Research and research notes

Canto can look things up for you at two depths. A chat with the web on searches when it needs to and cites what it read. Research instead goes further: it plans the question, reads your notes and the web, and writes a cited report you can save as a research note with an evidence ledger.

Web answers in a chat#

Turn on Search the web in the composer's Sources menu. For that chat, Canto may search on any message and decides when to. Answers cite web sources as [W1], [W2] and so on; point at one to see its source.

Web answers are free. Searches leave your Mac: the search words go to the search services set up in Settings › Assistant › Web search, and pages are read from their own sites. While the web is on, the Sources chip shows a globe. Turning Settings › Memory & privacy › What leaves this Mac › Web search off stops every search, and links you paste into a chat aren't opened either.

Under a long web answer, Make a research report and Suggest follow-ups are one click away.

Research instead#

Research instead (⌘↩, or in Sources) makes one message a research run: a planned, cited report for that message. The chat stays as it is, and the web isn't turned on for the rest of the chat. While it's armed, a research flag sits in the composer and the main button says Research.

Click the flag to set the run's options:

A research run is deep research: part of Pro, and each Mac gets three free tries. A try is spent when the run starts.

While research runs, the line under the answer says what Canto is doing and how far it got. Stop ends it; a run you stopped can still be saved.

The research card#

A finished research answer ends in one card:

• how many sources Canto read,
• how many claims still need a source,
• Save as research note, with Brief (one page) and Comparison table on its arrow,
• suggested follow-ups as chips.

A follow-up chip puts its question in the message field, like any question you type; edit it or send it. Once sent, it leaves the card, and the saved note includes what it found. More… suggests new follow-ups.

The card's ⋯ menu has Continue in a fresh chat. It keeps the research's sources and opens where the chat is. When the chat's memory is about 80% full, it shows as a button on the card.

Saving a research note#

Save as research note writes the report as a note with a cover, numbered citations, References and an evidence ledger. The note opens as soon as it's saved, and the card becomes the note: its title, how long the save took, the ledger as it builds, and Open.

• In your language. The note is written in the chat's language, headings, References and Evidence included. "Write the report in Korean" applies to the research and the note.
• Figures where they help. After the note is written, Canto asks the model, section by section (up to five), whether a figure would help: a row of key numbers, a timeline, a scorecard and so on. It keeps a figure only when every number in it appears in that section or its sources. The save says "Adding figures · 2 of 5" while it works. Turn it off in Settings › Assistant › Research › Add figures to research notes; in Small Mac mode it's off for models on your Mac.
• One at a time. A save in progress can be cancelled from its card, and deleting the chat stops it. Either way, no half-made note is left.
• No second try spent. Saving a research answer from its card doesn't use another free try, and a run you stopped can still be saved as a research note from Save as note › As a research note, free.

You can also save any well-sourced answer as a research note from its Save as note menu. Outside a research run, that's deep research: Pro, or a free try.

Settings for how a note follows the research are in Settings › Assistant › Research: keep the language you wrote in, ask before saving, check that key ideas survive, hedge weak claims, rate each source, separate evidence from reasoning, no diagnoses on health topics, and say what changed. All are on by default. Citation style (Numbered [1], Author (p. 2) or Footnotes) is in Settings › Writing › Citations.

The evidence ledger#

The evidence ledger lists each claim in the note with what supports it and what argues against it. Canto builds it in the background after the note is saved, with progress under the note's title ("Building the evidence ledger"). You can keep working.

The ledger keeps up with the note. After Ask edits a research note, Canto checks the new sources and updates the ledger for only the sections that changed, on the chat's model. If that model isn't available, the header says the ledger is behind and offers Update.

The inspector's Context › Evidence shows the ledger in brief.

Note health#

A warning triangle beside a research note's title opens Note health, which collects everything that needs a look:

• A ledger that couldn't be built, with what the model did (it kept thinking, was cut off, answered in the wrong format, found no claims, or couldn't be reached) and Build again, which says which model runs and whether it leaves your Mac.
• Claims with weak support: unsupported, contradicted or low-confidence.
• Citation markers that match no source. Canto never deletes them; each has Show in note.

Refresh references (in Note health, the note's ⋯ menu and the References panel) turns citation markers already in the note into linked citations, from every source the note's chats found.

Updating a research note#

Update runs the research again with what's new and keeps the earlier version. Updating is deep research too: Pro, or a free try.

Related pages#

• Ask about your notes: the composer, Sources and citations.
• Let Ask edit: edits with review, and citations in edits.
• Figures, charts and tables: the ten figure kinds and how Canto checks their numbers.
• Free and Pro: free tries and what Pro includes.