Chat with Documents

Alfred lets you ask questions about your uploaded research papers and get instant answers with exact citations. Instead of re-reading entire papers to find a specific detail, ask Alfred and get a precise, sourced answer in seconds.

#Starting a new chat

1. Click AI Chat in the sidebar.
2. Click New Chat.
3. Select one or more documents to include in the conversation. Alfred will answer questions based on the content of these selected documents.
4. Type your question and press Send.

Tip: You can select multiple documents to ask cross-paper questions like "Compare the methodologies used in these three studies."

#How it works

When you ask a question, Alfred:

1. Searches through the content of your selected documents to find relevant information.
2. Finds the most relevant passages.
3. Generates a clear, detailed answer based on those passages.
4. Includes inline citations linking back to the specific sections of your documents.

Every answer is grounded in your actual documents - Alfred does not make up information or pull from external sources.

#Asking effective questions

Alfred works best when your questions are specific and clear. Here are examples for different research tasks:

#Summarization

• "What are the main findings of this paper?"
• "Summarize the introduction in three bullet points."
• "What is the thesis of this paper?"

#Methodology

• "What statistical methods were used in this study?"
• "Describe the experimental design and sample size."
• "How was the data collected?"

#Comparison

• "How do the results of Paper A differ from Paper B?"
• "Compare the theoretical frameworks used across these papers."
• "Which study had the largest sample size?"

#Specific details

• "What were the inclusion criteria for participants?"
• "What is the confidence interval reported for the primary outcome?"
• "Which databases were searched in the literature review?"

#Critical analysis

• "What limitations do the authors acknowledge?"
• "What are the potential biases in this study?"
• "How generalizable are these findings?"

#Understanding citations in answers

Alfred's answers include clickable citation markers that reference specific sections of your documents. Click on a citation to jump to the exact passage in the original PDF.

This makes it easy to verify every claim Alfred makes by reading the original source text.

#Multi-document conversations

You can select multiple documents when creating a chat. This is powerful for:

• Literature reviews - Ask "What are the common themes across these papers?"
• Comparative analysis - Ask "How do these studies' methodologies differ?"
• Gap identification - Ask "What research gaps do these papers collectively identify?"

#Following up

Conversations are contextual - Alfred remembers what you have discussed so far. You can ask follow-up questions without repeating context:

1. Ask: "What were the main findings?"
2. Follow up: "Were there any limitations?"
3. Follow up: "How does this compare to the other paper I included?"

#Chat history

All your conversations are saved automatically. You can:

• View past chats - Click on any chat in the sidebar list to continue the conversation.
• Browse chat titles - Each chat has a title based on the initial question.
• Delete chats - Click the delete button to remove a conversation you no longer need.

#Streaming responses

Alfred's responses stream in real-time, word by word, so you can start reading the answer immediately instead of waiting for the full response to complete. This is especially helpful for longer, detailed answers.

#Credit cost

Each AI chat message costs a fixed number of credits. See Credits & Usage for details.

#Tips for best results

• Select only relevant documents - Including too many unrelated documents can dilute Alfred's focus. Select only the papers relevant to your question.
• Be specific - "What statistical test was used for the primary outcome?" works better than "Tell me about the statistics."
• Ask one thing at a time - Break complex questions into multiple simpler questions for more focused answers.
• Use follow-ups - Build on previous answers rather than repeating context in each question.
• Verify with citations - Always click the citation links to verify important claims against the source text.

#Requirements

• Documents must be fully processed (showing Ready status) before they can be used in AI chat.
• Your workspace needs sufficient credits for chat messages.

#Next steps

• Manage your citations - Build your reference library.
• Write a manuscript - Start writing with insights from your conversations with Alfred.