Outline Documentation Commands

Create and search team documentation in Outline.

Overview

Outline is a self-hosted documentation platform integrated with the Signal bot. It supports:

Document search
AI-powered document creation
Quick notes
Public share links
Image embedding via Cloudflare R2

!ol / !outline

Search documents by keyword.

!ol <search query>
!outline <search query>

Example:

!ol deployment guide

Response: Returns matching documents with titles and links.

!ol ask

AI-powered Q&A from the knowledge base.

!ol ask <question>

Example:

!ol ask How do I set up the development environment?

Features:

Searches relevant documents
Uses AI to synthesize an answer
Provides source document links

!ol ai

AI-powered document creation with smart features.

!ol ai <content>
!ol ai "Title" <content>
!ol ai --public <content>
!ol ai                        # Reply to a message

Examples:

!ol ai Meeting notes from today's standup: discussed deployment timeline...
!ol ai "Security Best Practices" Always use 2FA and strong passwords...
!ol ai --public Quick guide to joining our community

Features:

Smart Mode: Automatically finds related docs or creates new
Title Mode: Creates document with specified title
Public Flag: Creates a shareable public link
Image Support: Attach images directly or reply to image messages
Embed Detection: Auto-embeds YouTube, Spotify, Twitter links

Image Handling

Source	Quality	How to Use
Direct attachment	Full-size	Send image + `!ol ai description` in same message
Quoted message	150x150 thumbnail	Reply to message with image using `!ol ai`

Note: Signal only provides thumbnails for quoted messages. For full-size images, attach directly to your command.

Fit Decision Logic

The AI determines how to handle content:

Decision	Condition	Action
`NEW`	No matching docs	Create new document
`APPEND`	Close match (>0.6 similarity)	Add to existing document
`EXPAND`	Partial match	Create new doc with references

!ol note

Quick note to the scratch collection.

!ol note <text>
!ol note                      # Reply to capture quoted text

Example:

!ol note Remember to update the API docs before release

Features:

Fast capture of ideas
Saves to default “Scratch” collection
Can reply to any message to capture it

!ol recent

Show recently updated documents.

!ol recent

Response: Lists the most recently modified documents with links.

!ol doc

Get details about a specific document by ID.

!ol doc <document-id>

!ol collections

List all available collections.

!ol collections

!ol new

Create a basic document without AI enhancement.

!ol new "Title" <content>

Example:

!ol new "Meeting Notes 2024-01-15" Attendees: Alice, Bob...

!ol add to

Append content to an existing document.

!ol add to "Document Title" <content>

Example:

!ol add to "Project Roadmap" New milestone: v2.0 release in Q2

Features:

Searches for document by title
AI formats content to match document style
Adds timestamp and attribution

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
`OUTLINE_URL`	Yes	Base URL (e.g., `https://outline.irregularchat.com`)
`OUTLINE_API_KEY`	Yes	API key starting with `ol_api_`
`OUTLINE_DEFAULT_COLLECTION`	No	UUID of default collection for new docs
`R2_ACCOUNT_ID`	No	Cloudflare account ID for image hosting
`R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	No	R2 API access key
`R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	No	R2 API secret
`R2_BUCKET_NAME`	No	R2 bucket name (default: `images`)
`R2_PUBLIC_URL`	No	Public r2.dev URL for the bucket