FOR MANUFACTURING & IOT

Turn manuals and specs into instant answers

Installation guides, error codes, firmware notes, and datasheets — searchable and answerable for field techs, integrators, and customers.

Sound familiar?

The friction points every manufacturing & iot team knows

These are the patterns we hear from manufacturing & iot leaders — and the ones BeforeQuery is built to remove.

01

Knowledge trapped in PDF manuals

Decades of installation guides, datasheets, and service bulletins live in PDFs nobody can search. Field techs call the factory for answers printed on page 47.

02

Error codes and firmware confusion

An error code means different things across hardware revisions and firmware versions. Support spends every call reconstructing which manual applies.

03

Distributors and integrators need answers too

Your channel partners field customer questions without your internal knowledge, escalating everything back to your engineers.

Capability 01

PDF and document ingestion at scale

Upload manuals, datasheets, and bulletins directly or sync from SharePoint and Drive — everything becomes one searchable, answerable index with the source shown to the exact document.
grounded answer · sources
answer

Priya’s Okta lockout can be cleared via self-serve MFA challenge — no IT intervention required. If MFA fails, escalate to IT on-call.

cited from
01
IT · Okta account lockout policy
runbook · updated 4d ago
02
HR · Emergency access procedure
policy · updated 2w ago
03
Ticket #48211 · priya · resolved
past ticket · similar match
Capability 02

Version-scoped answers with source groups

Source groups separate knowledge by product line and hardware revision, so retrieval is scoped to the model the technician is actually holding.
approvals · pending 4
unlock okta account
priya.sharma · self-serve · read-only
denyapprove
refund $128.40
stripe · ord_A4b2c · manager approval
denyapprove
revoke prod IAM role
aws · role/analyst · step-up MFA
denyapprove
reset zoom SSO
kiran.mehta · self-serve
denyapprove
Capability 03

Partner-facing assistants

Per-knowledge-base client keys power branded assistants for distributor portals, with allowed-groups enforcement keeping each partner scoped to their products.
context · priya.sharma
priyateamon-calloktagithubworkday
Connected out of the box

Relevant sources for manufacturing & iot

File uploads (PDF)SharePointGoogle DriveWebsite crawlerConfluenceSource groups
Enterprise-grade by default

The controls your security team is going to ask about

SOC 2 Type II
audited annually
GDPR
EU data residency
HIPAA-ready
BAA available
SSO / SAML
Okta · Entra · Google
SCIM 2.0
auto-provision
Audit log
every write, traceable
Bring your key
AES-256-GCM at rest
Bring your model
Anthropic · OpenAI · self-host
Zero training
your data stays yours
Rollback
every write reversible
TLS 1.3
in transit
99.9% uptime
SLA on Enterprise
FAQ

Frequently asked questions about manufacturing & iot

Can it really make decades of PDF manuals searchable?

Yes. Upload PDFs directly or sync them from SharePoint and Google Drive; documents are normalized to markdown, chunked, and embedded, so a field tech's question returns a grounded answer pointing at the exact manual.

How do you avoid mixing up hardware revisions and firmware versions?

Source groups separate knowledge by product line and revision, and retrieval can be scoped to a group — so an error-code question is answered from the manual for the model the technician is actually holding.

Can distributors and integrators get their own assistant?

Yes. Per-knowledge-base client keys power branded assistants for partner portals, and allowed-groups enforcement keeps each partner scoped to only the product knowledge they should see.

Do technicians need to phrase questions like the manual?

No. Hybrid semantic plus full-text search matches intent, so "pump won't prime" finds the troubleshooting section even when the manual says something different — no exact keyword needed.

How long does setup take?

Most teams are live the same day. Connect a source — a docs URL, GitHub repo, Notion workspace, or a file upload — and BeforeQuery crawls, normalizes, chunks, and embeds the content automatically. The website widget is a single script tag, and the Slack/Discord bots install in a few clicks.

Are answers backed by source paragraphs?

Yes. Every answer includes a structured sources list with the URL, title, and excerpt of each source used, so users can click through and verify any claim against the original document.

Is my content used to train AI models?

No. Your indexed content, semantic vectors, and conversations are isolated to your workspace and are only used to answer your own questions. Content is never shared across customers, and data is encrypted at rest and in transit.

Is there a free plan?

Yes. The Free plan includes 1 knowledge base and 100 AI questions per month — no credit card required. Pro comes with a 14-day free trial, and Enterprise plans add SSO, audit logs, and advanced governance features.

Bring grounded AI answers to your manufacturing & iot team

Connect your knowledge sources and see grounded AI answers in minutes — free, no credit card required.