PaperLabStar8

Features

Everything PaperLab does

From the first PDF to the chart in your thesis, on your own computer. The README lists what each setting sends and where.

  • A page of the BERT paper highlighted in five colours, the note card that opens when you hover a highlight, and the right-click menu with Copy quote.

    Highlights

    Highlight PDFs in five colours or your own, and edit notes in place.

  • A page with two highlights, each linked to its note: one marked You and one marked AI, both on page 4, under You and AI filter chips.

    Anchored notes

    Every note keeps its page and passage, and says who wrote it.

  • A question and an AI answer citing [C1] and [C2]; hovering [C1] shows its page and section, a line leads to that passage flashed on the page, and part of the answer is saved as an AI note.

    Ask a paper

    Chat with a paper; every answer cites the passage it used.

  • Hovering a numbered citation opens its reference: one already in your library with Open in PaperLab, one not yet added with Add to library, and a Back to page 4 pill.

    Follow a citation

    Hover [51] to see which paper it is, then open or add it.

  • A chart of a paper’s F1 scores next to your own runs from a CSV; clicking a point opens the table on its page in the paper.

    Data and charts

    Capture a table or a number, chart it next to your own CSV.

  • The library list with two papers still processing, a hovered paper’s first-page preview with its authors, year and venue, and the Edit details card.

    PDF library

    Drop in PDFs; they are extracted, split and indexed in the background.

  • A workspace called Dense retrieval, open on its Chat tab, where an AI answer cites passages from its papers and one of your notes.

    Workspaces

    Group papers by project; chat across a whole workspace.

  • A paper’s References tab ranked for your library, one reference marked In library and one offering Import, beside the Similar panel suggesting papers that read alike.

    References and similar papers

    What a paper cites and who cited it since, ranked for your library.

  • The library as a graph: papers as dots coloured by workspace, joined by citations and similar content, with the link layers and their counts, and tabs for the 2D, 3D, Matrix, Timeline and Rings views.

    Library graph

    Citations, authors, topics, notes and similar content, in five views.

  • The PaperLab window showing the first-run setup offering a chat model with a Skip setup line, and the menu-bar icon with Open PaperLab and Quit PaperLab.

    Desktop app

    macOS, Windows and Linux; announces updates, never installs them.

More features

  • Next release

    Note suggestions

    One click suggests passages worth a note; keep the ones you want.

  • Find papers

    Search arXiv, Crossref, CORE, Unpaywall and Semantic Scholar at once.

  • Any model

    Ollama, Anthropic or any OpenAI-compatible server, picked per question.

  • Semantic search

    Search passages by meaning, with a built-in model or one you pick.

  • Claude Desktop (MCP)

    An MCP server lets Claude search and quote your library.

  • Local-first and private

    One user, one machine, no account; you choose what leaves it.

  • Systematic reviews

    Search free sources, screen in two stages, snowball and count for PRISMA.

Help PaperLab reach the next researcher

PaperLab is free, open source and built by one person. A star helps other researchers find it and puts each new release in your GitHub feed. The PaperLab page on LinkedIn posts a weekly breakdown of how one feature works.

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