AI Chat

AI Chat is a conversational assistant built into the editor. It can use your current document, selected Library sources, and web results to provide context-aware answers.

Opening the Chat

Click New > AI Chat from the left sidebar, click the AI Chat icon in the sidebar, or use the AI Chat button in the editor top bar when it is visible. The chat panel slides open to the right of your document. You can resize the panel by dragging its left edge, or collapse it by clicking the icon again.

What the Chat Can Do

AI Chat handles four broad categories of requests:

• Writing help – Draft paragraphs, rephrase sentences, suggest transitions, or continue from where you left off. Example: “Write a paragraph connecting my methodology section to the results.”
• Content questions – Ask about anything in your document and get answers grounded in what you have written. Example: “What claims in my introduction are not yet supported by a citation?”
• Editing suggestions – Request targeted feedback on tone, clarity, structure, or argumentation. Example: “Is my conclusion too vague? Suggest a more specific closing statement.”
• Research assistance – Find sources, summarize papers, or compare findings across your library. Example: “Find recent papers on transformer architectures for protein folding.”

Document Context

Turn on Current document to let Chat use your draft as context. This means it can:

• Reference any section by heading or content
• Include citations from your bibliography
• Understand relationships between arguments across the document
• Respond to changes you make during the current session

You do not need to copy and paste text when Current document is enabled.

Source Control

Source Control lets you choose exactly which knowledge sources the AI uses when answering. Click the + icon above the chat box to toggle between:

• Current document – Your working draft
• Library sources – Specific PDFs or collections from your library
• Web – External journal databases and web results
• Selected text – Highlight text in your draft and click Chat to add it as a temporary source

Sources you select appear as tags above the chat input. Click the x on any tag to remove it. This gives you precise control over what the AI references when generating answers.

If your Library is empty, the Sources row in this menu shows an Upload action. Click it to open the PDF import flow. Collections appears after your Library contains at least one source.

When browsing Sources, click the upload icon beside source search to add one or more PDFs directly. Each PDF appears in the selected context while it uploads; Jenni waits until processing completes before sending it to Chat.

Send Quotes to Chat

You can send specific text from your document directly into AI Chat without copy-pasting:

1. Highlight a sentence or paragraph in your draft
2. Click the Chat button in the selection toolbar
3. Jenni adds your selection to the chat as a temporary source

This is a quick way to ask targeted questions about specific parts of your writing or have the AI explain or revise a passage in context.

Citation Support in Responses

When the AI references a source, it appears as an inline citation in the response. Hover over a citation to see its full metadata (title, authors, year, and journal). Click the citation to navigate to its entry in your bibliography or library.

For source-heavy questions, Chat can use the sources it finds to produce a grounded response. Source links and citation details remain available so you can verify the result.

Reference Style for a Chat Thread

Open the References panel below any cited response to change its citation style or locale. The change applies to every loaded message in that chat thread, including later replies. New threads begin with the current document’s citation style; after you choose a different style in Chat, that thread keeps its own setting.

You can also control references with natural-language requests. Ask Chat to show the references and it opens the References panel. Ask it to use APA or another named style and it restyles the thread without opening the panel. Combine both instructions, such as “Show the references in APA,” to open and restyle in one request. If the requested style is not applied automatically, use the style search in References to select it from the full catalog.

Long reference lists stay collapsed to keep the response compact. Click Show all references to expand the full list, then Show less to collapse it again.

Response Formatting

AI Chat responses can include paragraphs, lists, citations, code blocks, and tables. Wide tables scroll horizontally inside the chat panel so they remain readable without stretching the workspace.

Click Copy table below a response table to copy it in a format that pastes cleanly into spreadsheets, documents, and rich text editors.

Mermaid Diagrams

Ask Chat to create a flowchart, framework, or process diagram and it can render the response as a Mermaid diagram. Use the Diagram / Code toggle on the block to switch between the visual diagram and its source.

If you add Mermaid content to an editable document, it remains a code block so you can inspect and edit the source.

Starting Chat from a Source or Image

When source details are open, click Ask AI in the header to start a chat with that source already selected as context. In a document, open an image block and click Ask AI to ask questions about the image without uploading it again.

Conversation Memory

Jenni saves your chat thread so you can view earlier messages by scrolling up and continue the conversation. For long or unrelated conversations, start a new thread to give Chat a clean context.

Managing Chat History

Click the clock icon in the top-right corner of your workspace to open your chat history. From here you can:

• Revisit past chats and pick up where you left off
• Rename a chat by hovering and clicking the pencil icon
• Delete a chat by clicking the trash icon
• Start a new thread by clicking the + button next to the clock icon

Use separate threads to organize your thinking – one thread per research question, paper, or source set.

Configuration

Chat Preferences

Click the preferences button in the chat footer to configure how the AI searches for information:

When a toggle is off, the AI will ask for confirmation before running a web or library search. When toggled on, it searches automatically whenever your question would benefit from external information.

Citation Filters

Open Add context and choose Filters to narrow the sources Chat can find:

• Publish year sets the publication range
• Impact factor limits results by journal impact factor
• Citation count sets a minimum citation count
• Include preprints controls whether preprints can appear

The Filters row shows the number of active filters. Use Clear filters to reset them all, or click the Active filters pill beside your context pills to reopen the filter view directly. The filters apply to Library and web search and are saved to your account, so they remain available in later chat sessions. They are separate from the citation settings on individual documents. If both Web and Library search are off, turn at least one on before changing the filters. Sources you attach directly remain available as explicit context.

Usage Limits

Message Length

A single chat message can contain up to 50,000 characters. If you paste more than that, the text stays in the input but the message cannot be sent until you shorten it.

For text longer than the limit, attach it as a PDF, paste it into your document and turn on Current document, or highlight the passage you need and click Chat to send it as a temporary source.

Attaching Files to Chat

Images

Attach an image using any of these methods:

• Click the photo icon in the chat input
• Paste with Ctrl/Cmd + V
• Drag and drop directly into the chat input

The AI can analyze charts, diagrams, screenshots, and handwritten notes. It will describe what it sees and answer questions about the visual content.

PDFs

Click the paperclip icon in the chat input to attach a PDF. The file uploads to your library automatically. Once attached, the AI can summarize the document, answer questions about its content, extract key findings, and help you cite it in your work.

Jenni waits for the PDF to finish uploading and processing before sending the message. While it is not ready, the send button shows a spinner and Waiting for upload to finish. PDFs already in your library can be selected from the source picker; sources marked Processing or Queued become available to the AI when processing completes.

Managing Attachments

Attached files appear as preview thumbnails below the chat input. Click the x on any thumbnail to remove it before sending. You can attach multiple files to a single message.

File Limits

Best Practices

• Be specific. Instead of “help me write,” try “write a topic sentence for my second body paragraph that connects back to the thesis.”
• Reference your document. Ask about specific sections by name: “Does my literature review cover any papers published after 2022?”
• Iterate. If the first response is not quite right, follow up with refinements rather than starting over.
• Use selected text. Highlight a passage before sending a message to focus the AI on that specific content.
• Attach sources. Upload a PDF and ask the AI to compare its findings with your existing arguments.

Troubleshooting

Chat is not responding

Reload the page and try again. If the issue persists, check your internet connection. Long documents may take a few extra seconds to process on the first message of a new thread.

Responses are low quality or off-topic

Make sure your document has enough content for the AI to work with. Vague prompts produce vague answers. Add detail to your question or highlight a specific section before asking.

Citations are not appearing in responses

The AI only cites sources it can find in your library or through search. If you expected a citation, verify the source exists in your library and that library search is enabled in chat preferences.

Privacy and Data Protection

Chat can use your current document as context when Current document is enabled. Conversations are personal to your account and are not shared with collaborators, even on shared documents. You can delete individual threads or clear your full chat history at any time. See Privacy for details about how Jenni handles your content.

Frequently Asked Questions