Biblo
Chat
Answers with sources
The chat doesn't just answer: it lists the files it used and the passages it quoted, with page numbers. From there you can open the PDF, or tick documents to keep working on those alone.
Windows and Mac app
Are you a researcher and not sure how to use AI in your work?
Biblo is your answer
Connect your PDF folders once and Biblo reads them all: for every question it searches your whole library on its own, and under each answer it shows the document and page. The AI assists you; the work and the judgement stay yours.
Free · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · Mac with Apple silicon, macOS 15 or later
Runs locallyReading and indexing stay on your computer
Sources citedDocument and page under every answer
PDFs and scansOCR included for documents without text
5 languagesItalian, English, French, Spanish, German
With Biblo you can
The work that takes up most of the time in research, done on your own documents, with the sources always in view.
Your whole library, with every question
You don't upload files to the chat or pick, each time, which documents to work on: Biblo has already read everything you've connected and, for every question, finds the passages it needs across the whole library on its own. That makes it an assistant built around your work and what you're trying to get done. And if you want to focus on a few texts, a selection narrows the field.
Question your bibliography
Ask your PDFs questions in plain language: the answer comes with the passages it quotes, document and page.
Find the texts on a topic
Describe a subject and Biblo tells you which volumes really discuss it, ranked by relevance.
Summarise, analyse, compare
Summarising a volume, analysing an argument, comparing two texts: each task has its own specialised assistant.
Relate your sources
Biblo builds cards for authors, works and figures and links your documents to each other, so you see where they meet.
Rebuild the citations
A single index of everything your texts cite (works, authors, figures) with how often each one appears.
Work on scans too
PDFs without text, such as scanned volumes, are read with OCR and can be questioned like the others.
A help, not a replacement
Biblo doesn't write your research for you: it reads, searches and lines up the sources. Every answer can be checked against the text, and if the answer isn't in your documents, it says so. The questions, the choices and the conclusions remain yours.
Free, and you're in control
Biblo costs nothing and has no subscription. For the AI it uses your own personal Google Gemini key, which is free too: it takes a minute to create and the app shows you how. Requests go through your account, your files stay on your computer (Google only receives the passage needed for each answer), and you can revoke the key whenever you like.
Keyword search finds the word, not the answer
Once you have hundreds of volumes, the problem is no longer finding a term: it's remembering which book discussed it, and how. Biblo holds both ends — it searches meaning rather than letters, and hands you the exact passage its answer came from.
Searches by meaning
Ask “how was consent justified” and it finds the passages about it, even when those exact words never appear.
Shows its evidence
Under every answer sit the files it used and the passages it quoted, with page numbers. One click opens the PDF at the right spot.
Admits what it doesn't know
If the answer isn't in your documents, it says so instead of inventing one.
How it works
Three steps, once
After that the library stays ready: it only updates when you add new documents.
1
Point it at your folders
Tell Biblo where the PDFs are. They stay exactly where they are: no uploads, no copies in the cloud, no folders to reorganise.
2
Biblo reads, inspects, connects
Three separate, repeatable phases. Read prepares the text for search. Inspect builds the cards for authors, works and figures. Find connections relates the documents to one another.
3
Ask
Type your question in the chat. Biblo picks the right assistant, searches the texts, selects the passages and answers with citations.
Features
What's inside
Every screen below is the real application, not a mockup.
Assistants
Specialised assistants
Summarising a volume, comparing two texts, finding a passage, analysing an argument: each task has its own assistant with its own way of reading. Biblo picks the one that fits your question — or you pick it yourself.
Library
The library in three phases
At a glance: how many documents have been read, how many inspected, how many connected. The three phases are deliberately separate, so you can read everything now and go deeper later.
Shelf
The shelf
Your documents become volumes on a shelf, sortable by date, title or author, showing the language and marking the scans. One click opens the book.
Search
Smart search
Describe a topic and Biblo tells you which volumes actually discuss it, ranked by relevance. The result becomes a selection you can use as the boundary of a conversation.
Citations
Citation index
Everything your texts cite — works, authors, figures — gathered into a single searchable index, with how many times each entry appears.
And also
OCR for scans
PDFs without a text layer are recognised with the system's own OCR — Windows OCR, or Vision on a Mac — and become searchable like the rest.
Selections
Narrow a conversation down to a group of documents: outside that selection Biblo doesn't look, neither to search nor to cite.
Light and dark
Interface in five languages, light or dark theme and adjustable zoom: everything scales, nothing becomes unreadable.
Yours, exportable
Cards, connections and conversations are files on your disk, and you can export them whenever you like.
Gallery
Everything you get inside
Every screen is the real application, with a real library — and in the language you picked above.
Scroll sideways to see the rest →
Privacy
Your documents never leave your computer
Reading, the index and the search store are local: no file is uploaded anywhere. When you ask a question, only the passage needed to answer it travels to the language model, together with your question. It doesn't pass through servers of ours, and we don't keep it.
No uploads
The PDFs stay in your folders. The index lives next to them, on your disk.
Only what's needed
What leaves is the passage required for that single answer, not the library.
Your own key
Biblo uses your key with the model provider: requests go through your account, not ours.
Download
Try it on your own library
Nothing to configure by hand. On Windows it installs for your user account, no administrator rights needed; on a Mac you open the downloaded file and drag Biblo into the Applications folder.
Download for Windows
Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit
Download for Mac
Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) · macOS 15 or later
The file isn't published yet: the button goes to the releases page.
Windows · SHA-256 fingerprint — To verify it, in PowerShell:
(Get-FileHash Biblo_1.2.0_x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256).Hash
E04E6D4D00BA388F16AA8AA6178D2C760DABBC09DE6A91D4A4143FE5C0EE7C5F
Mac · SHA-256 fingerprint — To verify it, in Terminal:
shasum -a 256 Biblo_1.2.0_aarch64.dmg
a2b2f92b41ee35603876dd1c0b16529c65258c0d4f0c9db8b47e2f07d5c90da3
Windows will say “Unknown publisher”
The installer isn't signed with a certificate yet, so Windows shows a protection warning the first time you run it. To continue: More info → Run anyway.
What you need
Windows 10 or 11, or a Mac
64-bit Windows, or a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) running macOS 15 Sequoia or later. There are no builds for Linux or for Intel-based Macs for now.
Disk space
Around 2.5 GB: the application, the model that turns text into numbers, and the index of your library.
A free AI key
From Google Gemini: it takes a minute to get one from Google's site. Without a key the AI side can't work, but everything else can: importing, reading and searching your documents all happen locally, and the app only asks for the key when you use an AI feature (chat, document inspection, connections).
No graphics card
Everything runs on the processor. On modest machines the first read is slow, but the app deliberately leaves cores free so your computer stays usable.
Questions
Do I need an internet connection?
Not to read and search your documents: that part is entirely local. You need one for the chat and for inspection, because answers and cards are generated by a language model that lives online.
What does it cost?
The application is free. For the AI features you need a key from the model provider, Google Gemini, which has a free plan: chat usage counts against that plan, not against us.
Which documents can it read?
PDFs, including scanned ones: if a document has no text layer, Biblo runs OCR on it and then treats it like any other.
How many documents can it handle?
Biblo is developed against a library of 70 volumes and over 11,000 pages, and handles it comfortably. The practical limit isn't the number of files but the time of the first read, which depends on your processor.
Windows says the publisher is unknown — is it safe?
That's the warning Windows shows for any program not signed with a commercial certificate, and Biblo isn't yet. You can check the SHA-256 fingerprint of the file you downloaded against the one published above: if they match, the file is exactly the one that was released.
Are my documents used to train an AI?
Not by us: we never receive or store your files. When an answer is generated, only the necessary passage is sent to the model provider. On the free plan, though, Google may use those texts to improve its models, and there is no way to turn this off. The app explains this when you enter your key.
Can I use my own key?
Yes, and that's the normal way it works: you enter the key and requests go through your account with the provider.
If I uninstall, do I lose my documents?
No. The PDFs stay exactly where they always were, in your folders. On a Mac you remove Biblo by dragging it to the Trash; the data it produced (index, chats, settings) stays in your user's Library › Application Support › Biblo folder: delete that too if you no longer need it.