Libraries
A library is a collection of indexed papers that you can attach to one or more projects. When you or the agent search inside a project, the search looks through every library attached to that project. It searches by meaning, not by keyword.
What lives in a library
- Documents: typically academic papers or books, but any PDF works. Each document has bibliographic metadata: title, authors, year, and a full bibliographic reference.
- Files: the actual PDF attachments tied to documents. A single document can have multiple PDFs (e.g., multiple chapters in an edited book).
- Indexed passages: what the search actually looks through. Indexing happens automatically when you upload a file.
Libraries are independent of projects
Libraries are top-level objects on your account, not nested inside a project. A library can be attached to many projects, and a project can attach many libraries.
Creating a library
From the Libraries view, click New Library and give it a name and optional description. The library is empty until you add papers to it.
Adding papers to a library
There are two paths:
- Upload PDFs directly in the web app. Open the library's page, click Upload PDFs, and drop your files. Agent Bayes reads each reference, you check them, and Index starts indexing in the background. See How Search Works for the indexing steps.
- Sync from Zotero using the Zotero plugin. This is the recommended path if you already keep references in Zotero. Metadata stays in sync and you keep one source of truth.
How the agent uses your libraries
When you issue an instruction, the agent writes several search queries from different angles and runs them in parallel against every library attached to the current project.
See How Search Works for the full mechanics.
When your libraries don't have what's needed
The agent tells you when its search came up short, rather than inventing claims. You'll see a library limitation note in the workflow summary, with suggestions for what papers to add.
What's next
- How Search Works: how the search actually works.
- Zotero Integration: sync from Zotero.