Documents¶

This page is for attorneys and paralegals building a case file. It covers how to put a matter's documents into Kosmos, read them, label them and find things in them. It describes the Documents, Labels and Search tabs on the Case side of a matter. For the two sides of a matter, see Matters.

The Documents tab¶

Open a matter, click Case, then Documents. The tab lists the matter's documents, 20 to a page, newest added first. Every document is a PDF and has one of four categories: Correspondence, Discovery, Evidence or Record.

To narrow or reorder the list:

• Click All Categories or All Proceedings to show one category or one proceeding.
• Type in Keyword Search to match names and descriptions. It does not read the text of documents. For that, use Search.
• Click Importance and pick a level to show that level and higher. All Levels shows everything again.
• Click Filter to open Filter Documents, which adds Date From, Date To and Label. Click Apply. Restore Defaults clears every filter on the list, and the sort order with them.
• Click the sort button beside Name, Date, Added or AI. Click it again to reverse the order. The flag button at the right sorts the most important first, and the least important first on a second click.

Kosmos keeps your filters and sort order for each matter until you change them or sign out.

Add a document¶

1. On the Documents tab, click the plus button at the left of the toolbar. Add Document opens.
2. Drag a file onto the box that reads "Drop PDF or mbox file here or click to upload", or click the box and choose the file. The form takes one file at a time.
3. Check Name and Date. Kosmos fills them from the file name: a file called "2026-04-29 Complaint.pdf" becomes "Complaint", dated April 29, 2026. With no date at the front of the file name, Date is set to today.
4. Choose the Category and fill in the other fields that apply.
5. Click Submit. The button reads Uploading... while it sends.

The form closes and the document is at the top of the list with an ocr pending badge.

If the same file, or a PDF with the same pages, is already on a matter you can see, the form comes back with "This file is already in the system" and a list of the matching documents. Click Upload anyway to add it, or close the form.

An mbox file must hold a single email. Kosmos turns it into a PDF, sets the category to Correspondence, takes the date from the email and writes the description ("Email from Rivera to Chen RE Site inspection"). Pictures the email loads from the internet are left out of the PDF.

The largest file Kosmos accepts is set on your server: 100 MB on a standard installation. A larger file is refused with "This file is too large to upload." If the upload fails for another reason, the form shows "The upload failed. Try again."

What Kosmos does with the file¶

The work starts in the background as soon as the upload finishes, and the badge beside the name refreshes every three seconds.

• A PDF that already contains text has that text read. This is quick.
• A PDF with little or no text (a scan) is run through OCR page by page. Kosmos straightens the pages and replaces the stored file with a copy whose text can be selected and searched.
• Kosmos then records the page count, adds the text to the matter's search and, when your firm has set up AI, writes a short summary that the AI uses to decide which documents to read.

When the badge disappears, the document is ready. For a PDF that already had text, Edit Details shows ocr bypassed: click OK to accept the existing text, or Force OCR to run OCR anyway.

Good to know:

• After OCR, Download gives you the searchable copy, not the exact file you uploaded. Keep the original if you may need it.
• OCR reads English.

Documents from Google Drive¶

If your firm keeps matter files in Google Drive and an administrator has connected it under Settings → Integrations, you can link a matter to its Drive folder. Kosmos then copies the PDFs in the subfolders you choose into the matter's documents and reads them like any upload. Kosmos never changes anything in Drive. Administrators: see Google Workspace.

The Link Drive Folder button appears only once Drive is connected. A matter that was linked before Drive was disconnected keeps its Drive Folder button, so you can still see the link and remove it.

1. On the Documents tab, click Link Drive Folder at the right of the toolbar. The Drive Folder dialog opens.
2. Under 1. Matter folder, click the matter's folder. A folder that is greyed out is already linked to the matter named beside it, or to "another matter" if it is one you cannot see.
3. Under 2. Folder mapping, each subfolder of the matter folder has a row. Choose a Category for every subfolder you want copied and leave the rest on Not synced. A Record folder needs a Proceeding. A Discovery folder can have one.
4. Click Save.

The page reloads, the button now reads Drive Folder, and the PDFs in the mapped folders start to appear in the list. A suggested badge on a row means Kosmos guessed the category from the folder's name, for example "Corr" or "Record - Appeal". Check it before you save. not in Drive marks a mapped folder that Kosmos can no longer find. After that, Kosmos checks Drive every minute.

To change a mapping, open Drive Folder again, change the row and click Save: documents that came from that folder take the new category and proceeding. Change picks a different matter folder. Unlink removes the link: the documents already copied stay, and nothing new arrives.

Good to know:

• The file of a document from Drive cannot be replaced in Kosmos. Replace it in Drive.
• If you delete a document that came from Drive, the file stays in Drive and is not copied in again.
• A document from Drive belongs to the matter its folder is linked to, and cannot be moved to another matter in Kosmos. Move the file in Drive. See Change, move or delete a document.

Documents from emails¶

On the Emails tab, open an email and click Promote to Document. Kosmos saves the email as a PDF in Correspondence, with the email's subject as its name. Attachments are not copied. See Email.

Read a document¶

Click a document's name, then View Document. The viewer opens in a new browser tab, with the pages on the left and the document's highlights on the right.

• Pages. Scroll, click the arrow buttons, or type a page number in the box and press Enter.
• Zoom. Click the zoom buttons, choose Fit Width or a percentage from the list, or hold Ctrl and turn the mouse wheel.
• Find. Type in Search... (Ctrl+F puts the cursor there). Every match is marked, with a count such as "3 of 12". Enter goes to the next match and Shift+Enter to the previous one.
• Download. Click the download button at the right of the toolbar. A Record document with a date downloads with the date at the front of its file name.
• Select text. Drag across the words. You can copy them. If the text cannot be selected, the document is still being read, or reading failed.

To mark a passage, select it and click the highlighter button above the list on the right. Create Highlight opens: give the highlight a Slug (a short name) and click Save. Highlights are covered in Timeline, witnesses and highlights. To send a colleague to a document, click its name in the list, then Copy Link to File: the link opens the viewer for anyone who can see the matter.

Change, move or delete a document¶

Click the document's name, then Edit Details. Edit Document has the same fields as Add Document.

• Change the details. Edit the fields and click Submit.
• Replace the file. Drop a new PDF on the File box and click Submit. Kosmos reads the new file from the start. Highlights keep their old page and position, so check them.
• Move it to another matter. Choose the matter in Matter and click Submit. The list holds the document's own matter, whatever its status, and the Open matters you can see.
• Delete it. Click Delete and confirm.

A document that came from Google Drive cannot be moved this way. Its Matter field is locked, with the line "This document follows its folder in Google Drive. To move it to another matter, move the file in Drive." See Documents from Google Drive.

To act on several documents at once, tick their checkboxes. The toolbar changes to a count (click it to clear the selection) and the bulk actions: AI (when your firm has set up AI), Category, Matter, Importance and a trash button. Matter asks you to confirm the move. It leaves documents from Drive where they are and says how many, for example "1 document from Google Drive was not moved. It follows its folder in Google Drive. To move it to another matter, move the file in Drive."

Deleting is permanent. The file and the document's highlights are deleted with it. Timeline facts that cited the document stay, without the link. Labels stay available for other things. When a document moves to another matter, its highlights go with it. Labels that belong to the old matter come off the document, labels under All Matters stay on it, and a proceeding of the old matter is cleared.

Good to know:

• Category in the bulk actions leaves a document filed under a proceeding as it is when you pick Correspondence or Evidence, and says how many were not changed.
• A document filed under a proceeding can only be Record or Discovery. If you pick Correspondence or Evidence from the row's Category menu, nothing changes and Kosmos says "The category was not changed. This document is filed under a proceeding, so it can only be Record or Discovery. To change it, pick the category in Edit Details, which clears the proceeding."

Labels¶

A label is a coloured tag you make up yourself, for example "Damages" or "Hot". Labels go on documents, highlights, timeline facts, notes and saved case law, so one label can gather everything on a theme.

The Labels tab has two cards. This Matter holds labels that exist only on this matter. All Matters holds labels every matter can use.

1. Click the plus button on a card. Add Label opens.
2. Check Matter: this matter, or Global (all matters) for a label every matter can use. It starts as this matter on the This Matter card and as Global (all matters) on the All Matters card.
3. Choose a Color, type the Name (100 characters at most) and click Submit.

The label appears on its card. Click a label there to rename it, recolour it or delete it.

To put a label on a document:

1. On the Documents tab, click the document's name, then Add Label. Apply Labels opens.
2. Click a label under Available to add it. Click one under Applied to take it off.
3. Close the dialog. The row behind it already shows the change.

Click a label on a row for a shorter menu: Add Label and Remove. To list the documents with one label, click Filter, choose the Label and click Apply. Deleting a label takes it off everything it was on, and for a label under All Matters that means every matter.

Search inside a matter¶

The Search tab on the Case side searches one matter's working file: the full text of its documents, its highlights, its timeline facts and its notes. It does not search emails. (The Emails tab has its own keyword box.)

1. Click Search in the row of Case tabs.
2. Type in Search.... Results appear as you type.
3. Untick Documents, Highlights, Facts or Notes to leave that kind out.
4. Click a result. A document opens in the viewer at its first page: use the viewer's Search... box to find the words. A highlight opens the viewer at the highlight. A fact opens for editing. A note opens.

Kosmos searches two ways at once. Results that contain your words come first: every word you type must appear, and a word also matches longer words that begin with it. Up to 20 results that are close in meaning but use different words follow, each with a meaning match badge and the passage that matched. Meaning matches appear only if your administrator has switched that feature on with Google Gemini as an AI provider, and they leave out documents whose AI setting is Never.

Filters, at the right, narrows the results by Document Type (the category), Importance (the level you pick and higher, as on the Documents tab), Label, Specific Document, Date From and Date To. The badge beside the search box counts the results. Click it, or Reset, to clear the search and the filters.

Good to know:

• Document Type leaves facts and notes out of the results, and Specific Document leaves notes out.
• Search in the sidebar is a different tool. It finds matters, proceedings, contacts, intakes and notes across the firm, and does not read documents. See Getting started.

When the matter is closed¶

Setting a matter to Complete or Closed removes its link to Google Drive, so no new files arrive. Every document already in Kosmos stays, with its text, labels and highlights. See Close a matter.

Who can see a matter's documents¶

Anyone who can see the matter can see, add, change and delete its documents and labels. There is no separate permission for documents. If you are limited to assigned matters, a link to a document on another matter is refused. See Who can see a matter.