Turn documents into understanding.
PDFs, audio, video, spreadsheets. Read and search them in one place, ask AI for an explanation, then follow every citation back to its source. WAKARU keeps your material on your Mac while you work.
Apple Silicon · macOS 12+ · MIT License · v1.6.1 release
Not just the answer. The evidence behind it.
Each citation leads back to the source and exact location. If no evidence is available, WAKARU says so.
From source to insight, without breaking the flow.
Importing, reading, searching, and working with AI stay in the same project. The original material and its citations remain at the centre.
- 01
Import without format anxiety
Bring in PDFs, Office files, spreadsheets, text, images, web pages, audio, and video. Originals remain untouched and organised by project.
- 02
Read and search in one place
Position-aware tabs, in-view search, and hybrid keyword plus semantic search reduce the friction of moving between sources.
- 03
Work with the citations in view
Read explanations in Live Illustrator and create outputs in Studio. Follow an answer back to its source whenever you need to verify it.
Document-centred guidance, even for smaller models.
Source text stays separate from AI instructions, while short fixed recipes and stable tool definitions carry work from evidence checking to a saved artifact.
- A viewer that remembers VIEWER
- Return to the same PDF page or slide. Enlarge or zoom the document, and close Live Illustrator to give its space back to reading.
- Drag-and-drop imports IMPORT
- Drop external files into Studio to copy them safely into the project and make them available in the source rail.
- Studio with visible tools STUDIO
- Inspect collapsible source reads, commands, and tool results. Save Markdown, TXT, Word, and PDF outputs atomically.
- Connected web search SEARCH
- Use configured SearXNG and Tavily MCP connections from Live Illustrator or Studio, kept distinct from document evidence.
- Major AI services, ready to connect AI
- Connect to Gemini, OpenRouter, Claude, GLM, Ollama, MLXBar, LM Studio, and compatible APIs. Connection checks generate a real reply with the selected model.
- A reading environment you can tune ACCESS
- Light, dark, and monochrome themes, 80–150% scaling, plus inversion and clarity controls for PDF, Word, and PowerPoint.
Your documents stay on your Mac.
No telemetry and no automatic document uploads. Network access happens only when you initiate an import, model download, or configured service connection.
- API keys are stored in the operating system credential store, not the app database or settings.
- Document text, prompts, and API keys are not written to application logs.
- Original files are never modified or deleted.
- Import, viewing, keyword search, and TXT export work without an AI connection.
Start with a document already on your Mac.
WAKARU v1.6.1 is a free download from GitHub Releases for people with access to the private repository. Developer ID signing and Apple notarisation are not yet complete, so on first launch you may need to right-click the app in Finder and choose “Open.”