> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.usealmanac.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How Almanac works

> Understand how source files become a readable, traceable wiki.

Almanac is a hosted source library and wiki. You give it files; Almanac keeps
the originals, writes readable pages, and shows the job that produced each update.

<div className="almanac-diagram" tabIndex="0">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/almanac-e141534d/PSPQxvCsHo2cfSd-/images/diagrams/product-loop.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=PSPQxvCsHo2cfSd-&q=85&s=45b2a02ba4d47c7f5b0c3ae7fd5d6468" alt="Files enter a durable source library, become readable cited pages, and are updated by observable jobs." width="1200" height="560" data-path="images/diagrams/product-loop.svg" />
</div>

## Three things to remember

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Sources are evidence" icon="files">
    Original bytes and filenames remain available after Almanac organizes the library.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Pages are the reading layer" icon="notebook-text">
    Searchable articles synthesize the source library and cite it.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Jobs make change visible" icon="activity">
    Upload and Garden work has a status, event history, summary, and outcome.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## The ownership hierarchy

```text theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"vesper"}}
Workspace
└── Wiki                 acme/company-handbook
    ├── Sources          original evidence
    ├── Pages            readable knowledge
    └── Jobs             ingest and maintenance runs
```

A workspace owns membership, billing, keys, and wikis. A wiki is the knowledge
boundary you search and maintain. CLI and SDK users normally identify it by a
human handle such as `acme/company-handbook`; direct REST routes use IDs.

## What happens after an upload

The CLI discovers files and uploads them to the hosted source library. If at
least one file is new, Almanac creates one ingest job. That job reads the changed
evidence and updates wiki pages. Uploading only duplicates can finish without a
new job.

The source library remains valuable even before a page is written: it is the
durable evidence layer. See [Sources, pages, and citations](/concepts/sources-pages-and-citations)
for the deeper model.

<Card title="Build the model once" icon="rocket" href="/quickstart">
  Create a wiki, upload files, follow the job, then trace a page to its sources.
</Card>