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Connect OneDrive or SharePoint and your institutional documents become searchable in Anara alongside your uploaded papers. Field manuals, regulatory guidance, internal reports, and product specifications are available in the same conversation as your research library. For enterprise researchers and consultants whose primary document repository lives in Microsoft systems.

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1. Describe the task

The documents you need to answer a question are in three places. Some are in your Anara library. Some are on SharePoint where the team stores regulatory guidance and internal standards. Some are in OneDrive from when you worked offline. Every question that needs all three requires switching tools, re-uploading, or answering from incomplete information. When OneDrive or SharePoint is connected, your organizational documents are searchable in Anara alongside everything else you have uploaded. One question reaches across your personal library and your institutional repository. You do not need to upload the same document twice. Here a regulatory affairs consultant is advising a client on a medical device EU MDR submission and needs to search across the client’s SharePoint site (which has the existing technical documentation and prior GSPR responses) alongside research papers in her Anara library. 
I have connected my client's SharePoint site. The relevant folder is "MDR Documentation > Technical Files > [Device Name]." It contains the device description, existing risk management file, and prior GSPR responses from the 2022 submission.

I need to know: which GSPR requirements under EU MDR 2017/745 are covered by the existing technical documentation, and which requirements either have no corresponding document or have documents that were last updated before the 2024 MDCG guidance on clinical evidence? Search across the SharePoint folder and my Anara library for the MDCG guidance documents I uploaded.

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2. Give Anara context

Required context
  • A connected OneDrive or SharePoint account. If it is not yet connected, Anara will guide you through the OAuth connection when you ask.
  • The specific folder or site you want to search, or a description of what the repository contains.
Optional context
  • Your research question. Being specific about what you need from the organizational documents versus what you need from your Anara library helps Anara allocate the search appropriately.
  • A description of the document structure in the SharePoint site or OneDrive folder, if the naming conventions are not self-explanatory.

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3. What Anara creates

Answers grounded in both your connected organizational repository and your Anara library, with citations to the specific documents in each source. The search covers your SharePoint or OneDrive documents without requiring you to download and re-upload them first. Documents in your connected repository remain in their original location. Anara reads but does not modify them.

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4. Follow-up prompts

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Find a specific document in the SharePoint site

When you know a document exists in the repository but cannot locate it by folder structure. 
Search the connected SharePoint site for any document that contains the phrase "worst-case risk scenario" in the context of residual risk for class IIb devices. Return the document name, folder location, and the relevant passage.

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Compare an internal document to a new external standard

When you need to assess whether your organizational documentation meets current requirements. 
I have uploaded the new ISO 14971:2019 amendment guidance. Compare the risk management approach described in our internal risk management SOP from SharePoint to the requirements in this new guidance. Identify any gaps where our SOP does not address an updated requirement.

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Search across both sources in one question

When the answer requires combining internal and external information. 
Our internal clinical evaluation protocol is in the SharePoint Technical Files folder. I also have the MDCG 2020-13 clinical evidence guidance uploaded to my Anara library. Does our internal protocol meet all the requirements in the MDCG guidance? Flag any requirement from the guidance that is not addressed by the protocol.

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5. Tricks, tips, and troubleshooting

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How you word your prompt shapes what you get

Name the folder or SharePoint site explicitly when you first connect it. The connector search uses keyword matching on the SharePoint or OneDrive content index. Your organization’s document naming conventions are your most effective search terms: “GSPR response,” “risk management file,” and “instructions for use” will find documents faster than a generic topic description.

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Check the output against your own understanding

OneDrive and SharePoint connectors are read-only. Anara cannot create, edit, or delete files in your connected repository. Documents with restricted permissions are not accessible even with the connector active. The connector search is keyword-based, not semantic: it finds documents you can name specifically better than documents you can only describe by concept. Combine a keyword search for the document name with a follow-up request to read the retrieved document for concept-based questions.

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What to do with the output next

Set up the SharePoint or OneDrive connection at the start of a project and keep it active throughout. Reference the connected repository by folder name in your prompts to direct Anara to the right location. When a project concludes, disconnect the integration from your Anara settings. Documents you uploaded separately to your Anara library are unaffected by connecting or disconnecting organizational repositories.