Using Xycora

01Getting started

Sign in and get started

How to get into Xycora for the first time, sign in each day and reset a forgotten password.

Join your firm from an invitation

Your firm adds you by sending an invitation. The link works once and lasts seven days.

1. Open the invitation link your firm sent you.
2. Check the email address shown. It is the one you'll sign in with.
3. Add your full name and choose a password: at least 12 characters, with an uppercase letter, a number and a symbol. Very common passwords are refused. Type it again under Confirm password.
4. Select Create account and join. Your firm's workspace opens straight away.

Sign in

1. Go to xycora.com and select Log in.
2. Enter your work email and password.
3. Select Log in. If two-step sign-in is on for you, enter the code we email you (see Two-step sign-in). Your Dashboard opens.

Reset a forgotten password

1. On the sign-in window, select Forgot password?.
2. Enter your email address and select Send reset link.
3. If the address belongs to an account, Xycora sends a reset link. It works once and expires after one hour.
4. Open the link, choose a new password and select Set new password. Then sign in with it.

02Getting started

Two-step sign-in

After your password, a one-time code sent to your email. It is optional for every person, and a firm can make it compulsory.

Turn it on

1. Open Settings › Security and find the Two-step sign-in card.
2. Select Turn on with email. Xycora sends a 6-digit code to your email address.
3. Enter it under Code and select Confirm. If it doesn't arrive, use Send a new code.
4. The first time, Xycora shows ten backup codes. Select Copy codes, keep them somewhere safe, then I've saved them. Use a backup code if you ever can't get to your email.

Signing in with it

After your password, the sign-in window asks for one more step. Enter the code from your email and select Verify. A code lasts ten minutes. Tick Trust this browser for 30 days to skip the code on this browser for a month. Send a new code, Use a backup code and Back to password are there if you need them.

Manage it

Once it is on, the card in Settings › Security shows where your codes go, your backup codes (Make new codes, which asks for your password) and your trusted browsers (Forget all). Turn off two-step sign-in asks for a code and your password. If your firm requires two-step sign-in, it stays on.

Require it for the firm (owners and admins)

1. Open Settings › Firm and find Two-step sign-in for the firm.
2. Switch on Require two-step sign-in for everyone in the firm and confirm with Require it.
3. The table below shows each person's status. Use Reset for a colleague who has lost access to their codes.

Anyone not yet set up is asked for a code the next time they sign in, and then sees their backup codes.

03Getting started

Find your way around

The left navigation, the top bar, Ask AI and the + button frame every screen. The workspace is dark by default.

The left navigation

• Dashboard: your next hearing, the drafts waiting for you, and your calendar.
• Matters: every matter you own or that has been shared with you.
• Clients: your client records and the contact directory.
• Vault: your firm's documents.
• Assistant: saved AI conversations.
• At the bottom, Settings, then your name and role.

Collapse navigation, beside the logo, folds the navigation to its icons; Expand navigation brings it back. On a phone, the menu button in the top bar opens the navigation as a drawer, and a bar along the bottom of the screen holds Dashboard, Matters, Vault, Assistant and More.

The top bar

• Search (Ctrl+K, or ⌘+K on a Mac) finds matters and people.
• The bell shows your notifications. An amber dot means something is unread; a red dot means a deadline reminder or an expiring draft is waiting for you.

Ask AI

The Ask AI button sits at the bottom right of every screen except the Assistant. It greets you by name and asks how it can help; type in Ask anything. Answers come from your matters first, so check anything you rely on. After the first answer the conversation is saved in the Assistant, where you can pick it up later.

The + button

The + at the bottom left opens New note (a note saved to the Vault), New client, New reminder (a calendar entry at the next half hour) and New matter.

Your account menu

Select your name at the foot of the navigation. The menu opens upwards with Profile, Settings, Firm admin (owners and admins), Switch to light or Switch to dark, and Log out. To follow your device's setting instead, choose System under Theme in Settings › Profile.

04Getting started

Roles and access

Your firm role decides which screens you can reach. Access to each matter is set separately.

Firm roles

If a button you expect isn't there, your role or your access to that matter doesn't include it.

Access to a matter

When a matter is shared with you, it comes with one of four levels. Each level includes everything above it.

05Everyday work

Dashboard and calendar

The dashboard greets you, shows the two things that matter most, and keeps your calendar.

The two figures

• Next hearing: how far away your next hearing is. With none booked it shows your next deadline instead, or that nothing is due in the next 90 days.
• Drafts awaiting your review: the drafts Xycora has prepared for you, with Open the first.

The calendar

Switch between Week and Month; Xycora remembers your choice on this device. The arrows move through time and Today brings you back. Entries are coloured by type: Hearing, Deadline, Client, Reminder and Internal.

Add an event

1. In the week view, click an empty slot or drag down a day column to mark out the time; times snap to 15 minutes. In the month view, click a day. You can also use + › New reminder, or Add event in the Today panel when nothing is on today.
2. In the New event card, add the title and, if you like, a matter, the date, the start and end times (or All day), the type and notes.
3. Select Add event, or press Enter. The event appears in your calendar.

Change, move or delete an event

1. Select the event to open its details.
2. Use the pencil (Edit event) to change it, or the bin (Delete event) to remove it.
3. To move one of your own events, drag it to a new time or day.

Deadlines

Deadlines come from your matters. High and critical ones show in red, the rest in amber. They can't be dragged: change the date on the matter instead.

Today

The Today panel lists today's events and deadlines in order, with a marker at the current time and a line for your next deadline. Use Mark as cancelled on an event that is off, and Restore to bring it back.

Add dates from a document

1. Drag up to five PDF, Word or text files (10 MB each) onto the calendar.
2. Xycora reads them and lists the dates it found.
3. Untick anything you don't want, then confirm. Nothing is added to your calendar until you do.

Your practice

Under the calendar, small panels count the papers added over the last eight weeks, the drafts produced this month, the deadlines met on time and your matters by stage. They are drawn from your own records.

06Everyday work

Matters

A matter holds its documents, notes, AI analysis, deadlines, access and history in one place.

Find a matter

The Matters screen is one list. Choose All, Active or Closed; type in Filter by title, client or reference (it also matches parties, opposing counsel, the court, the record number and tags); narrow by Practice area or Lead; and switch between Everyone's, Mine and Shared with me.

Create a matter

1. Select New matter on the Matters screen, from the + button, or from a client's record.
2. Give the matter a Title. It is the only field you must fill in.
3. Choose the Client: search your clients, or type a name. A typed name is saved on the matter only; to keep a proper client record, use New client beside the field.
4. Set the Practice area, the Jurisdiction and who you are Acting as.
5. Write the Matter brief: who the parties are, what happened and what is in dispute. It is optional, but the AI analysis starts from it. Under More details you can add the objective, the opposing party and their counsel.
6. Choose the Visibility: Private (you and the people you share with) or Firm (everyone at the firm). Your firm sets which one is suggested.
7. Select Create matter, or press Enter. The first AI analysis runs as soon as the matter exists.

Inside a matter

The header carries Ask AI (a chat about this matter), Share, Upload and a ⋯ menu with Edit details, Change lead attorney and Close matter. Under it, the client, who you act as, the jurisdiction, the lead and the date opened. The tabs are Overview, Dates (court dates and deadlines), Documents, AI tools, Matter details and Activity, a dated record of what has been done on the matter.

The AI analysis

The analysis is the first card on the Overview. It sets out the matter's position, key issues, strategy and points to watch, and runs again when you add a note or upload a document on the matter. It reads the matter details, your notes, the summaries and extracts of the first ten documents, and the matter's timeline and deadlines. Every analysis is marked For review, and you can download it as Word or PDF.

Open Direction for the analysis to tell it who the opposing counsel is and who you act for and the outcome you need, then select Save and run again. If the analysis has never run, select Run the analysis now.

Beside the analysis sit the Matter details, the AI tools card and a place to drop documents.

Keep notes

1. Open the Notes tab and type your note.
2. Select Add note, or press Ctrl+Enter.

You need Can comment or more. You can edit your own notes; the author or a firm owner or admin can delete them. The AI tools and the AI analysis read your notes, so anything you would tell a colleague belongs here.

Share a matter

1. Open the matter and select Share. You need Can manage.
2. Under Add a colleague, choose the person and their access. Can contribute is selected for you.
3. Select Give access. They can open the matter straight away.

To take access away, find the person under People with access and select Remove. The same panel opens from the Team & parties tab.

Close or reopen a matter

With Can manage, open the ⋯ menu and select Close matter. The record stays readable, but its fields and AI tools are locked; its documents in the Vault can still be changed. Reopen matter, in the header of a closed matter, unlocks it.

07Everyday work

AI tools on a matter

Ten actions in the AI tools card on a matter's Overview. Every result is a draft for you to review.

The ten actions

What the tools read

Each tool reads the matter's details and notes, and for up to 15 documents their name, type, short summary and key parties, dates and amounts. It does not read every page. Only Draft document also reads extracts of the documents' text, up to 8,000 characters in total.

For a detailed question about one document, open it in the Vault and ask there instead.

How answers are produced

The drafting actions and Check citations ask three AI engines at the same time, and one answer is written from their drafts. Summarise, Find discrepancies, Build timeline, Spot issues and Find missing evidence use one fast engine. If one engine is unavailable, Xycora moves to another automatically.

Use a firm template

Draft response, Draft demand letter and Status update carry a paperclip. Select it to choose Upload template and attach one of your firm's precedents: Word or PDF up to 10 MB, or text, Markdown, HTML or RTF up to 2 MB. The draft then follows its structure with this matter's facts. The template is shared across your firm for that action; No template removes it.

Work with a result

• Regenerate runs the action again.
• Copy text, Download Word and Download PDF take the result elsewhere. Downloaded files carry a notice that they are AI-generated and must be reviewed before anyone relies on them.
• Each new result is also saved as a PDF in the matter's documents, so the team can find it in the Vault.

08Everyday work

Clients and contacts

Client records, conflict checks and the firm's contact directory.

Add a client

1. On the Clients screen, select New client (or use the + button).
2. Fill in the client's Details and Contacts.
3. On Conflict check, the check runs on its own. Xycora compares the name with your existing clients and matters and reports No name matches, Possible conflicts found or Direct conflict found, with an AI reading of the matches. If the check couldn't run, select Run the check again.
4. Set the Conflict status and add any Conflict notes, then select Create client. Save as draft keeps an unfinished record for later.

Conflict check status

Each client shows Conflict check pending, Conflicts cleared, Cleared with notes or Needs review. You can run the check again from the client's record. It supports your firm's own conflict procedure; it doesn't replace it.

A client's record

A client record has the tabs Overview, Matters, Contacts, Letters and Activity. Edit changes the details and New matter opens a matter for this client.

Contact directory

The Contact directory tab lists every contact across your clients in one searchable list.

09Everyday work

The Vault (documents)

Every document your firm stores in Xycora, organised by matter and folder.

Find a document

• Use All documents and Recent, or browse by Matters and your folders. New folder adds one.
• Type in Filter by file name, or narrow by type (PDF, Word, Excel, images, email, or text and notes) and by status (Ready, Reading, Not fully read).
• Switch between List and Grid. Xycora remembers your choice on this device.

Upload documents

1. Select Upload documents, or drag files onto the Vault.
2. If you are not inside a matter, choose where they go: a matter, or Miscellaneous.
3. Wait for each file to finish. Xycora reads each document and saves a short summary with the main parties, dates and amounts.

You can upload PDF, Word and Excel files, images (PNG, JPEG or TIFF), text and HTML files and saved emails (.eml), up to 100 MB each. Programs, scripts and files containing macros are refused. Scanned pages are read with text recognition.

Open and work with a document

• Select a document to preview it. From the viewer you can Download it and see its History, where Restore brings back an earlier version. Notes and Word files also offer Edit, and Word files Export to PDF, which files a PDF beside the original.
• The ⋯ menu offers Rename, Move to a matter, Move to a folder and Delete. For a document on a matter, you need Can manage.
• Beside the preview, Ask AI answers questions about the document. Highlight a passage in the preview and select Reference to AI to ask about that passage. On a phone it sits under the document, its question box always there; tap its title to see the conversation.
• Back, or your browser's back button, returns you to the screen you opened the document from, as you left it.
• Firms using the anonymiser see Download redacted and Download original.

Write a new document

1. Select New document in the Vault, or + › New note anywhere.
2. Give it a title and write on the page, which is A4 with Word's margins; the count under it shows the pages and words. The toolbar has fonts, sizes, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text colour, alignment and lists.
3. Under Assign to, choose a matter or folder (Miscellaneous by default), then select Done.

Draft with the AI

Every open document has Ask AI on the right. It reads the page as it is now and the matter the document is assigned to.

• Ask a question about the document and it answers, pointing to the passage it relies on. The page is left as it is.
• Tell it what to write, for example "Draft a letter before action for the Beaumont matter", and it drafts on the page from the matter's records. Anything the records don't hold is marked [insert …] for you to fill in.
• To reuse a document as a template, open it and ask, for example, "Use this as a template and fill it for MAT-2026-0142". The layout and wording stay; the facts become that matter's.
• To give it something to work from, select + beside the box: Upload from this computer, From the Vault or a matter, or A firm template. What you attach stays with the conversation until you take it off with ×; you can attach up to five.
• Each change it makes has Show and Undo under its reply. Nothing is saved until you select Done.

Work on a passage

1. Highlight some text and select Reference to AI, or press Ctrl+Shift+A. The passage appears above the prompt box; the × removes it. You can add up to five.
2. Say what you want: "make it firmer", "translate it into French", "does this clause hold?".
3. A rewrite replaces the passage on the page; a question is answered beside it.

10Everyday work

Assistant and Ask AI

Saved AI conversations, about your work in general or about one matter.

Start a conversation

1. Open Assistant and select New chat, or pick one of the suggested questions to fill the box.
2. To focus on one matter, open the + beside the box and select Link a matter. Upload files adds papers to the chat; without a linked matter they go to the Vault and only their names are read.
3. Type your question and press Enter. Use Shift+Enter for a new line.

Rename a chat with the pencil, delete it with the bin, and share it with the firm or with named colleagues from the Private button in its header.

What the Assistant knows

• A list of the ten matters you own that were updated most recently.
• For a linked matter: its details, parties and notes, and the names of its documents (not their full text).
• Your firm's document index and client directory.

Ask AI

Ask AI, at the bottom right, opens a quick chat on any screen. After the first answer the conversation is saved in the Assistant, so you can pick it up later. While a document is open, its own Ask AI sits beside it instead (see The Vault).

11Everyday work

Search, notifications and dictation

Tools that work from anywhere in the workspace.

Search

Press Ctrl+K (⌘+K on a Mac) or select Search. Results are grouped into Matters and People at your firm; on a person you can Copy email. With nothing typed, you see your recent matters.

Notifications

The bell shows an amber dot when something is new and a red dot when a deadline reminder or an expiring draft is waiting. Open it to see New and Earlier items, each with a link to what it is about. Mark all as read clears the dot.

Dictation

A microphone appears in Ask AI, the chat about a matter, the document chat, the Assistant, the new-matter brief and matter notes.

1. Select the microphone and speak. A recording stops on its own after two minutes.
2. Select it again to stop.
3. Check the text in the box and edit it before you send it.

12Settings and admin

Settings

Select Settings at the foot of the navigation, or from your account menu. The tabs you see depend on your role.

Profile

• Profile: your full name. Your email and role are shown but can't be changed here.
• Preferences: your default jurisdiction, which the Assistant answers in when a question isn't linked to a matter and which new matters start from, and the Theme (Light, Dark or System), which applies at once.
• Select Save changes to keep your name and jurisdiction.
• There is no time zone to set. Xycora works on your firm's clock, which is its jurisdiction's (Mauritius time or UK time). A matter's dates are in the matter's jurisdiction: a hearing on an England and Wales matter shows its UK time, labelled, and sits at the right moment on your calendar.

Notifications

The bell is always on. If your firm uses court dates or limitation watch, Remind me before key dates lets you choose reminders before them.

Security

• Password › Change password: enter your current password, then the new one twice. It needs at least 12 characters, with an uppercase letter, a number and a symbol. Changing it signs you out on your other devices.
• Two-step sign-in: turn it on, manage your backup codes and trusted browsers. See Two-step sign-in.
• Session › Sign out ends your session on this device.

Help and support

A link to this guide, our support address and the keyboard shortcuts.

Firm (owners and admins)

The firm's name and primary jurisdiction; select Save firm details after a change. Two-step sign-in for the firm lets you require it for everyone.

Team (owners and admins)

1. To invite one person, enter their email under Invite someone, choose a role (Lawyer by default; Paralegal, Viewer, or Admin for owners) and select Send invitation.
2. You can also Copy link and send the invitation yourself. It works once and lasts seven days.
3. To invite several people, select Download template, fill in one person per row (full_name, email, role; up to 50 rows), then Choose CSV file and send the invitations.

The Team members table shows each person's role and when they last signed in. Remove takes someone off the team; you can't remove yourself.

Protected documents

Firms using the anonymiser see this tab, where owners and admins manage how protected copies work for the firm.

13Settings and admin

Firm overview (owners and admins)

How the firm is using Xycora. Open your account menu and select Firm admin.

Filter the view

• Choose a period: 7 days, 30 days (the default), 90 days or 12 months.
• Narrow to particular people or a role, use Clear filters to reset and Refresh to reload.

What you see

• Figures for active and closed matters, time to close, AI interactions, estimated hours saved, team adoption, documents added, deadlines due in the next seven days and sign-ins.
• Charts of firm activity, the team, the most-used AI features, matters opened and closed, the pipeline, practice areas, clients, deadlines and working rhythm.
• Tables of People and Matters. Export CSV downloads the people table.

14More

Switched on when your firm is set up

When your firm is set up, every feature below is switched on for it, as well as everything in the sections above. What you see can still depend on your role. Questions: email [email protected].

15More

Keyboard shortcuts

Work faster without the mouse.

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Get help

We're here if something isn't working or isn't clear.

Email [email protected]. Tell us what you were doing and what you saw; a screenshot helps.