Athena
Athena · Updates

What's New

Release notes for Athena, newest first. The version in the footer always links back here.

v1.1.0 — Sharper Metadata & Global Search Latest
June 2026

Since the first release, Athena has had a steady stream of improvements. Here are the ones that change how you actually use it.

Sharper, more trustworthy metadata

  • A new metadata engine resolves titles, authors, journal, and abstract far more accurately — including tricky publisher cover pages, where the wrong paper's details used to sneak in.
  • When Athena isn't sure, it no longer guesses. A new "Needs a quick check" queue asks you — and each card shows the file or DOI you imported, one click from the paper, so you always know which one it means.

Search the whole literature, not just your library

  • Global search reaches across the wider literature, not only the papers you've uploaded — then add what you find.
  • Clear scope tabs (your library vs. everywhere), and search now reliably handles repeated searches and filters.

Better discovery

  • The Discoveries page was rebuilt — new papers matched to your library, easier to add.
  • A new Influence Map and a refreshed Knowledge Base view show how your library connects.

A calmer, cleaner interface

  • Every page got a visual refresh — consistent headers, quieter design, less clutter.
  • Navigation is smoother — the brief white flash between pages is gone.

Clearer about what's happening

  • Process Papers honestly shows what was analyzed, skipped, or needs attention — no silent gaps.
  • The upload page shows your storage use and limits up front, plus a new "Your usage" panel on the dashboard.

Account & security

  • Show/hide password toggles, stronger protection against repeated failed logins, smoother logout, and secure session cookies.
v1.0.0 — First Release
April 2026

Athena is a personal research paper library that processes your PDFs, enriches them with metadata from academic APIs, and helps you search, browse, and discover related work.

What you get

Upload & Process

  • PDF upload with resumable uploads (handles large files and interruptions)
  • ZIP upload for batch imports (background processing, no timeouts)
  • BibTeX import from Zotero, Mendeley, or any reference manager
  • DOI import for quick single-paper additions
  • Automatic metadata extraction via GROBID
  • 4-source enrichment chain: OpenAlex, CrossRef, Semantic Scholar, arXiv
  • Supplementary material detection and linking

Search & Browse

  • Hybrid search combining full-text (FTS5) and semantic (SPECTER embeddings)
  • Browse by topics (OpenAlex 4-level hierarchy), tags, year, or collections
  • Collections work like playlists — organize papers your way

Read & Analyze

  • PDF.js reader with dark theme, zoom, text search, page navigation
  • AI-powered paper classification (themes, methods, applications)
  • AI Metadata Repair for papers where APIs couldn't find data
  • Reference extraction from 4 sources (GROBID, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, CrossRef)
  • Interactive citation graph (D3.js)

Discover

  • Discoveries engine finds new papers from RSS feeds matched against your library using SPECTER similarity
  • Morning Paper daily recommendations from your knowledge base
  • Discovery sources page to manage your feeds

Export

  • BibTeX export (single paper or full library)

Security & Privacy

  • Per-user isolated databases — your data is yours
  • ClamAV virus scanning on all uploads
  • Account management with email verification and password reset
  • Legal pages (Terms of Service, Privacy Policy)
  • GDPR-compliant account deletion with 30-day grace period