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Notomo

Web Search and Web Page Reading

Assistant can search for current information and read public web pages you provide directly in a message. Search behavior, cost, and the content sent to third parties depend on the selected mode and backend.

Choose a search mode

Section titled “Choose a search mode”

Open the Web Search menu in Assistant’s input field and choose:

  • Off: Do not search the web for this turn.
  • Auto: Let the current model decide whether the question requires current or external information.
  • Search: Explicitly require a web search for this turn.

Auto works well for everyday questions. Use Search when you need to verify news, prices, versions, release dates, or other time-sensitive information. During a search, Assistant shows queries, progress, and sources. Open source pages afterward to verify the content.

Section titled “Native Search and Extension Search”

There are two search backends:

  • Native Search: Uses the selected AI provider’s search tool. Search runs within the same request flow, uses the context already sent to that provider for this turn, and may incur additional charges.
  • Extension Search: Notomo retrieves results through Brave Search or Jina Search before passing them to the model. The search service receives only the cleaned current question, not note content or chat history.

Choose the default backend under Notomo → Settings → AI → Extensions. Not every model supports Native Search. When it is unavailable, Notomo attempts to use a configured Extension Search.

Section titled “Configure Extension Search”
  1. Open Notomo → Settings → AI → Extensions.
  2. Under Search Provider, choose Brave or Jina.
  3. Enter the corresponding API Key.
  4. Click the test button to confirm the connection.
  5. Return to Assistant and select Extension Search from the Web Search menu.

Setting Search Provider to None disables external search. Test or remove stored credentials on the same settings page. Credentials are stored in the macOS Keychain.

If an external search fails in Auto mode, Assistant indicates the fallback and tries to answer without search results. If it fails in Search mode, Assistant shows an error instead, so an offline answer is not mistaken for search results.

Read web pages from messages

Section titled “Read web pages from messages”

Paste a complete http:// or https:// URL into a message. Assistant attempts to read the page before answering. Each message can read up to 3 public pages, using up to about 20,000 characters from each page.

Under Extensions → Fetch Provider, choose:

  • Built-in: Notomo reads public pages directly.
  • Jina Reader: Jina Reader extracts page content. The API Key is optional; without one, it uses Jina’s public quota.

For safety, Notomo does not read local, LAN, or other private network addresses. It also ignores URLs that clearly point to images, audio, video, archives, or installers rather than web pages. If no links can be read, Assistant still answers from the message text and shows that page reading failed.