Ask Gistr

The active chat — questions, multi-source synthesis, follow-ups, and editing.

Written By Arun Antony

Last updated About 2 months ago

How Gistr's AI Works

(( ANCHOR: How Gistr's AI works ))

Gistr's AI is source-grounded. This means:

  • It answers from the sources you've added to your Thread

  • Every response includes citations — timestamps for video/audio, page numbers for documents

  • If it draws on general knowledge, it tells you

  • If something isn't in your sources, it says so — it won't make things up

The AI is also connected to the internet. When needed it can fetch web information and will cite that source as well.

⚠️ NEED: Which AI model(s) power Gistr? Confirm before publishing.

Asking About a Source

(( ANCHOR: Asking about a source ))

  1. Open a Thread with a source loaded

  2. Type your question in the AI input

  3. The AI answers from the source, with citations

Examples:

  • "What is the main argument here?"

  • "Explain the concept at 4:30 in simpler terms"

  • "What does the author say about [topic]?"

Asking Across Multiple Sources

(( ANCHOR: Asking across sources ))

Select any number of Sources from the Thread. The AI synthesizes across all of them in one coherent response, with citations from each.

Useful for: researching across multiple videos, comparing perspectives across documents, summarizing an entire research Thread.

Asking from a Timestamp or Page

(( ANCHOR: Asking from a timestamp or page ))

Point the AI to a specific moment or section instead of asking about the whole source.

For video and podcasts:

  • "Explain the concept at 4 minutes 30 seconds"

  • "Summarize the video from 2 to 8 minutes"

  • "What's being argued in the last 10 minutes?"

For documents:

  • "Give me the key points from pages 5 to 10"

  • "Summarize the section starting on page 15"

Follow-Up Questions

(( ANCHOR: Follow-up questions ))

  1. Select the part of an AI response you want to drill into

  2. A follow-up prompt appears

  3. The AI responds in context — you never have to start over

Editing AI Responses

(( ANCHOR: Editing AI responses ))

Every AI response is a fully editable block. After the AI replies:

  • Delete what's irrelevant

  • Rewrite what doesn't match how you think

  • Add your own annotations on top

  • Keep only what's useful

🎬 GIF: AI response block in notes area. User clicks into it → block becomes an editable rich text field → user deletes one bullet, rewrites another → clicks outside to save.

AI output in Gistr is a starting point, not a final answer. Your notes and the AI's responses live side by side — both shaped by your thinking.

Snip & AI

(( ANCHOR: Snip & AI ))

Select any region of a document — paragraph, chart, image, table, diagram — and ask the AI about just that area. Built into the (( Area Snap )) tool in the PDF toolbar.

  1. Drag to select any region of the PDF

  2. Click Ask AI in the popup

  3. The AI answers using that region as context

Best for: complex diagrams, data tables in PDFs, graphs, scanned documents where text selection doesn't work.

Summarizing Your Conversation

(( ANCHOR: Summarizing conversation ))

Ask the AI: "Summarize our conversation history in this Thread."

It returns a consolidated view of everything you explored, everything that was clarified, and everything worth keeping. A full session distilled into something usable.