AI Assistant & Images
What the assistant does
Notara includes an AI assistant designed to help with thinking and drafting without taking control of your files.
Key capabilities include:
- Drafting notes, outlines, and summaries
- Brainstorming ideas and task breakdowns
- Proposing structured edits to notes with visual diffs
- Generating images for vision boards and notes
- Maintaining chat context during your active session
OpenAI configuration
Notara connects directly to OpenAI using your own API key. No third-party accounts or intermediate proxy servers are used.
To set up the assistant:
- Navigate to Settings in the main menu.
- Enter your OpenAI API key in the AI Configuration section.
- Select your desired text model and image generation model.
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Text model | gpt-4o-mini | Fast, high-quality responses for notes and task proposals. |
| Image model | dall-e-3 | Standard image generation model for vision boards. |
| API key | User provided | Stored locally in desktop application state. |
Interactive diff proposals
Notara enforces a strict user-review policy for all AI actions.
When the assistant offers to edit an existing note or generate a new one:
- The assistant produces a structured proposal rather than writing directly to disk.
- Notara displays a visual diff comparison showing additions and deletions.
- You can review the changes and choose Apply Changes or Dismiss.
- Your files are only modified after your explicit approval.
Image generation
You can request images directly in the assistant chat:
- Generated images render in the chat thread.
- Click Add to Vision Board to place the image onto an active board.
- Click Save Image to store the asset into your workspace
.notara/media/directory.
Privacy and security
- No telemetry or data logging: Your notes are never sent to external servers unless you explicitly ask the assistant to analyze them.
- Direct API communication: Desktop builds communicate directly with OpenAI's API endpoints using Tauri's native HTTP transport.
- Local storage: Conversation history is stored locally in your workspace.