Lightkone Lightkone documentation
Lightkone is a reference manager for research papers that runs in your browser. Your papers, PDFs, highlights and notes live as plain files in storage you choose, and Claude can help you read, search and cite them with your own key.
Start here
- Getting started: the first ten minutes.
- Set up with AI: let Claude or another assistant set up your storage, check it in the app, and give assistants the real docs.
- Moving from Paperpile: bring your library, folders, labels and PDFs over.
- Where your library lives: this browser, Cloudflare R2, AWS S3, MinIO, or a private GitHub repository, set up step by step.
Using Lightkone
- Reading and highlighting: the PDF reader, highlights, notes, Explain, and export to Obsidian.
- Finding papers: search and its filters, full text, equations, chats with Claude (Ask, comparing papers, organizing chats), New on arXiv and the citation map.
- Writing with your library: citations in any journal style, LaTeX and Overleaf, citations for a whole draft, a .bib for a manuscript.
- Sharing and devices: several devices, shared libraries, the phone app.
- Claude and other AI apps (MCP): use your library from Claude, Claude Code or any MCP app.
- The command line: the
lightkonecommand and Python package, on the same files as the app. - Your data: what is processed where, and what leaves your browser.
- Questions and fixes: common questions, and what to do when something goes wrong.
Running your own
- Hosting: deploy Lightkone for yourself or a team.
- Releasing: staging, version tags, and checking a site runs a release's exact code.
- Plugins: add storage, lookups, importers and actions.
- Architecture: how it fits together.
Inside the app, the round ? button at the top (or the ? key) opens Help, with a short guide and a way to replay the welcome tour.
For AI assistants, the whole documentation is one text file at
/llms-full.txt, with a map at /llms.txt.