Getting started
Start with one book. AI, sync, and plugins can be configured when you need them. This guide describes the current development build; some controls may not yet be available in the latest published app. Check your installed version in Settings → About.
Import a book
Use the library's import action or drop a supported file into the app. ReadAware uses one reader engine for EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, PDF, and supported text and comic formats. A filename extension does not guarantee that an individual file is readable. DRM-protected books are unsupported; ReadAware does not remove DRM or convert your original book into another format.
Your imported books live in the local library. Use search, favorites, and collections to organize them. Opening a book restores its saved reading position.
Make the reader comfortable
Open the reader's appearance controls for typography, spacing, margins, page colors, and layout. Reflowable books support scrolling and paginated layouts. PDF and comic pages have their own fixed-layout controls; font settings cannot re-typeset text embedded in a page image. Zoom those pages by pinching, or with Cmd = and Cmd − on macOS (Ctrl elsewhere); Cmd 0 returns to the fit, and the appearance controls choose whether the fit is the page's width or the whole page. In single- and two-page layouts, Cmd L or the lock beside the zoom percentage locks a zoomed view, so page turns keep showing the same part of each page. Each book remembers its zoom and your place on the page on this device.
Font choices made for all books are remembered by the current book's language, so switching between languages does not require choosing a font again. A book-specific appearance override still takes priority.
Use the table of contents, book search, and navigation history to move around. Exact source locations and extracted text search serve different purposes: a search preview may need a further source lookup before navigation.
Annotate and ask
Select a passage to highlight it, add a note, or use an available reading action such as explanation, lookup, or translation. AI actions use the model configuration and privacy settings you choose. Notes and highlights remain useful without AI.
Each book has a persistent conversation. Open the chat panel to ask about your reading. The global Context page supports separate conversations across your library. Long-term memory is shared across conversations; creating another thread does not create a separate memory store.
ReadAware assembles relevant reading context, notes, and memories for each turn. Its memory features include reading goals, profile information, book summaries, and entity relationships. Generated content can be incomplete or wrong: review it and use the available correction and forgetting controls.
For fiction, plot summaries and narrative context follow your reading progress to help avoid spoilers. History and biography can use broader context about real events. You can review or correct a book's classification when this distinction is wrong.
If a model request fails, use the retry action to continue the failed step. Tool activity is grouped in the conversation and can be expanded to inspect what the assistant did.
Connect a model
Open Settings → AI, choose a provider or compatible endpoint, enter your API key, and select models. The smart model handles more demanding chat and synthesis; the fast model handles lighter work. Provider model catalogs and connection tests help you check the setup.
AI requires a working provider connection. BYOK uses your chosen provider and may incur that provider's charges. An available ReadAware AI subscription is another option; see plans. Neither is required for ordinary local reading and annotations.
Review the reading-context and automatic-memory settings before enabling automatic work. Relevant book excerpts and other selected context can leave the device for inference, even though the library and memory are stored locally. See the privacy policy.
Search the web and view images
In Settings → AI → Web search, enable search, choose TinyFish, Exa, Tavily, SerpAPI, or Brave, and enter that provider's API key. This key is separate from your model key. Run the connection test after changing the provider or credentials.
Search and page reading stay with the selected provider and key. Providers differ: SerpAPI offers search without page reading, and Brave page reading requires access to its LLM Context API. ReadAware does not silently switch to another provider when a capability is unavailable.
The assistant can use web sources and supported image results when they help answer your question. Image previews link back to their sources; support for sending image content to the model depends on the selected model. Search queries, requested URLs, and image requests can leave your device. Review the privacy policy before enabling these features.
Connect another assistant
Settings → AI → Local API lets another assistant query your reading data while ReadAware is running. It is off by default. Enable it, use Copy installation prompt to install the ReadAware skill in your assistant, then use Copy connection to supply the local address and access token separately.
The API provides read-only access to library metadata, the table of contents, book text, search, annotations, reading records, and scoped memory. It does not expose settings, model keys, raw files, or write operations. A connected assistant can request unread text, so tell it the reading boundary you want it to respect.
The assistant must be able to make requests on the same computer. A cloud service's own localhost does not reach your desktop, and ordinary browser pages cannot call this API. Keep the connection token private. Reset it to revoke old connections, or turn the API off to stop access. Any data an external assistant sends onward is governed by that assistant's configuration and provider.
Listen and extend
Read-aloud depends on the reader mode, readable text, and an available voice provider. System voices and voice plugins have different network and configuration needs; scanned pages without usable text are not guaranteed to work.
In Settings → Plugins, enable the tools you want and inspect their permissions. Plugins can add reading actions, commands, themes, content sources, and assistant tools. Availability depends on the package and the contracts supported by your app. Plugins installed from the marketplace update themselves; an update that asks for more permissions waits for your approval there. Learn how plugins work.
The command palette opens with Cmd K on macOS or Ctrl K elsewhere; shortcuts can be changed in Settings.
Sync and backup
These solve different problems:
- Sync carries encrypted events and files between devices. Configure relay sync in Settings → Data & Sync, or configure a transport such as WebDAV in its plugin settings. Keep the encryption passphrase safe. Sync does not guarantee that every device-local setting, private plugin file, or transient task travels.
- Backup creates an encrypted archive for recovery. Since version 0.6.5 ReadAware offers only the full archive; the legacy library-only format has been retired, and older library-only files can no longer be restored. Full restore reviews the archive, asks for its passphrase and choices, and merges supported data through the host's recovery flow.
Relay sync runs automatically while connected. Plugin transports such as WebDAV use Sync now in the plugin's settings; they do not run on the relay's automatic schedule. Check the corresponding settings page for connection errors or sign-in requests.
You can keep reading offline. When devices reconnect, the shared progress for a book keeps the furthest recorded position, even if a more recent update from another device is behind it. For example, reaching page 300 offline is not replaced by another device's later record at page 200. ReadAware compares positions within the book, since visible page numbers can vary with layout. Reading time is accumulated separately. This rule does not reset shared progress when you go back to reread earlier pages.
Check the options present in your installed version. A backup's contents, successful save, and ability to restore are separate things; keep a known-good copy before a migration or downgrade.
Find your data and diagnose problems
The local data directory, sync status, backup actions, and diagnostics are available through Settings. A failed read should show a retryable error when appropriate; a failed save is not a successful change. If reporting a problem, include the app version, operating system, steps to reproduce, and a reviewed diagnostics export.