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Do you trust every words generated by AI? You should check the source.
Every answer shows the page it came from. Click it and the quote lights up.
For analysts, lawyers and engineers who write from documents and stand behind every figure. Free, open source, runs on your computer.
Alpha. Early test builds are unsigned. The public alpha opens in early 2027.
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Everything shown is in the app today. Watch the 60-second version in HD
IncarnaMind is a free, open-source desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux where you write with AI and ask questions about your own documents (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and more). It can check every sentence and figure in a draft against those documents, whoever wrote it, and every answer cites the exact page it comes from. It works with the AI you already use: your ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot plan, or your own API key.
Try it in two minutes. The first launch opens a checked example with one wrong figure in it. Click the red ≠ in the margin, then ask the two Documents a question.
The public alpha opens in early 2027. Until then, early test builds for macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Windows and Linux are on the Releases page as pre-releases: they change often and they aren't signed yet, so your system warns you the first time you open one (see below). To hear when the alpha opens, leave your e-mail or click Watch → Custom → Releases at the top of this page. Or run it from source with Node.js 24 or newer:
git clone https://github.com/IncarnaMind/IncarnaMind.git && cd IncarnaMind
npm install && npm run devWindows releases will be signed through the SignPath Foundation's free signing for open-source projects; until then the installer is unsigned. See the Code signing policy.
If your system won't open it
- Windows says "Windows protected your PC": the installer isn't code-signed yet. Click More info, then Run anyway.
- macOS says it can't verify IncarnaMind: until the app is notarized, open it once and click Done, then System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Or run
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/IncarnaMind.app. An unsigned Mac app can't update itself: IncarnaMind tells you when a new version is out and offers its download page. - Linux: the .deb for Ubuntu and Debian (recommended), or the AppImage. On Ubuntu 24.04 and later, the AppImage runs without the app's sandbox. To open the AppImage, run
chmod +x IncarnaMind-*.AppImage. On Ubuntu 22.04 or later, alsosudo apt install libfuse2(libfuse2t64on 24.04 and later).
Check every answer. Answers cite where each claim came from and carry the quote, which is checked against that place: a green check if it's there, an amber mark if it isn't, and a click opens the page with the quote highlighted. Unfold an Answer's steps to see what it searched and which sources it used.
Write and ask in one place. A Mind is a notebook for one topic. Beside it sits the assistant: ask it about the Mind you're in or your files, and the Answer comes back there, in a conversation, with its citations checked. Your draft stays as you wrote it until you pick Add to note, which puts the Answer at your cursor as text you can edit, citations and all.
Write with AI you can check. Tell the assistant what to change ("shorten the summary", "add today's decision to the project plan", "summarise these papers into a new note") and it changes the Mind, or makes a new one, at once: its text is grey until you edit it, one Undo takes the change back, and Review changes shows what changed. A question still gets an answer. Or select text and choose Edit with AI, and each change says why it was made. Turn on suggestions as you write, and when you pause, grey text offers how the paragraph could go on, only where your Documents support it and always with a citation; Tab accepts.
Check your draft before you send it. Select sentences in a Mind and choose Check against Documents: each one comes back supported, unsupported or contradicted by your Documents, with the page one click away, and the check badge in the page's corner counts what still needs a look. A PDF someone else wrote can be checked the same way, claim by claim: + → Verify a document….
Compare documents in a table. Compare Documents… puts the same questions to each file you pick and fills a table, every cell a cited, checked answer.
Hand it in. Export a Mind to Word or Markdown, with its citations and bibliography in the style you pick: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, GB/T 7714 or IncarnaMind's numbered style. A citation that didn't pass the check is marked "[unverified]". Open a Word file as a Mind and export it back into the same file: the parts you didn't touch stay exactly as they were, and your edits can go in as tracked changes.
Take notes in a meeting. Start recording and a live transcript runs beside your Mind, transcribed on this computer. When the call ends, save it as a Document, and your notes can cite what was said. During the call, a small panel can suggest what to say and answer their question from your Documents.
More
Use the files you already have. Link the folders you already use, even Zotero's storage folder: IncarnaMind reads the PDF, Word (comments included), PowerPoint, Excel, CSV, Markdown and plain-text files in them where they are, never moves or changes them, and keeps up as they change.
Choose your AI. Already pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, Claude, or GitHub Copilot? Sign in and ask on your plan, no key needed (the Copilot sign-in is experimental). Or use your own key from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, Qwen, SiliconFlow or OpenRouter, and more, such as Kimi, GLM, Mistral, xAI or any OpenAI-compatible server.
Start from Home. From the second launch on, IncarnaMind opens on Home: your latest Minds with their first line, your Folders as cards showing what changed in each, and what needs you, such as Documents still being read. New Mind starts a page in one click, and the ▾ beside it holds the other ways to start. The first launch opens a checked example instead.
Keep a big library tidy. Organize suggests a Folder and Tags for each Document, for you to accept, and keeps the choices you make yourself. With a model on this computer it runs by itself; with a cloud model it waits until you turn on “Tag and sort new Documents automatically” in Settings → Models, which says what it would send.
Find and add sources. Search OpenAlex, arXiv and PubMed and add open-access papers as Documents, save a web page by its address so it can be cited and checked like a file, and import your references from Zotero or any CSL JSON, BibTeX or RIS file.
Connect apps and Skills that ask first. Add Connectors (MCP servers), or bring over the ones you set up in Claude Desktop or Cursor, and Skills (standard SKILL.md folders), three of them built in; a tool that could change something, or a Skill's script, runs only after you say yes.
English and Chinese. The whole app is in both.
You don't need an account. Your Minds and the search index stay in one data folder on your computer, and your files stay where you keep them, unchanged. A Question goes to the AI model you picked with what it needs, which is the Mind you're in, the passages found for it and the names of the Documents it may search; with a model on this computer it goes nowhere. Everything else that can leave your computer, such as finding papers, tagging and sorting, page images of scans or a cloud transcription of a meeting, is listed with what it sends in docs/privacy.md and in Settings → Privacy, and each can be stopped on its own. API keys are encrypted in your system's secure storage. Usage data is collected only if you agree, as anonymous events, never your files or questions, and you can turn it off any time in Settings → Privacy. Crash reports are off unless you turn them on, and are stripped of your content.
- You're asked before anything leaves. The first time IncarnaMind would send anything to an outside service, it shows what would be sent and to whom, and waits for your OK. Settings → Privacy lists each one and lets you take it back.
- Providers are asked not to keep it. Where a provider offers the choice, IncarnaMind asks it not to store your requests; every request to OpenAI and xAI says so, and requests to OpenRouter ask it to use only providers that keep and train on nothing. It is a request: IncarnaMind can't make a provider comply.
- Nothing runs without you. Before a Connector's tool that could change something, or a Skill's script, runs, IncarnaMind asks you: allow it once, always allow it, or deny it. Settings → Privacy lists every rule you've set, and you can revoke any of them.
- Working with client documents? Read the client data statement: what to tell clients about their documents, in paragraphs you can paste into an engagement letter.
Questions
- What does "Quote found" mean? That the quoted words are in the place the citation names, not that they prove your sentence, which is why the page is one click away. "Can't check" means there's no text to compare against, as on a scanned page.
- Can I use it on client or confidential documents? Your files stay on your computer, and only the AI model you chose and the few services you allow receive anything. Before a client matter, read the client data statement and look at Settings → Privacy, which lists every service that is on.
- Is it free? Yes: it's open source under the Apache 2.0 licence. The AI model is billed by its provider: use the ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot plan you already pay for, or your own API key and pay for what you use.
- Do I need an API key? Not if you have ChatGPT Plus or Pro: choose Continue with ChatGPT and ask on your plan. Or paste a key from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, Qwen, SiliconFlow or OpenRouter, and more in Settings, such as Kimi, GLM, Mistral, xAI or any OpenAI-compatible server.
- Is it an alternative to NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook)? Yes. IncarnaMind runs on your computer and reads your files where they are, and no account is needed. It works with the model you choose (your ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot plan, or your own key), every citation is checked against the page it quotes, your own sentences can be checked too, and a Mind exports to Word with its citations.
- Can I use my ChatGPT plan? Yes, with ChatGPT Plus or Pro. In Settings → Models, choose Continue with ChatGPT and sign in in your browser: Questions then go to OpenAI under your account and count against your plan's limits, with no key.
- Can I use my Claude or GitHub Copilot plan? Yes. Under Other ways, or in Settings → Models, sign in with your Claude or GitHub account; each stays off until you do. Answers count toward your plan's usage limits. The Copilot sign-in is experimental.
- Does it work offline? Reading your files and search do. Answers and checks need an AI model, which for most people means the internet. A local model through Ollama can answer offline, but more slowly and less reliably than a cloud model. Meaning-based search (embeddings) is optional and off by default.
- Will it change my files? No. It reads them where they are, and writes only to its own data folder and the files you export.
- How do I back up? Copy the data folder: it holds your Minds, the search index and your settings.
Planned, not available yet, with no dates (see the roadmap): asking during a meeting, with answers that cite its live transcript; a reviewing pane for other people's tracked changes in a Word file; and research Tasks that run in the background.
Code, testing with your own documents, translations and ideas are all welcome: start with CONTRIBUTING.md, open an issue or ask in Discussions.
IncarnaMind began in 2023 as a Python command-line tool for chatting with your PDFs, starred by about 800 of you, and was rebuilt in 2026 as a desktop app around one idea: an answer from your files is only useful if you can check it. The old tool lives on at the v1-python-cli tag. Thank you for sticking around, and if IncarnaMind is useful to you, a star helps other people find it.
Citing IncarnaMind
@misc{IncarnaMind2023, author = {Junru Xiong}, title = {IncarnaMind}, year = {2023},
publisher = {GitHub}, journal = {GitHub Repository},
howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/IncarnaMind/IncarnaMind}}}Apache License 2.0. The fonts that ship with the app (Source Serif 4, Source Sans 3 and JetBrains Mono) are under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. The citation styles and locales come unmodified from the Citation Style Language project, under CC BY-SA 3.0; they are formatted by Hayagriva (MIT or Apache-2.0). Their notices are in resources/notices.
