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Every claim in an Elephas answer carries a small number. Click it to read the exact passage from your document that supports it, with the file name and the page, slide, sheet or line. The Sources panel lists everything the answer cited, and what was searched but not used.

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Before you start

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Steps

1

Click a number in the answer

The Sources panel opens on the right with a card for each source the answer cites. The card you clicked shows the passage itself, the document name and where it sits, for example page 4, slides 3–5, sheet 2 or lines 10–12.
2

Click another card to read its passage

Each card in the panel opens its own passage when you click it. The panel header counts documents, for example 2 of 5 cited: the answer cited 2 of the 5 documents that were searched.
3

Find the original file

On the open card, click Show in Finder (Mac) or Show in File Explorer (Windows). Your file manager opens with the original file selected.
4

See everything an answer used

Click the sources button under an answer, for example 3 sources, to open the panel on that answer. To show or hide the panel, click the panel button in the chat bar, choose View › Show Sources, or press ⌥⌘I on Mac or Ctrl+Alt+I on Windows.
If the Sources panel is hidden when you click a number, the passage opens in a small window instead. Click OK to close it.

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How it works

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Only exact passages are cited

Elephas cites the passage of your document that states the fact. Summaries and search snippets help Elephas decide where to look, but they are never cited. Before showing an answer from Elephas AI or your own API key, Elephas checks the answer against its sources. If the answer still can’t be supported by your sources after one revision, Elephas doesn’t show it and says so.

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What the line above the answer means

Above each answer, a short line says what Elephas found, for example 6 passages from 3 documents. Under it, a coverage line counts the documents that were in scope: “Searched, not cited” does not mean the document was read from start to finish. Elephas searches an index of your documents and reads the passages that match best.

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What the Sources panel shows

  • Cited sources at the top, in the order the answer cites them.
  • Under a line, the documents that were searched and not used, and any that couldn’t be read. This is where to look if you expected a file to be quoted and it wasn’t.

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Answers stay checkable later

Elephas keeps its own copy of the text of every file you add. If you move or rename the original, the citation still shows the right passage. Show in Finder then says That file is no longer where it was added from. The answer still quotes it correctly.

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Other things you may see under an answer

  • Answered by: in the chat bar names the AI that answered. See Choose how Elephas answers.
  • A shield such as 2 details hidden appears when Elephas hid personal details before sending your question to cloud AI. See Review hidden details and What data is sent to AI.
  • Partial answer means everything shown was checked against your sources, but some of the answer couldn’t be, so it may not cover everything you asked.

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Troubleshooting

The document was removed from its Brain, or its text changed since the answer was written. If you see Support passage changed or is unavailable, the document was updated and that exact passage is gone. Ask the question again to get an answer from the current version. See Update documents and versions.
If Elephas says Your computer would not show that file., the file may be on a drive that is not connected. If it says the file is no longer where it was added from, it was moved or deleted. The citation itself is still correct.
Elephas could not get text from it, for example a scanned page without text recognition or a damaged file. See Scanned PDFs and images and File import errors.

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