Your papers, your notes and an AI assistant. In one place.

The idea

1. 1

   Make a project

   A project is a folder for one question: its papers, notes and chats live together.

2. 2

   Add papers

   Drop in PDFs, paste a link or DOI, or bring them from Zotero or a reference file.

3. 3

   Read and ask

   Read with highlights and notes, and ask the assistant, which knows your papers.

4. 4

   Make something

   Write, code, plan or export, without leaving the project.

Who does the thinking?

PEARL does not come with its own AI. It works with one you choose, and you can change it any time in Settings → Inference.

Short jobs, like Define, Explain and the Today planner, use a cheaper and faster model from the same service automatically (Haiku with Claude, Luna with ChatGPT). Reading papers, chat and writing stay on the model you picked. Set up your AI →

What stays on your computer

• Your projects stay here. PDFs, notes, highlights and chats are saved on this computer, not on our servers.
• The AI sees what it needs to answer. With Ollama nothing leaves the computer. With Claude, ChatGPT, Google or OpenRouter, the text needed for an answer goes to that company, under your own account.
• Connections send only what you ask. Gemini Notebook, for example, uploads a project’s papers only when you press sync, and each connection says what it sends first.
• Small checks, which you can turn off. PEARL looks up a paper’s DOI with Crossref to flag retractions (Settings → General), and checks for new versions of the app.

The tools

Use as many or as few as you like. The reader, notes and assistant are in every project; the rest you add when you need them.

Read the paper

Open a paper and read it with highlights and notes. Select a sentence to have it explained, or a word to have it defined; Skim marks the sentences to read first.

WhereClick a paper in your project’s library.

Ask about your papers

Ask a question about one paper or every paper in the project. Answers point to the exact page and section they came from, so you can check them.

WhereThe assistant panel beside the paper.

Check what you understood

Press Grill me and PEARL asks about the paper one question at a time, like an advisor would. You answer in your own words and get a score, the parts worth rereading, and what to read next.

WhereGrill me, in the assistant panel.

Write your paper

Write in LaTeX with the finished PDF beside it. Ask the assistant for a change and it is made for you, with Undo; double-click the PDF to jump to that line. Works with Overleaf.

WhereProject home → Add a tool → LaTeX writing.

Work on the code

Open or clone your project’s code, edit files, use a terminal and source control, and ask the assistant about the code with your papers still in mind.

WhereProject home → Add a tool → Code repository.

Hand off a task

Give Claude Code, Codex or Gemini a task, such as updating a figure or a paragraph. It works only inside the project, and every change waits for you to keep or undo it.

WhereThe robot icon at the top right of a project. Uses your own account.

Plan your day

Today plans focus time around your calendar and your deadlines, with a short check-in morning and evening. Conferences lists upcoming submission deadlines in your field.

WhereOff until you switch it on: Settings → Today.

Cite and check references

Copy a citation in APA 7, ASA, APSA, Chicago or Harvard. Bring in references from EndNote, Mendeley or JabRef files, and see retracted or corrected papers flagged.

WhereA paper’s ⋯ menu → Copy citation.

Share what you made

Export a project as a folder, a Markdown summary, or a file for NVivo, ATLAS.ti and MAXQDA. Draw a PRISMA 2020 diagram for a review. Everything you keep is in the Artifacts library.

WhereProject home → Outputs & export.

Connect your other tools

Bring in Zotero, Overleaf, Obsidian, Notion, Microsoft Office, your calendar, GitHub and Gemini Notebook. Every connection is optional, and each one says what it sends before it sends anything.

WhereSettings → Connections.