One AI assistant for the public and for members.

The public gets answers from public guidance. Members get the standard their membership includes.

Example from the Building Standards Library

Question: What wind speed must a tornado safe room be designed for?

Building Standards Library

Imani VanceStructural engineer

Subscriber

Strong match

A tornado safe room is designed to one of four wind speeds, set by the site’s zone citation 1:

Zones: 130, 160, 200 or 250 mph, by zone on the tornado map citation 1
Basis: A 3-second gust at 33 feet above grade, Exposure C citation 2
Editions: The third edition (2015) lists the same four speeds citation 3

FEMA P-361 (2021)p.B3-9FEMA P-361 (2015)p.B3-6

3 tiers searched · 2 pages citedCited

Marcus ReyesBuilding official

Member

Strong match

The newest edition on file (2021) sets four tornado design wind speeds, by zone citation 1:

Zones: 130, 160, 200 or 250 mph, by zone on the tornado map citation 1
Basis: A 3-second gust at 33 feet above grade, Exposure C citation 2
Map: The tornado map follows ICC 500-2020 and is very similar to the one first published in 2000 citation 3

FEMA P-361 (2021)p.B3-9

2 tiers searched · 1 page citedCited

Rosa EllisonHomeowner

Public

Partial match

The home safe-room designs in FEMA P-320 use one wind speed, 250 mph citation 1:

Design speed: 250 mph, for the tornado and hurricane designs in the booklet citation 1
Walls and roof: Resist wind-borne debris, stay anchored and remain standing citation 2

FEMA P-320 (2014)p.15p.22

1 tier searched · 2 pages citedCited

Examples are built on public documents; access tiers are simulated.

The public and members need different answers.

A homeowner and a building official can ask the same question. The homeowner should get the public guidance; the official should get the design standard. Running two assistants means two sets of content to maintain.

How Chairlift handles it

Public guidance sits in the public tier; standards sit in the member and subscriber tiers.
The same question searches different documents depending on who asks.
Both answers cite their page, so each person can check the source they’re entitled to.

One library. Each person searches only their part.

Every answer above was written from the documents lit for that person. Nothing locked was searched.

Each document in the Building Standards Library, whether each person’s grants open it, and whether their answer cited it.
Document	ImaniSubscriber	MarcusMember	RosaPublic
FEMA P-320 (2014) Public	Opens	Opens	Cited
FEMA P-361 (2021) Member	Cited	Cited	Locked
FEMA P-55 (2011) Member	Opens	Opens	Locked
FEMA P-749 (2022) Member	Opens	Opens	Locked
FEMA P-361 (2015) Subscriber	Cited	Locked	Locked
FHWA-NHI-21-002 Subscriber	Opens	Locked	Locked