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How to install Discovery Engine, read a case, find the evidence, keep names private, work with your AI agent and hand the attorney something useful.
Getting started
- IntroductionWhat Discovery Engine is, what it does with your case files, and how the pieces fit together.
- System requirementsThe computers Discovery Engine runs on, how much disk space and memory it needs, and when it needs the internet.
- Installing on MacInstall Discovery Engine from the disk image, get past the first-launch macOS warning, and know where everything ends up.
- Installing on WindowsRun the Windows installer, get past SmartScreen, and know where the app, its data and the command-line tool live.
- First launch and setupThe four setup steps the app walks you through the first time, and a fictional sample case to practice on.
Reading your case
- Creating a caseWhat a case is, which kinds of files the app reads, and how to create a case and start reading it.
- Adding files and foldersAdd a new production or a few stray files to an existing case, pick up changes with Rescan folder, and see where a case's files are.
- Progress and the reading estimateFollow the app as it reads a case, understand the stages and the time estimate, measure your computer's speed, and deal with files that failed.
- Documents and the document viewerBrowse every document in the case, open one at the exact page or moment, read recordings beside their transcripts, and find the original file.
Finding evidence
- SearchSearch every file in the case by exact words or by meaning, narrow the results with filters, and open each result at its citation.
- Citations, IDs and Bates numbersHow to read a citation like DOC-0417 p.2 or VID-0012 08:41, how documents, pages and Bates numbers relate, and why every claim should carry one.
- People and mergesJoin the different spellings of the same person or organization into one, review the app's suggested merges, merge by hand, and undo a merge.
- GraphSee the case's main people, organizations and accounts as a picture or a list, open each one's card, and jump to how two of them connect.
- ConnectionsPick the people and events that matter, see an estimate first, find every place each pair meets across the case, check the evidence, hand it to your AI agent, and export a spreadsheet.
Privacy & stand-ins
- Stand-ins and what the AI seesHow the app detects personal details and gives them stand-ins like PERSON A, how the Show stand-ins switch works, and exactly what your AI agent sees in this version.
- Agent access and privacyWhat an AI agent can and cannot do with your case, how to switch agent access on and off, the agent privacy block, and the habits that keep case data safe.
Working with your AI agent
- The Start Up screenThe checklist that gets your AI agent ready - install the command-line tool, choose the agent's folders, write the guide files and copy the prompt.
- Using ChatGPT desktop or Claude desktopConnect ChatGPT desktop or Claude desktop to your case, send the first prompt, and ask questions that work well across thousands of files.
- Agent logWatch every command your AI agent runs against your cases, live, with the kind of answer each one got.
Deliverables
- HighlightsWrite the case's issue list, have your AI agent propose passages to highlight, and approve or reject them one at a time or a document at a time.
- ExportsProduce yellow-highlighted PDF copies and an exhibit index for the attorney, with real names or sanitized, without ever touching the original files.
Managing cases
- All casesSee every case on this computer with its size, open or create cases, switch between them, and fix a case whose folder has moved.
- Moving a case to another computerExport a case to a single .decase file, carry it with your original documents to another Mac or Windows PC, and import it there without reading everything again.
- SettingsEvery setting in the app - this case's folder and agent access, appearance, disk encryption, reading models, the command-line tool, the activity log, the system check and starting over.
Guides
Reference
- Command-line referenceEvery discovery command and its options, the JSON output, exit codes and citation formats - for the curious, for power users, and for checking what your agent ran.
- Where your data livesEvery folder Discovery Engine reads from or writes to on Mac and Windows, what each holds, and which ones must never be given to an AI agent.
- GlossaryPlain-language definitions of the terms used in Discovery Engine and in these docs.
Help
- TroubleshootingFixes for installation warnings, an engine that won't start, slow or stuck reading, agent connection problems, failed files and exports, plus where the logs are and how to run discovery doctor.
- Frequently asked questionsShort answers to the questions people ask most about privacy, AI agents, speed, file types, exports and moving cases.