Learn About Mainbranch
Mainbranch is an AI-powered knowledge platform for local government. It brings together your organization’s documents, emails, calendars, and other data sources into a single, searchable interface enhanced by artificial intelligence.
What is Mainbranch?
Section titled “What is Mainbranch?”Mainbranch serves as your organization’s central knowledge hub. Instead of searching through multiple applications and file systems to find information, Mainbranch connects to your existing tools and provides a unified search experience powered by AI.
When you ask Mainbranch a question, it searches across all connected data sources, analyzes the relevant information, and provides you with an intelligent response complete with citations to the original documents.
Core Capabilities
Section titled “Core Capabilities”Unified Search
Section titled “Unified Search”Mainbranch connects to your existing productivity tools—Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and more—and indexes the content your team has access to. This means you can search across:
- Documents stored in cloud drives
- Email communications
- Calendar events and meeting notes
- Support tickets and customer interactions
All from a single search interface.
AI-Powered Assistant
Section titled “AI-Powered Assistant”The AI Assistant is the heart of Mainbranch. It goes beyond simple keyword matching to understand the intent behind your questions. The assistant can:
- Answer questions based on your organization’s knowledge base
- Summarize lengthy documents
- Help draft communications
- Generate reports and visualizations
- Search the web when internal data is insufficient
The Vault
Section titled “The Vault”The Vault is your secure document repository within Mainbranch. Upload files directly to the Vault, and they become searchable and available for AI analysis. The Vault supports:
- PDFs and Office documents
- Images and spreadsheets
- Audio and video files
Meetings
Section titled “Meetings”Mainbranch can join your virtual meetings to record and transcribe discussions. After a meeting, you can:
- Review the full transcript with timestamps
- Ask the AI questions about what was discussed
- Generate summaries and action items
Specialized Tools
Section titled “Specialized Tools”Mainbranch includes a suite of productivity tools designed for common workflows:
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Smart Forms | AI-powered form extraction and autofill |
| Transcription Studio | Convert audio and video to searchable text |
| Deep Dive | Comprehensive research with multiple sources |
| Data Visualizer | Generate charts and diagrams from data |
| Visual Creator | AI image generation |
| Email Assistant | Draft professional emails with AI assistance |
| Document Chat | Upload documents and have conversations about their content |
How Mainbranch Works
Section titled “How Mainbranch Works”Data Indexing
Section titled “Data Indexing”When you connect a data source to Mainbranch, the platform indexes the content while respecting existing access permissions. This means:
- Permission-aware: Users only see search results for content they have access to
- Real-time updates: New and modified content is indexed automatically
- Secure processing: Data is processed securely and never used to train AI models
AI Processing
Section titled “AI Processing”When you interact with the AI Assistant, Mainbranch:
- Analyzes your query to understand what you are looking for
- Searches across connected data sources for relevant information
- Processes the retrieved content to generate an accurate response
- Provides citations so you can verify the information
Access Control
Section titled “Access Control”Mainbranch inherits permissions from your connected data sources. If a user cannot access a document in Google Drive, they will not see it in Mainbranch search results. This ensures that sensitive information remains protected.
Who Uses Mainbranch?
Section titled “Who Uses Mainbranch?”Mainbranch is designed for local government organizations of all sizes. Common use cases include:
- Staff members searching for policies, procedures, and historical information
- Department heads getting summaries of project status and team activities
- Administrative staff processing forms and generating reports
- Support teams finding answers to constituent inquiries
- Executives reviewing meeting transcripts and organizational data
Security and Compliance
Section titled “Security and Compliance”Mainbranch takes security seriously. Key security features include:
- Single Sign-On (SSO) support for Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra ID
- Role-based access control with administrator, member, and owner roles
- Data encryption in transit and at rest
- Permission inheritance from connected data sources
- Audit logging for compliance requirements
For more information about security features, see the Security section.
Getting Started
Section titled “Getting Started”Ready to start using Mainbranch? Visit our Getting Started guide to learn how to sign in and begin exploring the platform.
If you are an administrator setting up Mainbranch for your organization, see the Administrator Guide for detailed setup instructions.