How do guest download links and the 1-Prompt Edge Dispatcher work?

Last updated: 5 November 2026

What is the 1-Prompt Edge Dispatcher?

The 1-Prompt Edge Dispatcher is a sidebar screen where you type one instruction in plain words and InstantDrive prepares an email with the matching documents. Typical requests are sending an employee's visa pages to an insurer, a trade licence and tenancy contract to a PRO agency, or a VAT pack to an auditor.

The dispatcher does not attach files to the email. It sends an email that lists the documents and contains a guest download link. The recipient opens the link, sees the documents and downloads each one directly from storage. This keeps copies of identity documents out of mailboxes and gives you a record of what was sent.

The matching is a keyword and scoring routine, not a conversation with an AI model. It looks for document types, entity names and identifiers in your sentence. That is why the preview step matters, as described below.

How does the dispatcher choose documents and recipients?

For documents, an explicit list of selected documents always wins. Without one, the dispatcher scores your vault. A document gains points when your sentence names its entity, its category such as Emirates ID, passport, visa, trade licence, Ejari, tax invoice, VAT return or bank statement, or its identifier, and when words from your sentence appear in the file name. Expired documents are ranked lower unless you ask for them. Normally the top five matches are used, and up to 25 when your sentence says all, bundle, pack or dossier. If nothing scores well, the fallback is the three most recent documents, so always read the list.

For recipients, the dispatcher looks for a partner from your directory named in the sentence, uses that partner's primary address and adds the stored CC addresses, and treats any email address typed in the sentence as the recipient or an extra CC. If it finds no recipient at all, it falls back to a default address from the sample directory. Always name the recipient or choose one explicitly.

What is the partner directory?

The partner directory stores the organisations you send documents to often: insurers, banks, PRO agencies, tax auditors and executives. Each entry has a category, a name, a short slug that you can type in a prompt, a primary email, optional CC addresses, an account or policy reference, a contact person and a phone number.

A new company starts with five sample entries, including an insurer, a bank, a PRO agency, an authority contact and an executive, with placeholder addresses. Replace or delete them and add your real partners before sending anything. Typing a partner's slug or name in the prompt then fills the recipient, the CCs and a suggested note.

What does a guest download link do?

A guest download link lets a person without an InstantDrive account download a defined set of documents. Each send creates a guest session with a random token, the recipient's email address and the list of document identifiers. The link in the email carries that token.

The clock starts when the recipient first opens the link. From that moment the session lasts 15 minutes. Opening the link again within the 15 minutes works and does not extend the time. After 15 minutes the page shows that the session expired, and the sender needs to send a new transmittal. The session record is also stored with a validity date of up to 7 days after sending. Do not rely on that date as the control. Use revoke when you no longer want a link to work.

Each download is a redirect to a presigned Cloudflare R2 address valid for 15 minutes, so the file comes from storage and not through the InstantDrive server. Every open updates an access count, the time and the visitor address on the session.

What does the recipient see?

The recipient first gets an email from InstantDrive that names the sender account, lists the documents and shows a button for the guest portal. The sender address on the message is the one configured for outbound email on the server, and the sender account you chose appears in the body text. The email lists the first five documents when the bundle is large and counts the rest.

On the guest page they see their own email address, the 15-minute single-session policy and one row per document with its name, category, size and a download button. A button changes to Downloaded after a click. If the link was revoked or the time ran out, the page shows an access expired message and no documents.

Why is a guest link for downloading and not for uploads?

A guest link only gives access to documents you chose to send. The guest page has no upload control, and no part of the app lets an outside person put files into your vault through a link. InstantDrive does not offer client upload portals or data rooms. If a client needs to send you files, ask them to email the inbox addresses described on the Dedicated Inboxes page, or upload the files yourself.

Screens that look like portals or data rooms inside the app are sample screens, not working features.

When does the email actually go out?

Email is sent through Brevo, by SMTP or by the Brevo API, only when the server has credentials for it. Without credentials the dispatcher runs in simulation mode. It builds the guest link, writes the log and shows success, but no email leaves the system. The response and the audit entry state the delivery mode, and the log can show a delivered status even in simulation. If a recipient says nothing arrived, check with InstantDrive that outbound email is configured.

The server also falls back to simulation if a live send fails, so an expected email can be missing without an error on screen. For anything urgent, confirm receipt with the recipient.

What controls and records come with a send?

Before sending, the parse preview shows the matched recipient, CCs, documents, total size and any expired documents. An expired document triggers a warning and does not block the send. The total size of the bundle cannot exceed 100 MB, or the send is refused. A request can include an idempotency key so repeating the same request returns the earlier result instead of sending twice.

Each send records the recipient, CCs, subject, prompt text, document names, the guest link and a SHA-256 hash of the manifest. When the recipient opens the link, the log is marked as opened. Staff can list recent guest sessions and revoke a token. Revoking affects only that link.

What does a worked example look like?

A fictional company, Oasis Logistics FZ LLC, hires a new driver, Karim Haddad, and the HR coordinator needs to add him to the company health policy. She types: send Karim Haddad emirates id and visa to the insurer. The preview shows the insurer entry from her directory, two matched documents and no expiry warnings. She checks the list, replaces the recipient with the real insurer address she had saved, and sends.

The insurer's underwriter receives an email with the two file names and a button. She opens it at 10:00, sees both documents and downloads them. At 10:15 the session ends. At 10:20 the HR coordinator finds that the wrong visa copy was included, opens the guest sessions list, revokes the token and sends a corrected bundle. The log shows the first send as opened and the second as new.

What does the dispatcher not do?

It does not attach files, create a ZIP for the recipient, or make the recipient sign anything. It does not receive uploads from outside people. It does not check that the recipient is the right person, so a wrong address sends a working link to the wrong person for the length of one session. It does not guarantee delivery, and it does not guarantee that the right documents were picked. Read the preview every time.

The next step is to replace the sample partners with real ones, make sure outbound email is configured by contacting InstantDrive, and send a test bundle to your own address.