Documentation

BrioDocs is available for Mac and Windows.

Mac Requirements

• macOS: 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
• Processor: Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) only
• RAM: 8GB minimum (16GB+ recommended)
• Storage: 10GB free disk space

Note: Intel Macs are not supported.

Windows Requirements

• Windows: 10 or 11
• Processor: Intel (x86_64)
• RAM: 8GB minimum (16GB+ recommended)
• Storage: 10GB free disk space

Performance Tiers

BrioDocs offers three performance tiers based on your system's RAM:

Disk Space

• Base application: ~500MB
• AI models: 2-8GB each
• Recommendation: Plan for 10-20GB total

Step 1: Download

1. Visit the official BrioDocs website
2. Click the Download button
3. Save the installer to your Downloads folder

Step 2: Install (Mac)

1. Open the downloaded .dmg file
2. Drag BrioDocs to the Applications folder
3. Eject the DMG

Step 3: First Launch

On Mac, you may see a security warning. To bypass it:

1. Right-click on BrioDocs in Applications
2. Select "Open" from the menu
3. Click "Open" in the dialog

Step 4: Onboarding

1. Select your performance tier based on your RAM
2. Download an AI model (2-8GB, requires internet)
3. Start using BrioDocs!

Supported File Types

• PDF (.pdf) - including scanned documents with OCR
• Word (.docx)
• Text (.txt)
• Markdown (.md)

Uploading Documents

Method 1: Drag and Drop

Drag files from your file explorer directly into BrioDocs.

Method 2: Add Source Button

1. Click Add Source or the + button
2. Select files from the file picker
3. Wait for processing to complete

What Happens After Upload

1. Text extraction - BrioDocs extracts text from the document
2. Embedding - The text is processed for AI search
3. Ready - The source appears in your library

Starting a Chat

1. Click on a document to open it
2. The chat panel appears on the right
3. Type your question and press Enter

Example Questions

• "What are the key points in this document?"
• "Summarize section 3"
• "What obligations does the seller have?"
• "Explain the indemnification clause in simple terms"

Tips for Better Responses

• Be specific: "What are the payment terms?" works better than "Tell me about payments"
• Ask follow-ups: Continue the conversation naturally
• Reference sections: "What does Article 5 say about termination?"

What is a Notebook?

A Notebook is a collection of related documents that you can chat with together. Use them for:

• Legal cases with multiple contracts
• Research projects with several papers
• Due diligence with various documents

Creating a Notebook

1. Click New Notebook in the sidebar
2. Enter a name
3. Add sources by clicking Add Source

Multi-Document Questions

When you chat in a Notebook, the AI has access to ALL sources. You can ask:

• "Compare the terms between Contract A and Contract B"
• "Summarize the key findings across all studies"
• "Which document mentions the highest liability amount?"

What are Insights?

Insights are AI-generated analyses of your documents. Transformations are the prompts that create them.

Available Transformations

• Dense Summary: Compressed overview of the entire document
• Key Facts: Most important points and findings
• Contract Analysis: Terms, parties, obligations (for contracts)
• NDA Analysis: Confidentiality terms (for NDAs)

Running Transformations

1. Open a document
2. Go to the Insights tab
3. Select which transformations to run
4. Click Generate

About Models

BrioDocs uses AI models that run locally on your computer. Models must be downloaded before use (2-8GB each).

Downloading Models

1. Go to Settings → Models
2. Click Browse Available
3. Select a model and click Download

Model Roles

• Chat Model: Used for document conversations
• Transformation Model: Used for generating insights
• Large Context Model: Used for very long documents

Deleting Models

To free up disk space:

1. Go to Settings → Models
2. Find the model to remove
3. Click the delete icon

What are AI Podcasts?

BrioDocs can generate podcast-style audio discussions about your documents. The AI creates a conversation between speakers discussing the content.

Creating a Podcast

1. Open a Notebook with sources
2. Click Create Podcast
3. Select an Episode Profile (format/length)
4. Choose Speaker Profiles (voices)
5. Click Generate

Generation Time

• Short episodes (5 min): 2-5 minutes
• Medium episodes (10 min): 5-10 minutes
• Long episodes (20+ min): 10-20 minutes

Common Causes

• Not enough RAM: Close other apps to free memory
• Model too large: Try a smaller model for your tier
• Corrupted download: Delete and re-download the model
• Disk full: Ensure at least 5GB free space

Quick Fixes

1. Restart BrioDocs - Quit completely and relaunch
2. Close other apps - Free up RAM
3. Check Activity Monitor - Look at Memory Pressure

Re-download a Model

1. Go to Settings → Models
2. Delete the problematic model
3. Download it again

Common Issues

• File too large: Maximum 50MB per document. Split large files.
• Unsupported format: Only PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD are supported
• Corrupted PDF: Try re-exporting from the source application
• Scanned PDF: Apply OCR first (Preview → Tools → Text Recognition on macOS 14+)
• Password protected: Remove encryption before uploading

Troubleshooting Steps

1. Check if the file opens in another app
2. Verify you have enough disk space
3. Restart BrioDocs and try again
4. Check the logs for error details

Log Location

Logs are stored in:

Log Files

• api.log - Backend API logs
• worker.log - Background task logs
• llama-cpp.log - AI model server logs
• surrealdb.log - Database logs

When to Check Logs

Check logs when:

• The app crashes or freezes
• Models fail to load
• Documents fail to upload
• Chat responses fail