When you ask Anara a question, the AI doesn't generate an answer from memory. It actively searches your library and the web, finds relevant passages, and builds its response from real sources. Think of it less like a chatbot and more like a research assistant who actually reads the papers before answering.
Two search modes: Library and Web
Anara can draw from two primary sources:
Library search: Searches across your uploaded documents, notes, and connected sources (Zotero, Google Drive, Notion, and others). Results come from actual text passages in your files.
Web search: Searches the open web for current information, background context, or topics not covered in your library.
By default, the AI uses both and decides which to search based on your question. Ask about a paper you've uploaded, and it searches your library. Ask something that benefits from current information, and it may also search the web.
How the agent decides what to search
Anara is an agent: it reasons about your question, chooses which search tools to use, and may run multiple searches before composing its response. It can expand results when it needs more context, read full pages from PDFs, and pull from connected sources alongside your main library.
You don't need to tell it where to look. But if you want to steer it, you can.
Controlling which sources are searched
Below the chat input, two toggle buttons let you restrict where the AI looks:
Turn off Web search to keep answers strictly grounded in your documents.
Turn off Library search to get answers from the web without mixing in your files.
You can also use @mentions to expand search to specific connected sources. Type @ in the chat input and select from the Sources list, which includes Library, Web, and any connectors you've set up.
Tip: Disable web search when you want answers grounded only in your own research. This is especially useful during literature reviews when you want to stay within a specific body of work.
Why every response has citations
Anara cites every claim it makes. Think of citations like footnotes, but clickable. Inline numbers in the response correspond to specific passages in your documents or web results. Click any citation to go to the source — library files open in the document viewer and scroll to the exact passage; external sources like web pages or academic databases open in your browser.
This is the core of how Anara works: not just giving you answers, but giving you answers you can verify. For more on citation formats and settings, see How citations work in Anara.
Connected sources
If you've connected Notion, Google Drive, SharePoint, Zotero, Mendeley, or other tools, the AI can search those sources too. Connected sources appear in the @mention menu under Sources. See Connecting your research tools to Anara for setup instructions.
Note: Connected sources like Google Drive, Notion, and OneDrive require a Pro plan or higher. Zotero and Mendeley require Plus or higher.