Using Vythos

When a file can't be read

Sometimes Vythos checks a rule's document and can't get at it. The file was binned, the sharing changed, the person who added it left. When that happens, the rule gets an orange note saying so — on its own row, and counted at the top of the Playbook so it isn't lost under a category tab.

What still works

The rule does. It keeps the text it last read, and it keeps reaching your team and their AI tools exactly as before. Nothing is withdrawn on the strength of a file being missing — a missing file is more often a tidy-up than a decision.

What stops is the following. Until Vythos can read the document again, the rule won't change when the document does.

What the note can say

Note	What happened
The file is in the bin in Google Drive.	Someone deleted it. It's recoverable from the bin
Vythos can't open that file with your Google account.	Sharing changed, or it moved to a drive the connected account can't see
Google Drive isn't connected.	The source was disconnected. Reconnect it in Sources
The Notion connection has expired.	Reconnect Notion in Sources
The person who added this file is no longer in the workspace…	Rules are read with the access of whoever added them. Add the document again from your own account
'…' isn't among your uploaded files.	An uploaded document that is no longer there — upload it again under the same name

A source that's simply slow, or briefly down, is not reported. Vythos only writes a note for a lasting cause, because a warning that comes and goes is a warning people learn to ignore.

The three ways out

The note offers all three:

Still needed? Put the file back — restore it from the bin, re-share it, or reconnect the source. The note clears by itself at the next check, within about ten minutes. Nothing else to do.

Replaced by another file? Add the new document with Add rule and tick that it replaces this one. The old rule retires with its history; the new document takes over.

Not a rule any more? Retire it, straight from the note. See Retire a rule.

How long it stays

Until the cause is fixed. The note records when the trouble started, so the row shows how long a rule has been out of touch with its document — "can't read this rule's file (since 14 March)". A rule that has been adrift for weeks is usually one to retire.

Avoiding it

• Keep rule documents in a shared drive rather than one person's personal folder, so a departure doesn't take the file with it.
• Add rules from an account that will still exist next year. The rule is read with the access of whoever added it.
• Don't reorganise by re-creating. Moving and renaming are free; deleting and re-uploading makes a new file that no rule is following.