User Guide

Welcome to the Scrapalot User Guide! This guide will help you get the most out of Scrapalot, whether you're a complete beginner or an experienced user.

What You'll Learn

This guide covers everything you need to know to use Scrapalot effectively:

Getting Started

Your first steps with Scrapalot

Uploading Documents

How to add your files

Asking Questions

Tips for getting better answers

Working with Teams

Collaboration features

Advanced Features

Power user tips

Who This Guide Is For

Complete Beginners

Never used AI tools before? No problem! We'll walk you through everything step by step.

Business Users

Learn how to use Scrapalot for customer support, knowledge management, and team collaboration.

Researchers & Students

Discover how to analyze documents, extract insights, and synthesize information.

Power Users

Explore advanced features like custom prompts, API access, and integrations.

Quick Start

Step 1: Access Scrapalot

Web App (recommended):

1. Go to scrapalot.app
2. Sign up with your email and a password, or Continue with Google
3. You're ready to go — the free Researcher plan needs no credit card

Android App:

1. Download the APK from scrapalot.app/downloads/scrapalot-mobile.apk (or the GitHub releases page)
2. Sideload it (enable "Install unknown apps" for your browser/file manager) — it's not on the Play Store yet
3. Sign in with your account
4. Start using Scrapalot!

A native desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux is available, with local AI models and local speech-to-text — see Apps & Platforms.

Step 2: Upload Your First Document

1. Open Knowledge Stacks from the sidebar and select or create a collection
2. Add your files on the Upload tab - PDF, EPUB, Word, spreadsheets, audio, video and more - and click Compose
3. Wait for processing - seconds for a text PDF, longer for scans and long books
4. Start asking questions!

Step 3: Ask Your First Question

Type a question in any language. For example:

• "What are the main points in this document?"
• "Summarize the key findings"
• "What does it say about [specific topic]?"

Pro Tip

Be specific! Instead of "Tell me about sales," try "What were the Q3 sales figures for the North region?"

Main Topics

Uploading Documents

Learn how to add documents, supported formats, and best practices.

Asking Questions

Tips and tricks for getting the best answers from your documents.

Managing Collections

Organize your documents into collections for better organization.

Team Collaboration

Share documents, work with teammates, and manage permissions.

Integrations

Connectors, MCP servers, and using Scrapalot from your own AI agent.

FAQ

Common questions and troubleshooting tips.

Common Use Cases

For Researchers

Analyzing Research Papers:

1. Upload multiple papers to a collection
2. Ask: "What are the common themes across these papers?"
3. Ask: "Compare the methodologies used"
4. Ask: "What are the key findings?"

Literature Review:

1. Create a collection for your research topic
2. Upload papers, sync Zotero, or import them by DOI
3. Ask: "Summarize the current state of research" — or run Deep Research with the Literature Review template
4. Export citations and references

For Business Teams

Customer Support:

1. Upload product manuals and FAQs
2. Ask questions to find answers quickly
3. Share conversations with a link

Onboarding New Employees:

1. Create an "Onboarding" collection
2. Add company policies, procedures, and guides
3. New employees can ask questions anytime
4. Reduces training time significantly

For Students

Studying for Exams:

1. Upload lecture notes and textbooks
2. Ask: "Explain [concept] in simple terms"
3. Ask: "Give me practice questions on [topic]"
4. Ask: "What are the key points I should remember?"

Writing Papers:

1. Upload research materials
2. Ask: "What evidence supports [argument]?"
3. Ask: "Find quotes about [topic]"
4. Get proper citations automatically

Interface Overview

Main Components

Sidebar (Left)

• Workspace switcher
• New chat, conversations, folders and projects
• Knowledge Stacks, Notes, Team chat, Knowledge Graph
• Settings and account

Chat Area (Center)

• Conversation history with citations
• Chat toolbar: model, Knowledge Stacks, options, prompt templates, attachments, voice

Document Viewer (Right)

• Opens documents and citations next to the chat
• Annotations and AI actions on highlighted text

Command Palette — press Ctrl+K (⌘K on Mac) anywhere to jump to a page, workspace, collection or recent document.

Basic Settings

Choosing an AI Provider

Scrapalot supports a wide range of AI providers - configure them in Settings → AI Providers. Hosted plans also include the built-in Scrapalot AI model.

Cloud Providers

OpenAI
Industry leader

Anthropic
Advanced reasoning

Google
Multimodal AI

DeepSeek
Cost-effective

Groq
Fast inference

OpenRouter
Multi-provider

Z.ai (GLM) and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint can be added too.

Local Providers (Privacy-First)

Ollama
Local, offline

LM Studio
Desktop app

vLLM
High throughput

In the desktop app, Settings → Local AI can also download and run models on your own computer.

AI Routing

Scrapalot can automatically choose the collections and retrieval strategy for each question. AI Routing is on by default in the chat toolbar's Knowledge Stacks button; choose Switch to Manual to pick them yourself.

Language Settings

• The interface is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Croatian (Settings → General)
• Ask questions in any language, including about documents written in another
• Summaries can be translated with Translate

Understanding Results

Each answer includes:

Source Citations

• Click to open the exact passage in the document viewer
• Page numbers and sections
• Web and academic sources when web search or Deep Research is used

Search strategy

• Which retrieval strategy ran, which sources it used, and why

Answer actions

• Read aloud, copy as Markdown, regenerate as a new branch, rate the response

Getting Help

In-App Help

• Take the tour from the sidebar for a guided walkthrough
• Hover over features for tooltips
• Use the Command Palette (Ctrl+K / ⌘K) to find pages and actions

Community Support

• Discord - Join our community for real-time help
• GitHub - Report bugs and request features
• Email - support@mail.scrapalot.app

Documentation

• FAQ - Common questions answered
• Troubleshooting - Fix common issues

Next Steps

Ready to learn more? Check out these guides:

1. Uploading Documents - Master document management
2. Asking Questions - Get better answers
3. Collections - Organize your knowledge
4. Integrations - Connect your tools

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