Prerequisites
- A Paperplane workspace with at least one uploaded or imported document.
- The document has finished processing. A document usually becomes searchable a short time after upload or import — see Indexing, availability, and plan limits.
- AI archive questions left in your monthly allowance. Every user has a monthly allowance that depends on the workspace’s plan — see pricing.
Steps
- Open your archive and select Ask archive in the toolbar, or press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac). You can also press Shift twice to open quick search and switch to the AI search tab.
- Type your question in plain language, the way you’d ask a colleague. Mention the document or topic if you already know it, for example: “What does the lease say about the notice period?”
- Send the question.
- Read the answer. Below it, numbered source references such as [1] name each document the answer was drawn from; in the Ask archive window they also show the page or pages.
- Open a source reference to check the underlying passage yourself — see Read and open source references.
- If the answer isn’t quite right, ask a follow-up question in the same conversation or rephrase — see Write effective archive questions.
Expected result
You get an answer drawn from your own documents, together with one or more source references you can open and check. If the archive doesn’t contain enough relevant material, Paperplane is designed to tell you that directly rather than guess — this is expected, intentional behavior, not an error.
Common problems
- The answer says there’s no evidence. This is by design: Paperplane would rather say so than invent an answer. Try rephrasing your question, or confirm the document was actually uploaded or imported — see Write effective archive questions.
- I asked for a total or a count across the whole archive. Archive search answers questions about specific content, not exhaustive counts across your entire archive. See Indexing, availability, and plan limits.
- I just uploaded a document and it isn’t found yet. Processing takes a short time after upload or import. Try again shortly.
- I’ve run out of AI archive questions this month. Each user has a monthly allowance that depends on the workspace’s plan; it resets at the start of each calendar month. Check pricing for the allowance on each plan.