PaperPal

PaperPal is an AI-powered web application designed to help users read, understand, and work with academic papers more efficiently.

Instead of reading an entire PDF manually, copying sections into separate translation or summarization tools, or searching for key ideas on your own, PaperPal lets you interact directly with the paper. You can open a PDF, ask questions based on its content, select text to translate, summarize, or explain, and use built-in analysis tools within a single focused workspace.

What Can PaperPal Help You Do?

• Read papers more easily: Upload a PDF and read it in a split workspace with the document viewer and chatbox side by side.
• Ask questions based on the paper: Ask questions directly about the paper, and the AI will respond based on the document content instead of giving generic answers.
• Translate selected text: Highlight text in the PDF and quickly translate it into Vietnamese, making it easier to read English academic papers.
• Summarize and explain complex sections: Select a difficult paragraph and ask the AI to summarize it or explain it in simpler terms.
• Analyze papers with quick tools: Use commands in the chatbox to generate summaries, extract insights, analyze equations, or support your study workflow.
• Stay focused in one workspace: The PDF viewer, chatbox, contextual actions, and paper tools are all integrated into a unified reading environment.

Key Highlights

PaperPal is designed for AI/ML learners, students, and beginners who are getting started with academic paper reading. The main goal is to help users understand papers faster, not just store PDF files.

Key features include:

• AI responses are guided by the content of the uploaded paper.
• Users can interact directly with selected text inside the PDF.
• The chatbox supports natural questions and quick commands using /.
• The interface is minimal, focused, and optimized for academic reading workflows.
• Vertex AI/Gemini is used to power the AI features in PaperPal.

Quick Start Guide

1. Upload a Paper

Open PaperPal, upload a PDF file, and launch it in the workspace to start reading and interacting with the paper.

2. Chat With the Paper

In the chatbox, you can ask questions such as:

What problem does this paper solve?
What is the main method proposed in this paper?
What is the key contribution compared to previous work?
What are the limitations of this approach?

The AI will prioritize answers based on the content of the currently opened paper.

3. Use Contextual Actions on Selected Text

While reading the PDF, highlight a section of text to open contextual actions such as:

• Translate: Translate the selected text.
• Summary: Summarize the selected section.
• Explain: Explain the selected section in a simpler and more understandable way.
• Ask about this: Continue asking questions about the selected text in the chatbox.

If the chatbox is collapsed, PaperPal will automatically open it to display the result.

4. Use Slash Tools in the Chatbox

Type / in the chat input to open quick tools. These tools help you analyze and work with the paper faster without writing long prompts manually.

For example, slash tools can help you:

• summarize the paper,
• extract key insights,
• analyze equations or mathematical expressions,
• generate study notes,
• understand a specific section of the paper.

Run the Project Locally

Install dependencies:

npm install

Create a .env.local file based on your Vertex AI/Gemini configuration.

Start the development server:

npm run dev

Open the app in your browser at:

http://localhost:3000

Notes

PaperPal currently focuses on improving the experience of reading and understanding AI/ML papers. Features such as a redesigned paper library, better paper management, search and filtering, and further UI optimization will be developed in future phases.