# A space without code

> A workspace for teams without a repository: questions, research and a knowledge base over the team’s documents — Notion, Confluence, Google Drive, Figma, files.

A **space** is the third kind of workplace in an organisation, next to development projects
and repositories. It has no code: no sources, no development tasks, no audits. It has what
a product manager, an analyst, support or a client needs — **questions**, **deep research**
and a **knowledge base** — and the team’s documents serve as its sources.

## Who it is for

A team whose knowledge is scattered across Notion, Confluence, Google Drive, network folders and
people’s heads, and which either has no repository at all or for which it does not matter. A space gathers this into one
place where you can ask and get an answer with a link to the document.

## How to create one

In the switcher at the top of the sidebar there is a **“Spaces”** group and the **“Create
space…”** action. All it needs is a name: Latin letters, digits, hyphen. The space appears at once,
there is nothing to wait for. The same button is on the start screen of an empty organisation — “Space
without code”.

A space can be created by **the organisation owner or a member with an organisation-wide permission** —
the “Add repositories and sync the project” permission in an organisation-wide grant (the same as
for a new development project). If you do not have it, ask the owner to create the space
or to grant you the permission.

_Illustration: One field — the name. The space appears at once and opens on “Ask”._

## What is inside

| Section | What it does in a space |
| --- | --- |
| [Ask](/en/docs/ask) | A question about the team’s documents, policies and knowledge. The model reads the connected sources and the knowledge base and answers with links to pages and entries — read-only. |
| [Deep research](/en/docs/research) | An analyst and a reviewer prepare a verified document from sources rather than code: they compare documents, name contradictions, and every claim comes with a link. Export to PDF and Markdown works as usual; if the research was requested with the `@buff research …` command from Notion or Google Drive, the finished document appears there too — as a child page or a new document in the same folder. |
| [Knowledge base](/en/docs/knowledge) | The team’s rules, facts and pitfalls. A space is an entry scope just like a project: it has its own entries, and the model sees them together with the organisation’s entries. |
| [Connectors](/en/docs/connector) | Connections to knowledge sources. A connection names the space as “the project or space where the work goes”. |

The “Development”, “Audits”, “Review”, “Repositories” and “Test settings” sections do not exist in
a space — they would have nothing to work with.

_Illustration: A space in the sidebar: only “Ask”, “Deep research”, “Connectors” and “Knowledge base”. The answer is put together from knowledge base entries._

## Knowledge sources

The model in a space reads whatever is connected to it through the connector:
[Notion](/en/docs/connector/notion), [Confluence and Figma](/en/docs/connector/knowledge),
[Google Drive](/en/docs/connector/google-drive), [files on disk and network folders](/en/docs/connector/files),
and if you wish, [the internet](/en/docs/connector/web) and [your own MCP servers](/en/docs/connector/custom-mcp).
Nothing is copied in advance: only what was needed for the answer is read. Without connected
sources the model still has the knowledge base and the question’s attachments — including Word,
Excel and PowerPoint documents and PDFs, which the model reads by their content, not by the file name.

### Whom to ask to connect the documents

The connector and the connections are set up by your IT specialist — once, for all departments. What to
hand over — the connector, the right connection, your space in the “project or space where the work
goes” field, the selected sections and folders, “Test connection” — is collected in the checklist
[What to ask your administrator for](/en/docs/for-admin). Sharing a Google Drive folder with the
account or adding the integration to a Notion section is something you can do yourself.

### Example questions

- “What first-response time does the contract promise a client on the ‘Business’ plan, and does it match the FAQ?”
- “How does the 2026 procurement policy differ from the 2024 version when it comes to approvals?”
- “What is in the ‘Training’ line of the third-quarter budget, and why?”

More examples by department are in [Recipes by role](/en/docs/roles); how to phrase them is in
[How to ask a good question about documents](/en/docs/asking-well).

## Questions where the team works

A connection to Notion, Confluence, Google Drive or Figma takes requests right in the comments
on a page, document or design — `@buff <question>` or `@buff research …` — and answers in the same place.
The `@buff task …` command does not work in a space: there is nothing to put a development task into here, and the bot
says exactly that.

## Permissions and scopes

A space is a permission scope, like a development project: a member can be given a role on it alone
(see [scopes](/en/docs/teams/scopes)). The same goes for knowledge base entries: a space’s entry is visible
to those who can see the space.

## What a space is not

- **Not a development project without sources.** You cannot connect code to a space and turn it into a
  project: code means a new development project alongside it, and the space stays a space.
- **Not a document store.** Documents stay in your systems; the space reads them.