing: it only ever covers the individual files you explicitly grant through Google's own file picker. Sidenote uses that per-file grant for one thing — exporting the Doc you picked as a PDF so the viewer can show Google's own typeset pages. If you skip the picker, everything still works and the viewer falls back to an HTML render of the document instead.

If the viewer isn't showing Google's PDF pages

That usually means the document hasn't been granted through the picker yet. Open the doc and use the picker prompt Sidenote offers; once you pick the file, the PDF render is available for it.

Notion

Connect through Notion's own authorisation flow, where you choose exactly which pages and teamspaces to share — read-only. There's no workspace-wide integration for an admin to approve; each person connects their own access. Once connected, open a Notion page and ingest it from the sidebar. If a page won't ingest, check that it (or a parent page) was included in what you shared with Sidenote during the Notion authorisation — you can adjust the selection by reconnecting.

SharePoint & OneDrive

Connect Microsoft from the Connections page, then open a SharePoint page, Office file, or OneDrive document and ingest it from the sidebar. The connection uses delegated, read-only Microsoft Graph scopes — permissions stay exactly where SharePoint put them, so if you can't open a file, neither can Sidenote.

SharePoint and OneDrive files often open in the Office web viewer, where the address bar doesn't show the file — if detection doesn't trigger, use the paste-the-link option in the Ingest card. On organisations that restrict app consent, your Microsoft administrator may need to approve Sidenote once.

Slack canvases

Connect Slack from the Ingest card, then open a canvas and ingest it from the sidebar — the connection is read-only and there's nothing for a Slack admin to install for canvas reading. If the canvas is open in a channel side panel — where the page URL doesn't change — use the paste-the-link option in the Ingest card: copy the link from the canvas's ••• menu and paste it in.

The Sidenote Slack app

Separately from canvas reading, Sidenote also ships a Slack app that works inside Slack: a /sidenote slash command and a Save to Sidenote message shortcut.

Installing

The app is installed once per workspace (the “Add to Slack” flow). Installation only grants the slash command — it doesn't read your channels. After installing, run /sidenote helpin any channel to see what's available.

Linking your Sidenote account

Each teammate links their own account. Run any /sidenote command and, if you're not linked yet, Sidenote replies (only visible to you) with a Connect account button that opens the account-linking page — sign in to Sidenote if needed, confirm, and you're done. If you already connected Slack for canvas ingest, your account is linked automatically. Your Slack identity links to one Sidenote account — to move it to a different account, run /sidenote unlink first. And your Sidenote account holds one Slack link at a time, so linking from a different workspace replaces the previous link (and disconnects canvas ingest for the old workspace).

Commands

/sidenote ask <question> — a cited answer drawn from your Sidenote library (Pro and trial plans).
/sidenote search <query> — semantic search across your library, on any plan.
/sidenote help — the command list.
/sidenote unlink — unlinks your Slack identity from your Sidenote account. This also disconnects canvas ingest if you had it connected; you can re-connect either at any time.

All command responses are ephemeral — only you see them; nothing is posted to the channel. The Save to Sidenotemessage shortcut saves a message's text into your library as a source; saving the same message twice just tells you it's already there.