Artefacts
External artefacts
Bring documents that already live in Google Docs, Notion, Figma, Miro, or Confluence into Gleo as labelled, classifiable references.
A lot of the documents your team relies on don't live in Gleo and shouldn't. The strategy doc is in Notion. The whiteboard is in Miro. The design lives in Figma. External artefacts let Gleo know about those documents — file them, classify them, link them from sessions and playbooks — without trying to own them.
The pattern: Gleo holds a labelled pointer. The source of truth stays where it already is.
Supported source systems
Gleo supports five external systems with first-class labels and pickers:
Google Docs
Long-form text documents. Strategies, briefs, research write-ups, meeting notes.
Notion
Pages and databases. Roadmaps, wikis, project hubs, team docs.
Figma
Design files and FigJam boards. UI designs, design systems, design reviews.
Miro
Whiteboards. Workshops, retros, journey maps, system diagrams.
Confluence
Wiki spaces. Engineering docs, runbooks, decision records.
If you have a document in one of these systems, the URL alone is usually enough — Gleo recognises the source from the link.
Pointer or snapshot — pick one
External artefacts come in two flavours:
| Flavour | What Gleo stores | When to pick it |
|---|---|---|
| External (pointer) | A labelled link. Open it and you're taken to the live document; whatever's there now is what you see. | The team is still actively editing the source. You want everyone to see the latest. |
| Snapshot | A point-in-time copy of the source captured at the moment you saved the artefact. The original keeps changing; the snapshot doesn't. | You need a "this is what it looked like when we shipped it" record. Audits, decision evidence, post-mortems. |
You can also create one of each for the same source — a live pointer for day-to-day use, a snapshot at key milestones.
Walkthrough — creating an external artefact
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1
Open the create form
Sidebar → Artefacts → New artefact. Pick a kind (usually referenced for external sources) and a category.
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2
Set content mode to External
The form will reveal the external-source picker.
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3
Pick the source system and paste the URL
Choose Google Docs, Notion, Figma, Miro, or Confluence. Paste the document URL. Add a clear title — this is what shows up in the Library, not the URL.
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4
(Optional) Take a snapshot
If you want a frozen copy alongside the pointer, switch the content mode to snapshot (or create a second artefact with snapshot mode for the same source). Gleo captures the current contents.
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5
Save
The artefact lands in your collection at draft. Promote through the lifecycle as usual — see Statuses and versioning.
Opening an external artefact
From the Artefact Library detail pane, an external artefact shows the source system label and an Open in <system> action that launches the live document in a new tab. If a snapshot is attached, you can also inspect the captured contents inside Gleo.
Permissions — the important caveat
Gleo doesn't manage permissions on the underlying document. An external artefact is just a pointer — anyone you've given access to in Gleo can see the artefact's title and metadata, but clicking through requires the viewer to have access to the source system on their own.
If a participant or stakeholder needs to actually open the document, you still need to grant them access in Google / Notion / Figma / Miro / Confluence directly. Gleo can't do that on your behalf.
This same caveat applies to live workshop tools used in sessions — see Mural for the in-session equivalent of this story.
Tips & pitfalls
Title the artefact for humans, not for the URL. Paste the URL once, then write a clear, descriptive title. The title is what your future self and your team will see in search results — make it earn its place.
Snapshot at decision points. Live links are great for current work. Snapshots are great for "what did we agree to?" — capture them at the moments that matter (end of phase, end of playbook, before a major change).
Check sharing settings before linking. A pointer to a document nobody can open is worse than no pointer at all. Verify the share settings on the source before adding it.