--- title: Update a rule description: Edit the document and the rule follows. What updates automatically, what needs a tick, and how long it takes. --- Using Vythos # Update a rule You don't edit rules in Vythos. You edit the document, and the rule follows. Every rule tells you exactly how, in its own row: open a rule and the line under the text says what to do for that document's source. ## Google Drive and Notion **Edit the file.** Change the wording in the Google Doc, the Sheet, or the Notion page. Within about ten minutes the rule shows a new version, and the old version is kept. **Or upload a new version of the same file.** For a PDF or a Word file in Drive, right-click the file → *File information* → *Manage versions* → *Upload new version*. That keeps the same file, so the rule follows it. Saving the new document as a *separate* file does not. ::: warning A new file is not an update `Rate Card 2026.pdf` sitting next to `Rate Card 2025.pdf` is a different document, and Vythos will not transfer a rule to it on its own — a "v2" in a folder is as often a draft as a replacement. Add the new file with **Add rule** and tick that it *replaces* the old one. ::: ## Uploaded files Upload the file again under the same name, from **Sources → Local Files**. The new text becomes the next version of the rule. Only the person who added the rule updates it this way. A colleague uploading a file that happens to have the same name is uploading *their* file; it doesn't touch your rule. ## What counts as a change Vythos compares the words. So: - **Reworded, re-figured, sections added or removed** → new version. - **Renamed or moved the file** → nothing changes; the rule follows the file itself, not its name or folder. - **Opened, commented on, re-saved with no edits** → nothing. Vythos notices the file was touched, reads it, sees the same words, and leaves the rule alone. ## How long it takes About ten minutes, and never more than that in normal operation — Vythos checks each rule's document on that cycle. The checks are light, and nothing is re-read unless the document has actually changed, so this costs your Drive or Notion account almost nothing. If you want to see it happen, change a number and watch the rule's version badge. ## What happens to the values The new values come from the new text. If everything you had confirmed is still stated in the document, the rule stays confirmed. If a confirmed value changed, the rule's values go back to unconfirmed — a new reading nobody has checked — until you confirm them again. See [Values](/concepts/values). ## What happens to work already in progress Nothing breaks. When an AI tool asked for context, Vythos recorded which version of each rule it handed over, and a draft is checked against *that* version. Your writer is never told off for following the rule they were given. ## If the rule stops following If Vythos can't read the document any more — deleted, binned, access withdrawn — the rule keeps working with the text it last read and shows an orange note explaining why. See [When a file can't be read](/using-vythos/unreadable-files). ## Rules with no document behind them Every rule you add points at a document. A workspace that has been running since before rules were document-backed may still hold one that doesn't — it has no source link and no update line on its row, and nothing will ever change it. To put it back under a document, add that document with **Add rule** and tick that it replaces the old rule.