Summaries with citations in Theca
Updated on August 5, 2026

A Theca summary is not text generated in a vacuum: every premise carries a bracketed marker that takes you directly to the book passage it came from. If the model gets something wrong, you can check in seconds.
What makes a Theca summary different
When you ask a generic chat for a summary, the result has no verifiable sources. In Theca, the summary is built from real fragments of your books: every claim cites the source book and page number. You can click any citation and the reader takes you to the exact paragraph.
How to create a summary
- Open theca.noxdragon.com and go to the Summaries section in the sidebar.
- Click New summary. A two-step modal opens.
- Step 1 — Content:
- Under Books included, choose one or more books from your library. The summary will only cite those books.
- In the mode selector, pick AI builds the table of contents (type a topic and AI generates the structure) or I already have a table of contents (write or paste your own structure, or upload a .txt, .md, .docx, or .pdf file).
- If you chose AI mode, type the topic in the Topic field and click Create table of contents.
- Step 2 — Review the table of contents: AI presents the proposed outline. You can edit, reorder, or delete entries before continuing. Give the summary a name in the Summary name field.
- Click Generate summary. Theca processes each section of the outline and fills in the content with citations.
The summary is generated section by section. If you close the screen and come back, progress is preserved.
Where to view the summary
When the summary is ready it appears in the Summaries list with a Completed badge. Click View full to open the detail view. There you will find:
- A sidebar table of contents with all sections (use Expand all or Collapse all to navigate).
- The content of each section with inline citations in brackets.
- A Download button offering PDF (.pdf), Markdown (.md), Plain text (.txt), and Word (.docx) formats.
Frequently asked questions
Can I combine several books in one summary? Yes. In step 1 you can select as many books as you like. The summary will cite all of them.
What happens if the summary stops halfway through? If the token quota runs out or the process stops, the sections already generated are preserved. A Process remaining button appears so you can pick up where it left off.
Can I download the summary with references? Yes. In the Download menu, enable the Include references option before choosing a format.
Does the summary replace reading the book? No. The summary is a starting point; it is always a good idea to verify important claims directly in the book.
Next step
- Cross-book summaries — combine different sources in a single thematic summary.
- Editing the outline — adjust the structure before generating content.
- Citations and traceability — understand how citations work and how to verify them.