Actions

Built-in Actions

Beaver ships with built-in actions organized by context type. They appear automatically when the relevant context is available.

Items

Actions that operate on selected items in your library:

• Summarize — Summarizes the paper and saves it as an attached Zotero note
• How does this fit into my library? — Compares a paper to the rest of your library with a comparison table
• Find similar papers — Searches externally for related papers ranked by relevance
• Auto-tag — Analyzes items and assigns tags consistent with your existing library tags
• Sort into collections — Files items into appropriate existing collections

PDF

Actions available when a PDF is open in the reader:

• Extract key findings — Lists key findings with page citations, saved as a Zotero note
• How does this fit into my library? — Compares the paper to the rest of your library
• Find key references from this paper — Identifies the most important cited references and checks if they're in your library

Collection

Actions for analyzing entire collections:

• What am I missing in this collection? — Identifies coverage gaps and suggests papers to fill them
• Summarize this collection — Writes a narrative summary of topics, findings, and methods
• Organize into thematic sub-collections — Groups items into thematic sub-collections
• Tag all items in this collection — Assigns consistent tags across all items

Global

Library-wide actions available anywhere:

• Organize my recent additions — Tags and sorts items added in the last 7 days into collections
• What's new in my research areas? — Searches for recent papers based on your current work
• Fix metadata for my recent additions — Fixes missing DOIs, titles, abstracts, and authors for recent items
• Tag all untagged items — Finds and tags all items in your library that have no tags

Built-in actions are automatically updated when Beaver is updated. If you customize a built-in action, only your changes are stored — all other fields continue receiving updates. You can always reset a modified built-in action to its default.

Creating an Action

Required Context (Action Types)

Every action has a required context that determines when it appears in the slash menu:

Actions are automatically shown or hidden based on the current context. For example, a PDF action won't appear in the slash menu if no PDF is open and no selected item has a PDF attachment.

Example Actions

Here are some useful actions to get you started:

Relate to Your Current Research (Items or PDF)

I am working on a project about _____. Create a note that relates all selected papers to my current research and move the item to one of the following collections: _______

Summarize This Paper (PDF)

Provide a structured summary of this paper: (1) research question, (2) data and methods, (3) key findings, and (4) main contributions. Keep each section to 2-3 sentences. {{active_item}}

Tag by Methodology (Items or PDF)

Review this paper and assign methodology tags from the following list: qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, experimental, survey, ethnography, computational, meta-analysis, theoretical. Only use tags from this list. {{active_item}}

What's New in This Collection? (Collection)

Summarize the 5 most recently added items in the collection. For each, give a one-sentence summary and explain how it relates to the other items. {{recent_items}}

Tips for Effective Actions

• The more specific your prompt, the more consistent the results. Vague instructions like "organize my library" will produce different results each time. Instead, spell out exactly what you want: which items, what criteria, and what the output should look like.

• If an action involves assigning tags, collections, or categories, list the valid options in the prompt. For example, "assign tags from: qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, experimental" gives Beaver a fixed set to choose from instead of inventing new tags.

• Choose the right required context for your action. Setting it to "Items" or "PDF" ensures the action only appears when the necessary context is available, preventing errors from running it in the wrong situation.

Triggering Actions

Type / in the chat input to open the slash menu and select an action. Actions are sorted by recent usage — your most-used actions appear first.

The slash menu only shows actions that are relevant to your current context. For example, PDF actions only appear when a PDF is open or selected.

Actions run like any other message in Beaver: you'll see the response in the chat and can follow up with questions or adjustments.

Managing Built-in Actions

You can customize built-in actions to suit your workflow:

• Edit: Modify the title, prompt, or required context of any built-in action
• Reset to Default: Restore a modified built-in action to its original state
• Hide: Remove a built-in action from the slash menu without deleting it
• Restore: Bring back hidden built-in actions from the "Hidden actions" section at the bottom of the preferences page