Reading Assistant

Beaver works inside the Zotero PDF reader, so you can ask questions, get explanations, annotate, and draw on your whole library without ever leaving the page you're reading. Open it from the Beaver panel in the reader, and everything Beaver tells you stays grounded in the document in front of you.

Ask About This Paper

Beaver has the full text of the open PDF in context, so you can move from a quick orientation to a deep dive in the same conversation. Answers are grounded in the document, and every claim is supposed by sentence-level citations.

Understand Text, Figures & Tables

When something is dense or unclear, select a passage for an instant explanation, or ask about a figure and Beaver will view the page as an image, making sense of charts, diagrams, and tables rather than just the text around them. You can also add Area Annotation to share screenshots of specific areas of the page with Beaver.

Bringing Specific Parts Into the Conversation

To focus Beaver on an exact region, passage, or note, add it to the conversation as context:

• Area annotation: Draw a box around a figure, table, or equation to attach it as a screenshot Beaver can see.
• Text selection: Highlight a passage and add it to anchor the conversation on that specific text.
• Note annotation: Share an existing note to bring its content into the chat.

Create Annotations in Your PDFs

(Available in Version 0.20)

Beaver can write highlights and notes directly into your PDF, turning a reading session into a set of durable annotations you keep in Zotero. Describe what you want surfaced, and Beaver marks up the document for you.

Learn more about working with annotations in the annotations guide.

Connect to Your Library

The open paper doesn't have to stand alone. Beaver can weigh it against everything else in your Zotero library—checking whether other work confirms, contradicts, or extends a claim—without you leaving the reader.

Reusable Actions

Reading often means running the same prompt over and over: summarizing a paper, extracting key findings, checking how it fits your library. Instead of retyping those instructions each time, define them once as an action and trigger them right from the reader.

Actions tied to PDF attachments can be triggered form the Beaver icon in the PDF reader toolbar. Beaver ships with built-in PDF actions like Highlight key findings and How does this fit into my library?, and you can create your own for the tasks you repeat most.

Learn more in the actions guide.