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Quick start

This walkthrough assumes abstract is installed.

  1. Open a workspace. A workspace is just a folder. Create one and open it:

    Terminal window
    mkdir ~/my-review
    abstract ~/my-review

    Your browser opens at http://localhost:4477 with an empty chat. (You can also create workspaces later from the Workspaces screen; those go in ~/Abstract/.)

  2. Connect a model. Open Settings in the sidebar and either:

    • click Continue with ChatGPT to use your ChatGPT Plus or Pro plan, or
    • click + Add provider and paste an API key (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or OpenRouter), or point it at a local Ollama server.

    See Connect a model for details.

  3. Add your papers (optional). In the chat box, click + → Save files to workspace and pick PDFs. They’re saved to sources/ and appear in the Files panel on the right. You can also copy files into the folder yourself; the panel refreshes every few seconds.

    Files are not indexed automatically: the agent ingests what it needs, or you can ask it to (“ingest my PDFs”).

  4. Ask for something. Write in plain words, for example:

    Do a literature review on retrieval-augmented generation for question answering, then write a verified related-work section.

    The agent shows its plan, searches OpenAlex, Crossref, and arXiv, fetches open-access PDFs, reads them, and drafts. You can keep typing while it works (it reads your message at its next step), or press the stop button.

  5. Read the draft. The draft appears in the chat with each cited sentence colored by its verdict: green for supported, amber for partial, red for unsupported. Hover a sentence to see the exact quote behind it; click to open the source at that page.

  6. Revise and export. Ask for changes (“tighten the second paragraph”, “fix the unsupported sentences”), and the same document is revised in place. When you’re happy, click Export on the draft. You get Markdown, LaTeX, BibTeX, and an audit file in drafts/.

What next

Section titled “What next”
  • Learn what the verdicts mean in Verified drafting.
  • See how searching and screening work in Literature search.
  • Keep a review going over several sessions. Conversations are saved per workspace, and the agent can search your earlier ones.