Guide
Notebook Chat
Get answers grounded in your documents with citations you can verify.
Notebook chat is the primary way to interact with your sources. When you ask a question, Onsomble searches your documents, finds relevant passages, and generates an answer with citations.
How RAG Works
RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) means the AI retrieves relevant content before generating a response.
You Ask a Question
Type your question in the chat panel.
Search & Retrieval
Onsomble searches your sources using semantic similarity. It finds passages that relate to your question — even if you don’t use the exact same words.
Context Building
The most relevant passages are assembled as context for the AI model.
Response Generation
The AI generates an answer based on your sources, with numbered citations showing where each piece of information came from.
Unlike generic AI chat, RAG ensures answers come from your sources. This means more accurate, relevant responses you can verify.
Selecting Sources
By default, chat searches all sources in your notebook. You can narrow this down.
Select Specific Sources
- Look at the sources panel on the left
- Click sources to select/deselect them
- Selected sources show a checkmark
- Only selected sources will be searched
When to Select Sources
- Focus on specific documents — Select just the papers you’re comparing
- Avoid noise — Deselect sources that aren’t relevant to your current questions
- Speed up responses — Fewer sources means faster retrieval
Source selection is session-only. It resets when you refresh the page.
Understanding Citations
Every answer includes numbered citations like [1], [2], [3].
What Citations Show
- Source name — Which document the information came from
- Location — Page number or section (for PDFs)
- Excerpt — The actual text passage used
Interacting with Citations
Hover over a citation number to see a preview.
Click “Sources” in the message footer to see all citations in detail.
Citation Types
| Type | Icon | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Document | File icon | Your uploaded sources |
| Web | Globe icon | Web search results |
Writing Better Questions
The quality of your questions affects the quality of answers.
Be Specific
| Instead of… | Try… |
|---|---|
| ”Tell me about the report" | "What were the key findings in the Q3 report?" |
| "Explain this" | "Explain the methodology used in section 3" |
| "What happened?" | "What caused the revenue decline in 2023?” |
Reference Context
When you have multiple sources, help the AI know which one you mean:
- “According to the Stanford paper…”
- “In the meeting notes from January…”
- “Based on the financial report…”
Ask for Summaries
Good summary prompts:
- “Summarize the key findings from [source]”
- “What are the main arguments in this paper?”
- “Give me a bullet-point overview of the methodology”
Compare and Analyze
Notebook chat excels at cross-source analysis:
- “Compare the approaches in papers A and B”
- “What do these sources agree on? Where do they differ?”
- “Synthesize the recommendations from all sources”
Web Search in Notebooks
You can combine your sources with web search.
- Click the globe icon in the chat input
- Web search activates (icon turns blue)
- Ask your question
- Response includes both source citations and web citations
When to Use Web Search
- Fill gaps — Your sources don’t cover something
- Get current info — Sources are outdated
- Verify claims — Cross-check against external sources
Conversations
Each notebook can have multiple conversations.
Create a New Conversation
Click the conversation list button in the chat panel footer, then New conversation.
Switch Conversations
Click the conversation list button to see all conversations in this notebook. Click one to switch.
Why Multiple Conversations?
- Separate topics — Keep different research questions organized
- Preserve history — Don’t lose context when exploring new directions
- Compare approaches — Try different questions about the same sources
Troubleshooting
”No relevant content found”
| Cause | Solution |
|---|---|
| Sources not processed | Wait for green checkmark on sources |
| Wrong sources selected | Check source selection |
| Question too specific | Try broader terms |
| Content not in sources | Add more relevant sources |
Vague or generic answers
| Cause | Solution |
|---|---|
| Question too broad | Be more specific |
| Relevant passages buried | Select fewer, more relevant sources |
| Content is ambiguous | Ask follow-up questions to clarify |
Missing information
| Cause | Solution |
|---|---|
| Info not in sources | Add sources that contain the information |
| Retrieval missed it | Rephrase with different keywords |
| Too many sources | Select only the relevant ones |