Chat and citations

The Chat tab answers questions about your notebook, and every answer shows where its claims came from.

Sources modeCopy Anchor Link

Sources mode is the default. The model answers only from your selected sources: better-vault finds the passages most relevant to your question, sends them to the model, and asks it to cite each claim with a number like [1].

Point at or focus a citation mark to preview the passage it refers to. Each answer also lists its references as footnotes underneath, so you can check them. If no source is selected, select one or switch to Web mode.

Web modeCopy Anchor Link

In Web mode the model may also search the internet with its provider's own built-in search, from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google. Web results are cited the same way, with links to the pages. better-vault uses no third-party search service.

Ollama and LM Studio have no built-in search, so Web mode is not available with them.

Choose the modelCopy Anchor Link

The model picker in the prompt bar switches provider and model at any time. Your choice applies to the next question.

Starter questions and actionsCopy Anchor Link

An empty chat suggests a few ways to begin, such as summarizing the key ideas, explaining important terms or making a study plan. Under each answer you can copy it, or try it again with the same or another model.