ReadAware

Getting started

ReadAware opens your own files and keeps everything it learns on your device. This page walks the first hour: importing books, reading and annotating, and — optionally — connecting an AI.

Add your books

Import files from the shelf. ReadAware reads EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, and PDF directly — there is no conversion step and no cloud upload. The file you import is the file you keep; highlights, notes, and your position attach to the original text.

DRM-protected files cannot be opened. If a book refuses to import, it is almost always DRM; ReadAware will say so rather than fail silently.

Read

Every format opens in the same reader with the same controls. Three reading modes are available from the reader's appearance settings:

  • Continuous scroll — the default; the book flows as one column.
  • Single page — one page at a time, turned like paper.
  • Two pages — a book-like spread on wide screens.

Your position is saved per book, and the table of contents is always a click away in the reader's top bar.

Annotate

Select any passage and a quiet action menu appears:

  • Highlight — in a few colors, or as an underline.
  • Note — attach your own words to the passage.
  • Look up — the built-in dictionary explains the word in its sentence, not just in the abstract, and saves it to the Dictionary timeline. (Uses your configured AI.)

Everything you mark is collected per book and feeds the app's memory — annotations are not an archive, they are material the assistant reads.

Connect an AI

All of ReadAware's intelligence runs on a key you bring. Reading, annotating, and the library work fully without one; the assistant, dictionary, and memory need it.

  1. Open Settings → AI.
  2. Pick a provider — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, xAI, Groq, Mistral, Moonshot, Z.ai, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint via Custom.
  3. Paste your API key and choose a model.

ReadAware distinguishes a smart model (chat and synthesis) from a fast one (dictionary look-ups, summaries, memory upkeep); sensible defaults are filled in per provider. Your key is stored on your device and requests go directly to your provider — there is no ReadAware server in between.

Ask

Each book has one persistent conversation — open the chat panel while reading and ask about the passage, the chapter, or the book. On the Context page you can talk across your whole shelf in as many threads as you like.

The assistant works from your reading: your highlights, notes, earlier conversations, and a long-term memory it maintains about what you read and care about. That memory is built and stored locally, like everything else.

Move fast

The command palette (Cmd K on macOS, Ctrl K elsewhere — rebindable in Settings) reaches every action: open books, switch views, run plugin commands.

Where your data lives

Books, annotations, conversations, and memory are stored on your device. The network is used for AI requests to your own provider and nothing else — the app is fully usable offline against your local library.