Five Tools for Authors with External Model Integration

The author, an editor, advocates for a balanced approach to using AI in writing. She selects five tools that pass working context from sources, documents, or manuscripts to external AI models: Zotero with the AIdea plugin, Obsidian with Copilot, Cherry Studio, ONLYOFFICE with an AI plugin, and SillyTavern. Zotero with AIdea helps parse PDFs and save model answers linked to the original publication, while Obsidian with Copilot searches personal notes using a vault QA mode. Cherry Studio aggregates cloud and local models in one app, enabling users to compare responses and create custom assistants. ONLYOFFICE integrates AI directly into a text editor for rewriting, translating, and summarizing. SillyTavern allows writers to test character dialogues by providing a local shell where each character has a card and a world book, ensuring distinct voices. The author notes that these tools require API keys or local models and advises caution with confidential materials.