Quickstart

Folio is a PDF reader with chatgpt.com in a side panel. You need macOS 26 or later and a ChatGPT account. What you can attach and send depends on your ChatGPT plan.

Install Folio#

Download Folio-<version>.dmg from GitHub Releases, open it, and drag Folio into Applications. Releases are signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

To build it yourself, follow Build from source.

Add some PDFs#

Folio opens to your library, a folder at ~/Documents/Folio. Drop PDFs onto the window, or choose File › Import PDFs… (⇧⌘I). Imported files are copied into the library; the originals stay where they were.

To read a PDF without importing it, use File › Open… (⌘O).

Open the chat panel#

Open a PDF and choose View › Show Chat (⇧⌘L), or click the panel button at the right of the toolbar. The first time, Folio offers to reuse the ChatGPT sign-in from a browser you already use, or you can sign in on chatgpt.com directly. See Sign in to ChatGPT.

Ask your first question#

Select a sentence or paragraph and press ⌘L, or right-click it and choose Ask ChatGPT. The passage appears as a chip above the message box. Type your question and press Return.

New chats offer to attach the open PDF with an Attach button, so ChatGPT can read the rest of the document. Nothing is uploaded until you choose to. See Chats and attachments.

Come back later#

The page now has a question bubble in its margin. Click it and choose Show in Chat to return to that conversation. See Question bubbles.