Guides & Articles
Practical guides on your AI notebook: analyzing video and PDF content, chatting with it.
Complete Guide
AI PDF Analysis: How It Works and How to Get the Most Out of It
What actually happens to your file after upload: why the whole document goes to the model at once, and what happens to the ones that don't fit.
Complete Guide
AI Second Brain: How Cruxly Remembers What Matters
How saving one thought turns into a network of connected ideas: the matching, the clustering, resurfacing on its own schedule, and the chat that only knows what you saved.
Complete Guide
AI YouTube Video Transcription: How It Works and When You Need It
From audio track to exact text: how to get a verbatim transcript of a video, when you need it instead of a summary, and how to get the most accurate result.
Complete Guide
AI Website Page Analysis: How Cruxly Breaks Down Any Link
From a pasted link to a structured breakdown: what the service pulls off the page, how it builds key points, and how it compares to analyzing a PDF or a video.
For Students
YouTube Analysis for Students: Studying for Exams Faster
Twelve lectures before finals isn't a reason to rewatch every single one.
Complete Guide
AI YouTube Video Summarization: How It Works and How to Get the Most Out of It
From captions to a finished summary: how AI reads a video, what happens when there are no captions, and how to choose between a summary, a transcript, and chat.
Complete guide
Chat with PDF: How to Talk to a Document and Get Answers From the Text
How the chat finds the right passage, why it answers from your file instead of the model's memory, where it gets things wrong, and how to ask questions that get precise answers.
ChatPDF Alternative
ChatPDF Alternative: Why Cruxly Is Worth Trying
The same document-chat format, plus YouTube video and a notebook that pulls several sources together, on one subscription.
Complete Guide
Cruxly's AI Notebook: How It Works and How It Differs From NotebookLM
One notebook for several sources, one shared chat across all of them, access with no VPN required, and a second brain that remembers across notebooks, not just inside one.
Guide
The Cruxly Chrome Extension: Analysis Without a Tab Switch
A button right on the YouTube or PDF page opens the analysis in a side panel, no trip to cruxly.tech.
Guide
How Cruxly Finds Connections Between Thoughts You Never Noticed
Matching runs on meaning, not on matching words or which folder something got filed into. Here's what that actually looks like, with real examples.
Guide
How to Analyze a 2–3 Hour Lecture
A two-and-a-half-hour conference recording doesn't fit into an evening. A breakdown of it does.
Guide
How to Analyze a Webpage with AI
From a pasted link to a finished breakdown with key points and an action plan: a step-by-step guide, and what to do with the result afterward.
Guide
AI Document Analysis: A Practical Guide
What the term actually means, how it works in practice, and how to use it to get through research papers, contracts, and reports faster.
Guide
How to Chat with a PDF Using AI
A practical guide to asking your document questions instead of hunting through the table of contents by hand.
Guide
How to Use AI to Explain a PDF in Plain English
When a document isn't too long, just too dense: how to get an AI to break down jargon, legal language, and technical writing into something you can actually follow.
Guide
How to Summarize PDFs with AI
How to get a structured summary of a textbook, report, or research paper in a couple of minutes instead of reading the whole document.
Guide
How to Summarize YouTube Videos with AI
Getting a structured summary of any YouTube video in a couple of minutes, instead of watching the whole thing.
Guide
How to Transcribe a YouTube Video to Text
When you need the exact words, not a summary: how to get them from any YouTube video in a couple of minutes.
Guide
NotebookLM Without a VPN: What to Do From Russia
The NotebookLM site can load, but its functionality doesn't work without a VPN. Here's what to do without working around the block, by switching tools instead.
For Lawyers
PDF Analyzer for Lawyers: Beyond the Contract
Most of a lawyer's PDF pile isn't a contract. It's discovery, research, and briefs, and regular analysis is built for exactly that.
Guide
Save Highlights from YouTube and PDF in One Place
A practical walkthrough: turning a summary you'd otherwise forget into a permanent, connected thought, the same way for video and for PDF.
Guide
How to Save a Thought from a Webpage Analysis
A practical guide: how a passage from analyzing an article or webpage becomes a lasting thought, connected to everything you've already saved.
Guide
Cruxly Second Brain: What Study Includes and What Only Pro Unlocks
Saving thoughts, connections, and resurfacing all work on the free plan from the first saved thought. Here are the exact numbers on both plans, and the two tools Pro adds on top.
Guide
Building a Second Brain: The CODE Method, Automated
A look at Tiago Forte's four-step method next to what Cruxly's second brain actually automates, and what still takes a person's judgment.
Guide
Transcribing Video Without Captions: How AI Recognizes Speech
A clip with no captions isn't a reason to give up on an exact transcript.