# Bower Help Centre

## Docs

- [Bird: your AI assistant](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/ai-and-search/bird-ai-assistant.md): Ask Bird anything about your workspace — search, summarise, compare, create, and organise.
- [Hybrid semantic search](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/ai-and-search/hybrid-search.md): Find anything in your workspace — even if you don't remember the exact words you used.
- [Live agent mode](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/ai-and-search/live-agent-mode.md): A real-time voice and video conversation with Bird, on mobile or desktop.
- [Personal preferences](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/ai-and-search/personal-preferences.md): Tell Bird about you once — your role, expertise, and how you like to be helped — and every conversation starts calibrated.
- [Workspace instructions](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/ai-and-search/workspace-instructions.md): Standing instructions for Bird that apply to every conversation in this workspace — organisational policies, compliance expectations, vocabulary, and team conventions.
- [AI-generated titles](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/capture/ai-titles.md): How Bower automatically names your notes — and when it doesn't.
- [Image Annotations & Diagrams](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/capture/annotations-and-diagrams.md): Draw on images and create diagrams with arrows, shapes, text, and freehand marks.
- [Batch import](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/capture/batch-import.md): Upload multiple files at once. Bower processes each one with the right model and turns them into searchable, editable notes.
- [The note editor](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/capture/editor.md): Rich text editing with slash commands, formatting, tables, math equations, callouts, and more.
- [Keyboard shortcuts](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/capture/keyboard-shortcuts.md): Navigate and edit faster with keyboard shortcuts.
- [Mobile capture](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/capture/mobile-capture.md): Voice transcription and photo text extraction — capture by speaking or pointing your camera.
- [Version history](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/capture/version-history.md): Automatic snapshots of every note, previewed side-by-side with one-click restore.
- [Bird arrives](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-02-06-bird-launches.md): A multi-agent AI lab partner with text chat, real-time voice and video conversation, and inline citations grounded in your workspace.
- [Semantic search across your workspace](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-02-08-semantic-search.md): Bird and global search now retrieve by meaning, not just keyword — backed by a vector store and an agentic RAG pipeline.
- [Voice transcription upgrade](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-02-08-voice-transcription-chirp3.md): Speech-to-text moves to Chirp 3, with markedly better punctuation, formatting, and recognition of scientific vocabulary.
- ["Project" is now "Collection"](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-02-23-project-to-collection.md): We've renamed Bower's grouping artifact from Project to Collection across the UI, URLs, and API.
- [Cmd+K opens everything](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-02-26-command-palette.md): A unified command palette for global search, navigation, and quick actions — one shortcut, every shortcut.
- [A new look for Bower](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-08-brand-refresh.md): Refreshed logo, colour palette, and typography — DM Sans for body, Playfair Display for headings.
- [Better attachment viewing](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-12-better-attachment-viewing.md): Split-view for comparing OCR notes with their source attachment, DOCX preview, and a proper photo lightbox.
- [Bower names your work for you](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-13-ai-titles-and-descriptions.md): Auto-generated titles for notes and descriptions for attachments — so you don't stop mid-capture to think of a name.
- [Drop a folder, Bower handles it](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-13-async-batch-import.md): Batch import runs in the background via Cloud Tasks — upload dozens of files and keep working while Bower processes each one.
- [Bird flags low-confidence captures](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-13-proactive-confidence-flags.md): After a voice note or photo OCR, Bird quietly checks the result and surfaces a notification if confidence was low — so quiet errors stop slipping through.
- [Protocols become a first-class artifact](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-15-protocols.md): A dedicated artifact type for documented lab procedures, separate from notes, with its own library and a knowledge-graph relationship to the experiments that run it.
- [Link any artifact to any other](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-16-linked-entities.md): Explicit cross-references between notes, protocols, collections, and attachments — so related work stays connected.
- [Bower on your phone](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-17-mobile-workspace.md): A full mobile workspace with responsive routes, infinite-scroll search, and capture-first home screen.
- [Bower decides: note or attachment?](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-20-smart-notes-vs-attachments.md): When you import a file, Bower picks the right artifact type for you — voice and Word documents become notes, images become notes if their text is clear, PDFs stay as PDFs but their text becomes searchable.
- [Sharper OCR for scientific text](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-21-sharper-ocr.md): Photo-to-text extraction now runs on Gemini 2.5/3 Pro with a scientific-lab prompt, dramatically improving accuracy on lab notebooks, gels, and instrument readouts.
- [A proper Help Centre](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-22-help-centre.md): docs.bowerlabs.ai launches as Bower's Help Centre — searchable guides for capture, AI, organisation, workspaces, and the Trust Centre.
- [Talk to Bird hands-free](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-22-wake-word-standby.md): Wake-word standby in Live Mode — open Live, set the phone down, and call Bird by voice when you need it.
- [Share an artifact via a public link](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-25-public-share-links.md): Generate a read-only public link for any note, attachment, or collection — recipient doesn't need a Bower account.
- [An onboarding checklist that actually helps](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-27-onboarding-checklist.md): A guided first-time setup, with progress shown in the sidebar, that tracks the steps that matter most for getting value from Bower.
- [Bird on mobile, Bird on glasses](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-03-31-bird-on-mobile-and-glasses.md): A dedicated Bird page for mobile and Live Mode support for Ray-Ban Meta glasses, including high-resolution photo capture.
- [HIPAA and GDPR controls](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-02-compliance-and-privacy-controls.md): PHI guard middleware with a workspace toggle, GDPR consent and data export, account deletion, retention controls, and a public sub-processors list.
- [Bird searches the web — with citations](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-03-bird-web-search.md): Bird now reaches outside your workspace when needed and brings back inline citations to the original sources.
- [Merge two notes into one](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-06-merge-notes.md): Combine duplicate or related notes — content, attachments, tags, and links carry across to the merged result.
- [Trash and one-click restore](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-08-trash-and-restore.md): Deletes are now soft-deletes, recoverable from the trash for 30 days. Bulk restore, undo toasts, and a scheduled purge keep things tidy.
- [Dictate your questions to Bird](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-10-voice-dictation.md): Voice dictation in the Bird Chat input — speak your prompt instead of typing it, especially handy on mobile.
- [Image annotations + diagrams](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-12-annotations-and-diagrams.md): A built-in drawing editor (powered by Excalidraw) lets you annotate any image and build diagrams from scratch.
- [Editor power-ups — equations, toggles, table of contents](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-12-editor-power-ups.md): Three additions to the note editor: LaTeX/KaTeX equations, collapsible toggles, and a table-of-contents sidebar that builds itself from your headings.
- [Hybrid search is now always on](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-17-always-on-semantic-search.md): Global search blends keyword matching and semantic similarity by default — no toggle, no second query.
- [UI refresh — softer surfaces, sharper details](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-19-ui-refresh.md): A pass over Bower's interface: modern theme primitives, segmented controls, cleaner card previews, per-user avatar colours, and a refreshed data table.
- [Audit log redesigned as a timeline](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-20-audit-log-timeline.md): A clean activity timeline with multi-select filters, search, login deduplication, and richer event details — see exactly who did what, when.
- [Bird draws charts inline](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-24-inline-charts.md): When a question is better answered with a visual, Bird renders bar, line, and scatter plots directly in the chat — axes and units pulled from the source data.
- [Drop a spreadsheet, ask Bird](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-24-spreadsheets-in-bird.md): Bird now reads CSVs and Excel files natively — summarises what's in them, compares across files, and answers questions about the data.
- [Every save, recoverable — note version history](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-24-version-history.md): Side-by-side diff viewer + one-click restore on every note. Every meaningful save creates a recoverable version.
- [Bird remembers — Personal preferences + Workspace instructions](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-25-bird-memory.md): Two editable documents inject into every Bird conversation: Personal preferences (just for you) and Workspace instructions (shared with your team).
- [Bird connects your notes for you](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-26-inferred-relationships.md): Bird now infers relationships between your notes, protocols, and attachments — and surfaces them as inline link chips you can click.
- [Permissions on every note and collection](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-27-granular-permissions.md): Three privacy modes per note and per collection — Anyone in the workspace, Only specific people, or Just you. Per-person View, Edit, or Manage grants. Parent inheritance and a compliance toggle baked in.
- [Workspace roles: Owner, Admin, Member, Viewer](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-04-30-workspace-roles.md): Four workspace roles with a clean separation of duties — billing for Owner, member management for Admin, day-to-day work for Member, read-only for Viewer.
- [Connectors: let Bird search the tools your lab already uses](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-05-04-connectors-platform.md): A connectors framework so Bird can do federated search across Drive, Notion, Slack, Linear, GitHub, and more — without copying anything into your knowledge base until you ask.
- [Live video recording in live mode](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-05-06-live-video-recording.md): Ask Bird to record a video clip during a live session — say 'record this' and Bird captures a 2-minute audio + video clip straight to your workspace attachments.
- [ORCID iD on your profile + OpenAlex DOI lookup](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-05-07-orcid-and-openalex.md): Save your ORCID iD once and Bird knows your publications. Drop a DOI and Bird fetches the full record from OpenAlex. Both work in chat and in live mode.
- [Knowledge graph visualizer](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-05-09-knowledge-graph.md): See your entire workspace as a force-directed graph — every note, protocol, attachment, and the relationships between them — with permission filtering, light and dark mode, and an opt-in 3D view.
- [Bird now reads across eight open scientific sources](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/2026-05-12-research-integrations.md): Bird now searches OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, Crossref, Unpaywall, arXiv, Europe PMC, ORCID, and the open web — and can walk the citation graph for any seed paper.
- [Changelog](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/changelog/index.md): What's new in Bower — the features and capabilities we've shipped, in the order we shipped them.
- [Add Bower to your home screen](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/getting-started/install-pwa.md): Install Bower as an app on your phone or tablet for quick access from your home screen.
- [Bower Help Centre](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/index.md): Everything you need to get from first capture to power user.
- [Connectors](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/integrations/connectors.md): Bird connects to 22 sources out of the box — 8 always-on scholarly indexes plus 14 of the tools your lab already uses. Federated search by default; nothing lands in your knowledge base until you save it.
- [Collections](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/organisation/collections.md): Group related artifacts by sample batch, experiment, project, or whatever structure matches how you work.
- [Exporting notes](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/organisation/export.md): Export your notes as PDF, Markdown, HTML, or plain text.
- [Linked entities](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/organisation/linked-entities.md): Cross-reference notes, protocols, and collections to build connections across your workspace.
- [Artifacts](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/organisation/notes-vs-attachments.md): Understand the different artifact types in Bower — notes, attachments, and protocols.
- [Organising your workspace](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/organisation/organising-workspace.md): Drag-and-drop, bulk actions, and the ⋮ menu — everything you need to keep your workspace tidy.
- [Protocols](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/organisation/protocols.md): Create and manage step-by-step lab procedures as a distinct resource type.
- [Sharing notes and collections](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/organisation/sharing-artifacts.md): Choose who can read what — from a default-public workspace to a strictly creator-only private page — all from one dialog.
- [Tags](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/organisation/tags.md): Add tags to notes and collections for flexible, cross-cutting organisation.
- [Getting started](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/quickstart.md): Get up and running with Bower in under five minutes.
- [Audit logs](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/trust-centre/audit-logs.md): Track every change in your workspace — who did what, when, and to which entity.
- [Cookies](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/trust-centre/cookies.md): What cookies Bower uses, why, and how to control them.
- [Data privacy](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/trust-centre/data-privacy.md): How Bower protects your research data — encryption, isolation, and access controls.
- [HIPAA compliance mode](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/trust-centre/hipaa-compliance.md): How to enable PHI mode for workspaces that handle protected health information.
- [Trust Centre](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/trust-centre/index.md): Security, privacy, and compliance at Bower. Your research data is protected at every layer.
- [Password and security](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/trust-centre/password-and-security.md): Change your password, manage sign-in methods, and secure your account.
- [Privacy Policy](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/trust-centre/privacy-policy.md): How Bower collects, uses, stores, and protects your personal data.
- [Sub-processors](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/trust-centre/sub-processors.md): Third-party services that process data on behalf of Bower.
- [Terms of Service](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/trust-centre/terms-of-service.md): Terms governing your use of the Bower platform.
- [Plans & billing](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/workspaces-and-account/billing.md): Manage your workspace subscription, upgrade your plan, and update payment methods.
- [Workspaces in Bower](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/workspaces-and-account/create-workspace.md): How your first workspace is created, what a workspace is, and how to get another one.
- [Dark mode](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/workspaces-and-account/dark-mode.md): Switch between light and dark themes.
- [Leaving feedback](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/workspaces-and-account/feedback.md): How to share feedback with the Bower team — from bug reports to feature requests.
- [Invite team members](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/workspaces-and-account/invite-team-members.md): Add paid members or free guests to your workspace — Bower hands you a link, you share it however you like.
- [Manage your account](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/workspaces-and-account/manage-account.md): Profile, privacy controls, data export, and account settings.
- [Workspace permissions overview](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/workspaces-and-account/permissions-overview.md): How Bower decides who can read, edit, and manage what — workspace roles, per-entity privacy, and how they fit together.
- [Switch workspaces](https://docs.bowerlabs.ai/workspaces-and-account/switch-workspaces.md): Move between workspaces. Each one is fully isolated.

## Optional

- [Bower App](https://app.bowerlabs.ai)