The AI writing assistant in Anara is grounded in your library, not the open internet. When you ask it to help draft a section on a topic, it draws from the papers and documents you have imported. Every claim it makes comes with a citation you can verify. It is a writing partner that works from your sources, not a generic text generator.
Chatting while you write
Open any note and click the Ask tab in the viewer sidebar. This gives you a full AI chat panel next to your writing. You can ask questions, request a draft of a section, or ask the AI to explain something from your research — all without leaving the note.
The AI can see the content of your note, so you can ask things like "What am I missing in this argument?" or "Summarize the key points I've written so far" or "Is there a gap between my introduction and my methods section?"
Quick Edit
Quick Edit lets you describe a change in plain text and have the AI apply it. Select a passage in your note, then enter a free-form instruction — "make this more concise", "rewrite this in a more formal tone", "expand this paragraph with more detail from my library".
Quick Edit accepts any instruction. You are not limited to preset options.
Tip: Ask the AI to draft a section and then use Quick Edit to refine it. The two tools work well together — generate a starting point, then sculpt it to your voice.
Scoping the AI to your library
By default, Anara can draw on both your library and the web. When writing research notes, you usually want answers grounded only in your sources.
To scope the AI to your library:
In the Ask tab, look for the source filter buttons below the chat input.
Click Disable web search. The AI will only draw from your library.
To narrow further, type @ in the chat input and select a specific document or folder from the Files list.
When scoped to your library, every claim the AI makes comes with an inline citation linking back to the exact passage in one of your documents. This is how you ensure your writing is grounded in specific sources.
Using AI-generated content in your note
When the AI produces text you want to use, copy it from the chat panel and paste it directly into your note editor. From there, edit it, adjust citations, and integrate it with the rest of your writing.
Citations from the AI carry over into your note — they link to the same source documents. See Adding citations to your notes for how to manage and format them.
Tip: AI-generated content should be reviewed before submission. Even with source grounding, check that citations accurately represent what the source says. Click any citation to jump to the passage and verify.
If something isn't working
The AI isn't drawing from my library. Make sure "Disable web search" is toggled on and check that your documents have "Full text: Available" status. See Understanding how Anara reads your documents.
Quick Edit isn't appearing. Select a portion of text in the note first, then look for the Quick Edit option. The feature requires a text selection to activate.