Using Document Summarization

Document Summarization turns long, confidential documents into a clean summary in the format you actually need — bullets for a quick skim, an executive brief for a cover memo, or a detailed write-up. Everything runs on-device, so even sensitive source material like earnings drafts, M&A memos, or patient notes never leaves your machine.

It also handles documents far longer than the model’s context window automatically, and can summarize a whole folder of files in one run.

When to use it

• An executive briefing — condense a 100-page strategy document into a one-page cover memo for a leadership meeting.
• A research digest — point it at a folder of 30 PDFs received that morning and skim all of them in a few minutes.
• An investor update — summarize the latest earnings draft as a starting point for a one-pager.
• Meeting follow-ups — summarize a transcript produced by Meeting Notes into a short recap to send to attendees.

How to use it

1. From the Home view, open the Summarize card (or launch it from the Workflows view).
2. Drag in one or more documents, or use the file picker. Supported formats: PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD, HTML, CSV, XLSX.
3. Pick a summary style (see below).
4. Optionally turn on export and choose a format — PDF, DOCX, or TXT — and a destination folder.
5. Run it. The summary streams into the chat view, and if you enabled export, a notification links you to the saved file when it’s done.

Summary styles

• Bullets — a structured list of the key points. Best for a fast skim. (This is the default.)
• Executive — a short, multi-paragraph narrative suitable as a briefing or cover memo.
• Detailed — a fuller summary that retains more of the source’s structure and supporting detail.

Long documents

If a document is longer than the model’s context window, you’ll see progress like summarizing chunk i / N. That’s normal: Tholos AI splits the document, summarizes each part, then combines the results (a “map-reduce” summary) so you never have to split the file by hand. For more on context limits, see Working with long documents.

Summarizing many files at once

To process a whole set of documents unattended, stage them in the Batch Process view with Summarize as the workflow. You’ll get one summary file per input — a half-day of skimming reduced to a few minutes of wall-clock time.

Checking the result

• Open the exported file and confirm it’s formatted the way you expected — bullets vs. paragraphs vs. a detailed write-up.
• Spot-check accuracy: pick a key point from the summary and find it in the source. The gist should match.
• For long documents, confirm the summary reflects content from across the whole file, not just the opening pages.
• The Fully Offline badge stays on throughout — nothing is uploaded.