5 ways to automate Glean

When your organization's knowledge is scattered across fifteen different tools, finding the right information can feel less like searching and more like foraging. You might get lucky, or you might spend 20 minutes chasing a vague memory of that one doc with the blue table.

Glean helps cut through that chaos by making everything searchable in one place. Instead of guessing where something lives, you just ask—and get an answer. And the more you use Glean, the more cohesive your team becomes. People waste less time asking around. Processes get clearer, and decisions move faster. 

But to make the most of Glean, it needs to stay fresh—which is where automation comes in. With just a few Zaps (our word for automated workflows), you can automate how knowledge flows into and out of Glean, whether that's keeping Glean up to date, automatically enriching docs and tasks with contextual info, or even creating a custom answers bot in your team communication tool. Here's how.

Skip ahead

• Automatically keep Glean up to date

• Run Glean searches automatically

• Schedule recurring maintenance tasks

• Connect Glean to almost anything with webhooks

Automatically keep Glean up to date

Glean searches are only useful if the app has access to your team's latest work. But manually updating Glean with every new doc, project board, or Slack conversation just isn't realistic. 

Instead, you can automate the process to keep that knowledge indexed and searchable—without adding work to anyone's plate. 

Bulk index content into Glean from a spreadsheet or database

If your team keeps important knowledge in a spreadsheet or internal database, you can use Zapier to automatically send that content to Glean whenever a row is added or updated. That means no more manually notifying your Glean admin or waiting for a scheduled sync; your info becomes searchable right away.

Make new team projects and presentations searchable 

If you love constantly getting requests for project updates, I love that for you. But for the rest of us, it would be handy if cross-functional stakeholders could get all the answers they need with a quick Glean search. 

These Zaps automatically trigger a Glean API request anytime a new board, project, list, or presentation is created. That way, project plans, kickoff decks, and tracking boards can be indexed and searchable by your entire org right away—no follow-up needed.

Make team and customer conversations searchable

Some of your most valuable knowledge lives in conversations: answers shared in Slack, insights from customer texts, or quick decisions made in a support channel. Automation lets you connect those conversation channels to Glean so they become part of your searchable knowledge base.

Run Glean searches automatically

Zapier can trigger Glean searches from just about anywhere, including form responses, task updates, new files, and even your browser. You can set up automated workflows that kick off a Glean search using dynamic content from the trigger (like form fields or task details), so you can automatically surface relevant documentation and insights.

From form submissions

Forms are often the first place someone asks a question, whether it's an employee filling out an IT help form or a customer submitting a chatbot inquiry. With these Zaps, you can turn those questions into Glean searches automatically.

Keep in mind that running the search is just the first step. To get value from it, you'll want to add a third step to the Zap templates below. For example, when someone submits "How do I access the design system?" in a Google Form, a Zap can search Glean using that question—and then a third step sends the top result via email or chat. Or, if a human needs to sign off on the response, you could choose to send the form data and Glean search results directly to you for review instead.

From task and project management tools

Tasks often hint at what information someone needs—like a Jira issue titled "Investigate login timeout bug" or an Asana task called "Write Q3 recap." These Zaps automatically search Glean based on the title or description of new tasks, so relevant docs can be surfaced right away.

This is a great way to keep context close to the work, especially when added as a comment, custom field, or linked resource.

Pro tip: If you don't want to run Glean searches for every new task, you can add a filter step that only runs the Zap for specific conditions (like if the task has a "Research" tag).

From new documents or content

When someone publishes a new doc, post, or asset, they're probably answering a question someone else will ask later. These Zaps trigger a Glean search whenever new content is added to tools like Google Drive, WordPress, or Contentful—helping you verify if similar content already exists or simply log what's new.

Pair these Zaps with a Slack message or spreadsheet row to create a living index of new content and its context.

From browser activity

If you use the Zapier Chrome extension, you can manually trigger Glean searches right from your browser—no need to leave the tab you're on. Use this Zap to search for context while working in a web app or reviewing content, then send the results wherever you need them.

Create a custom answers bot in your team comms channels

If your team lives in Slack, Gmail, or Discord, it can be helpful to find the answers you need without switching to a new tab. With Zapier and Glean, you can build a lightweight internal answers bot that automatically searches your knowledge base when a new message comes in.

For instance, you might choose a dedicated channel where your team can post questions. Or, you could set up a "New reaction added" trigger action that runs Glean searches whenever someone reacts with a specific emoji, regardless of channel. You might even dedicate a specific Gmail inbox for your team to email with questions. Then, you can send the results back to the same conversation to help your team get answers faster—without switching tabs or pinging someone for a link. 

Just keep in mind: you'll need to add a third step to the Zaps above to actually deliver the search results somewhere. For Slack or Discord, that typically means posting a thread reply or a channel message. For Gmail, you might send a reply directly back to the sender with the most relevant doc or resource.

Schedule recurring maintenance tasks

If you do the same Glean-related tasks on a regular basis, save your team some time by automating that work. Schedule by Zapier lets you schedule recurring API requests or searches in Glean, so your system stays fresh and optimized for powerful internal search.

Use these Zaps to trigger weekly reindexing, run regular searches for key terms (like "open incident" or "policy update"), or ensure that frequently updated resources get a regular refresh cycle in Glean. Depending on your needs, you can run these Zaps hourly, daily, or weekly—and then add a follow-up step to log the results, flag discrepancies, or notify the right team.

Connect Glean to almost anything with webhooks

If you're working with tools that don't have a Zapier integration—or you need more control over how data flows—you can always use a webhook to connect Glean to virtually any app, service, or internal system.

This setup is perfect for advanced users who want to do things like integrate internal apps with Glean, trigger searches from a custom front-end, or route Glean data into bespoke dashboards and notification systems.

Build a smarter knowledge base by automating Glean

With just a few Zaps, Glean goes from a powerful search tool to an always-on knowledge partner. You can keep it stocked with the latest work, surface answers the moment they're needed, and ensure your team spends less time digging and more time getting things done.

This is just the start of what you can do with Glean and Zapier. What will you automate first?