> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://quester.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How Quester works

> Every surface of the workspace, written out: what it is for, what it will tell you, and what it deliberately will not do.

Every surface of the workspace, written out: what it is for, what it will tell you, and what it deliberately will not do. Start with the ten-minute move-in, follow a task, or open the explanation for the surface in front of you.

Each substantial surface in Quester also carries a **How this works** link that opens the relevant explanation without forcing a tour or interrupting your work.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Your first ten minutes" icon="timer" href="/manual/your-first-ten-minutes">
    The five-step move-in that turns an empty workspace into a project your advisor can actually read.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Getting around" icon="compass" href="/manual/getting-around">
    Learn the two altitudes, the five-item project spine, and the search that reaches everything.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Import your sources" icon="file-up" href="/how-to/import-sources">
    Move a reference-manager library, documents, or pasted references into a project and verify the result.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Understand processing" icon="list-checks" href="/reference/source-processing">
    Look up upload states, failure recovery, plan limits, and export behaviour.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## The project spine

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Overview" icon="layout-dashboard" href="/manual/overview">
    Where the project stands today and what deserves your attention next.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The Desk" icon="panels-top-left" href="/manual/desk-sources">
    Sources, notes, questions, models, and references: the materials and structures you build.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The Advisor" icon="messages-square" href="/manual/advisor">
    A reader that knows this project, presses on weak claims, and leaves the writing to you.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The Map" icon="map" href="/manual/map-overview">
    Seven analytical lenses over the literature: overview, composition, trends, themes, terms, connections, and venues.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The Journal" icon="notebook-tabs" href="/manual/journal">
    The durable record of what changed, what you decided, and how the work moved.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Project settings" icon="settings" href="/manual/project-settings">
    Designs, note sections, advisor presence, members, transfer, export, and removal.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Note>
  Quester takes a position: AI may read, retrieve, compare, question, and help you see the shape of the work. It does not write the scholarship for you.
</Note>

## Choose the surface in front of you

* Bring literature in through [Sources](/manual/desk-sources).
* Read and connect one record on [a source page](/manual/source-detail).
* Capture your own thinking in [Notes](/manual/desk-notes).
* Pressure-test what the project is asking in [Questions](/manual/desk-questions).
* Draw the structure of a claim in [Models](/manual/desk-models).
* Step back from the library in [the Map](/manual/map-overview).
* Talk through the project with [the Advisor](/manual/advisor).
* Recover the history of the work in [the Journal](/manual/journal).