Sources

Sources are what SurfSense answers from. Each workspace has its own Sources panel on the left. SurfSense copies what you add into its data folder, reads it, and indexes it on your computer. A source is ready once it is searchable.

Add sourcesCopy Anchor Link

Click + at the top of the Sources panel:

You can also drag files or folders from your file manager onto the panel. It shows "Drop files to add them as sources" while you drag. In a chat, + › Upload sources in the composer opens the same file picker.

A file dropped onto a folder in the panel goes into that folder.

What gets skippedCopy Anchor Link

• A file of a type SurfSense cannot read. A folder upload tells you how many it skipped.
• A file over 500 MB.
• A file that is already in the same folder. SurfSense compares the contents, not the name, so two different files called report.pdf are both added, and the same file saved twice is added once.
• When you add a folder: .git, node_modules, __pycache__, .obsidian and .trash folders, .DS_Store, and the hidden lock files Office keeps beside a document it has open.
• A file another app holds open and won't share. It is listed as "Couldn’t be read; it may be open in another app", and the rest of the folder still arrives.

Supported file typesCopy Anchor Link

The file's contents must match its extension. Older Office formats (.doc, .ppt, .xls) are not read: save them in the newer format first.

How files are readCopy Anchor Link

Everything is read on your computer, with no network.

• PDFs with text. A PDF made by a program, such as an exported report or paper, is read from the text it already holds. This is fast.
• Scans and photos. A scanned page, or an uploaded image, is read with OCR (text recognition). On a Mac, SurfSense uses the Mac's own text recognition. A page that OCR cannot read well goes to a slower, more thorough reader, Docling, which also reads layout and tables. A PDF that mixes text pages and scanned pages is read page by page.
• Word files are read with their headings, numbered lists, tables and footnotes. Tracked changes are read as if accepted.
• PowerPoint, Excel, EPUB and HTML are read by Docling.
• Kindle books (MOBI and AZW3) are read as their text and headings.
• Recordings are turned into a transcript by the speech recognition model. See Recordings.

SurfSense also keeps the pictures it finds in a source, so the agent can place a source's chart or logo in a document it makes.

Progress, cancel and retryCopy Anchor Link

A source shows a spinner while it is read. Large batches are read smallest first, so short files are ready sooner, and a note you write during a long folder upload is read ahead of it.

Open a row's ⋯ menu for its actions:

• Cancel stops a source that is waiting or being read. It shows as Cancelled.
• Retry reads a failed or cancelled source again. A failed source shows Ingestion failed with the reason.

Chat and Studio only use sources that are ready. If you ask about sources that are still being read, the answer says so.

Organize sourcesCopy Anchor Link

Folders come first in the panel, then sources, newest first.

• Rename, Move to… and Delete are in each row's ⋯ menu. You can also drag a source onto a folder.
• New folder inside a folder is in that folder's menu.
• The search button at the top filters the panel by name.
• Edit note reopens a note you wrote. Files cannot be edited, only renamed.

Deleting a folder deletes everything in it, including Studio outputs you filed there, for good. The dialog says how many sources go with it.

Open and preview a sourceCopy Anchor Link

• Preview shows a PDF inside SurfSense, in place of the left sidebar.
• Open opens SurfSense's copy of the file in its own app, and Show in folder shows it in your file manager. Your original stays as it was. Edits you save to the copy are lost when you delete the source.
• In the Docker image, Download saves a copy instead.

NotesCopy Anchor Link

+ › New note writes a note with a title and text. It is indexed like any file. Editing a note re-indexes it, so search stops finding the old text.

RecordingsCopy Anchor Link

A recording becomes a source through the speech recognition model, on your computer. The transcript marks the time each passage starts, so a cited passage shows where in the recording it was said.

• While it transcribes, the row reads, for example, "Transcribing · 23 of 58 min · about 7 min left".
• With no speech recognition model chosen, it waits and reads Waiting for speech recognition. Click Set up to choose one. The recording is transcribed as soon as you do: you don't need to upload it again.
• In Settings › Speech recognition, Spoken language sets the language your recordings are in, or Detect automatically.

A recording cannot be played back in SurfSense yet. See Voice for the speech models.

Choose what chat, Studio and the agent useCopy Anchor Link

Each row in the Sources panel has a tick box. Ticked sources are the ones a chat answers from, Studio makes things from, and the agent may work on.

• Tick a folder to include everything in it, including files you add to it later.
• Untick a source inside a ticked folder to leave just that one out.
• Select all at the top ticks everything. Clear unticks it.
• The composer shows how many sources are ticked.

The same ticks apply to chat and Studio. Each message sends the ticks on screen when you send it.

Add from the webCopy Anchor Link

+ › Add from the web… opens one box: Search Google or paste links.

• Search. Type words to search Google, or choose a site under the box to search it instead: YouTube, TikTok, Google Maps, Amazon, Walmart, Indeed, Reddit or Instagram.
• Paste links. Paste one or more links, one per line or several on a line.
• Add a result to make it a source, or Add all. A link already in Sources says Already in Sources.
• Open a list, such as a YouTube channel, a playlist, a subreddit or a search page, to see its items and add the ones you want. Show more loads more.

What each link becomes:

The pages are fetched by SurfSense's own plugins, then indexed like any source. Each one is ready once SurfSense has read it.

Short links such as redd.it or vm.tiktok.com can't be added: open them and copy the full link. A source added from the web is not refreshed from its link later.