Reading documents and attachments
Which files Cosmo can read from your connected tools, and what happens when a file cannot be read.
Cosmo can read the contents of files in your connected tools, not just their names. That includes email attachments as well as documents stored in Drive, SharePoint and OneDrive. Every connector reads files the same way, so a PDF reads identically wherever it came from.
Where Cosmo reads files from
| Source | How |
|---|---|
| Outlook attachments (Microsoft 365) | Opening an email lists its attachments. Cosmo then reads the ones it needs. |
| Gmail attachments (Google) | Same as Outlook. |
| SharePoint and OneDrive (Microsoft 365) | Paste a link, or ask Cosmo to find the file. |
| Google Drive (Google) | Files you have added through the Picker. |
Search and list results show which emails have attachments, so Cosmo knows to open them. This is what lets a routine like "build a register of the tenders in my inbox" use the tender documents themselves, not just the email text.
Supported formats
- Word (
.docx), including tables - Excel (
.xlsx): every sheet, by name, with each value in its own column - PowerPoint (
.pptx): slides in order, with speaker notes - PDF: the text layer, including PDFs with minor structural damage
- OpenDocument (
.odt,.ods,.odp) - RTF, HTML, CSV, Markdown, JSON and plain text
Cosmo recognises a file by its contents, not only its name. An attachment labelled with the wrong type, or with no extension at all, is still read correctly.
Files that can't be read
When a file can't be read, Cosmo says so in plain words and carries on with the rest of the task. One unreadable attachment does not stop a routine.
| File | What Cosmo tells you |
|---|---|
| Scanned or image-only PDF | It has no text layer. Reading text in images (OCR) isn't supported yet. |
Image (.png, .jpg, …) | Images can't be read as text yet. |
Older Office format (.doc, .xls, .ppt) | Re-save it as .docx, .xlsx or .pptx. |
| Password-protected file | It's locked, so its contents can't be read. |
Archive (.zip) | Archives aren't opened. |
| Damaged file | The file appears to be damaged. |
| A link to a cloud file in an Outlook email | Cosmo opens it from SharePoint or OneDrive instead. |
Limits
- Files over 50 MB aren't read. Open them directly instead.
- Very long documents are cut after the first 200,000 characters, and Cosmo says when that has happened.