Before you start
Look at the chips in the question box. They are the only places Elephas searched. If the file you had in mind is in another Brain, it was not part of the question.What you might see
The line above an answer can also say No indexed match in 4 documents, or that a document has only 12 pages when you asked about page 30.
Steps
1
Check what was searched
Open the Sources panel (⌥⌘I on Mac, Ctrl+Alt+I on Windows). Under the line, it lists documents that were searched and not used, and any that couldn’t be read. If the right file isn’t listed at all, it wasn’t in scope. See Check every answer with citations.
2
Choose the right Brains or files
Click Choose Brains & files and tick the Brain that holds the answer, or pick the exact document. See Ask about specific documents only.
3
Make sure the files are ready
Open the Brain. A document that still shows Indexing… can’t be searched yet, and one marked Couldn’t be read never will be until the problem is fixed. See File import errors.
4
Rephrase with your document's words
Use the terms your documents use. “Termination notice period” finds more in a lease than “how do I get out of this”. Name the file, the page or the section if you know it: “What does page 4 of the lease say about notice?” See Tips for better answers.
5
Add the source
If the answer is in a file, web page or note you haven’t added, add it to a Brain and ask again. See Add files and folders and Add web pages.
How it works
- Ask never browses the web. It reads only the documents in scope, and only text that Elephas could extract from them. It never uses content from Brains you did not choose.
- “Not found” is about the search, not the whole document. For most questions Elephas searches its index and reads the passages that match best. A miss means that search didn’t find support. It is not proof the document never mentions the subject. When you ask for every mention (“find all references to the indemnity clause”), Elephas searches exhaustively and tells you how much it covered, including any pages it couldn’t read.
- Unreadable pages are reported, not skipped silently. Scanned pages without text, failed pages and empty pages are counted as unreadable. See Scanned PDFs and images.
- Elephas is not a general chatbot. It doesn’t answer questions about the world from its own training. For “What’s the capital of Peru?”, use a general AI tool. For “What did our board minutes decide about Peru?”, use Elephas.
Troubleshooting
The file is in scope but Elephas still finds nothing
The file is in scope but Elephas still finds nothing
The text may not have been extracted. A scanned PDF needs text recognition, and a password-protected PDF can’t be read until it’s unlocked. See Scanned PDFs and images and Password-protected PDFs.
Ask says the search stopped making progress
Ask says the search stopped making progress
The full message is The search stopped making progress. Try rephrasing the question or narrowing the sources. Ask a more specific question, or pick the documents that matter.
Ask says this question needs your documents
Ask says this question needs your documents
The message This question needs your documents. Select a Brain or documents, then ask again. means nothing was in scope. Choose a Brain in Choose Brains & files.