Get cited answers: Chat vs Query mode
Make every answer show its sources, and pick the right chat mode
The feature that separates AnythingLLM from a plain chatbot is in-chat citations: when it answers from your documents, you can open 'Show Citations' to see exactly which uploaded files the answer was drawn from. It also offers two chat modes per workspace. Chat mode blends the model's general knowledge with your documents; Query mode answers strictly from your documents and says so when it can't. For research, knowing which mode you are in — and being able to trace a claim back to a source — is the whole point.
- 1 Open the workspace you built in lesson 00 and ask a factual question that your documents actually answer, e.g.
What sample size did each study use? - 2 Open 'Show Citations' under the assistant's reply. You will see the source documents the answer came from — confirm the claim is actually in the cited file before you trust it.
- 3 Switch the workspace to query mode (in the workspace's chat settings). Ask something your documents do NOT cover — query mode should tell you it has no relevant context rather than inventing an answer.
- 4 Switch to Chat mode and ask the same off-topic question. Notice it now answers from the model's general knowledge — useful, but no longer grounded in your sources.
- 5 Decide a default for your work: Query mode when you need answers you can cite; Chat mode when you want a brainstorming partner that also knows your documents.
You opened citations on a real answer and saw the source file, and you can state the difference between Chat and Query mode in one sentence.
Catch one hallucination by checking a citation
Citations are only protective if you actually open them. The habit to build is: read the claim, open the source, confirm it is really there.
Ask a precise, checkable question of your workspace, open the citation, and verify the cited document really supports the answer — then write down what you found.
- 1 Ask a question with a specific, checkable answer (a number, a method name, a definition) that should be in your documents.
- 2 Open 'Show Citations' and go to the cited source.
- 3 Confirm the exact claim appears there — or note if the answer drifted beyond what the source says.
- 4 Write one sentence: did the citation back the claim, and did Query mode behave more strictly than Chat mode?
A one-sentence note recording whether the citation supported the answer, and which chat mode you will default to.