Documentation

Guides, references, and walkthroughs for Return - local-first AI document workbench.

Getting Started

First steps with Return

Welcome to Return What is Return and why it exists
Quick Start Get up and running in 5 minutes
Interface Overview A quick tour of the Return interface
Importing PDF and Word Files What Convert to Markdown does, what happens to your original, and what to check afterwards
Getting Help and Reporting a Problem Where the Support form is, what it sends, how to add and black out a screenshot, and what happens after you press Send

Editor

Writing, formatting, and navigating documents

Placeholders Template documents with fill-in fields and generate new files with values applied
Formulas Live calculations in your documents - define values once, reference them anywhere, results update as you type
Charts and code blocks Draw pie, bar, line, timeline and flow charts from plain text, and keep code samples exactly as written
Links to headings and table of contents Link to a heading in this document or another one, and insert a table of contents that is plain markdown
Document Templates Keep your reusable documents and playbooks in one library, start new documents from them, and fill a whole series from a table

AI

AI chat, providers, and analysis

AI in Return How AI features work together - providers, search, Returns, and chains
Search Find documents by exact text or by meaning
AI Providers Choose between local and cloud AI
Local AI (Built-in Engine) Run AI entirely on your computer with Return's built-in engine
Composing Returns Combine Returns into chains so one Quick Action runs several LLM passes in sequence
AI Action Turn a flagged fragment into a fix - three AI rewrites you pick from, applied in one step.
Playbook Check Check a contract against your own playbook, position by position, with a verbatim quote behind every verdict.
System Prompts View and customize the prompts behind Return's AI features
Personalization Set personal instructions the AI follows in every chat

Reference

Quick reference tables and cheat sheets

Keyboard Shortcuts Complete list of keyboard shortcuts

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