DEVONthink Pro for Mac

Our fourth major release — DEVONthink 4.0 Copernicus — brings a host of powerful new features and improvements. DEVONthink now supports external AI providers, both commercial and local AI, as a complement to its own internal engine and implemented with privacy and data safety in mind. You can also write search queries in natural language, let the AI summarize or transform text, and extract text from images or handwritten notes. Use speech-to-text to transcribe and save the speech from media files. You can even create images using AI, directly within DEVONthink.

Store important legal or financial documents in audit-proof databases and as PDF/A. Text in PDFs without text layer and in images is searchable without OCR, and versioning lets you return to previous versions of a document. Edit a document's table of contents, adjust spacings, and fine-tune the WYSIWYG display for Markdown. Organize your favorites, smart groups, and smart rules into groups. We also added new inspectors, most notably a graph that visualizes document relationships. The rewritten web interface of the Server edition is built on a modern foundation, more powerful yet easier to use.

For automators of any skill level, there are new and improved smart actions, including some utilizing AI, as well as many new AppleScript commands. Batch processing now lets you save and reuse configurations.

NOTE: DEVONthink now requires macOS 13 Ventura or later.

NOTE: We're dedicating this version to the Copernicus lunar crater and its namesake, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), who revolutionized our understanding of the universe. Contrary to the prevailing view that the Earth was the center of everything, he proposed that the Sun revolved around the Earth. This crater, with its rays extending across the lunar surface, is as notable as the groundbreaking ideas of the man it honors.

NEW

• Document versioning lets you preserve certain states of documents you're editing. Examine or restore saved versions from the new Versions inspector.
• Audit-proof databases, a new type of databases, prohibit modifying documents placed into them, often necessary for legal or financial documents.
• Create archival PDFs in PDF/A-2 format via: Data > Convert > to Flattened PDF (with Annotations burnt in), Convert (& Continue) smart actions, and the convert record AppleScript command.
• Create new PDF bookmarks with the Add to Table of Contents command in the context menu of the view/edit pane, Content > Thumbnails inspector, and the Data > Add To menu.
• The new batch processing window allows you to create your own library of reusable configurations.
• Browse the built-in help in the new Help viewer with built-in navigation and search. With the higher editions, you have access to an assistant for chatting with AI about all things DEVONthink, even in languages other than English.
• Toolbar searches have a new Related Words option, considering also words contextually similar to your entered search terms.
• A new Tags inspector shows current, related, and suggested tags for the selected document. It also displays a graph of relationships for a selected tag.
• The Destination and Location popup menus in the Sorter or View > Import section controls, as well as the context submenus for Move To, Duplicate T, and Replicate To, now have a search field at the top for more efficiently locating groups. Additionally, the location of potential matches is shown in macOS 14.4 Sonoma and later.
• Add reminders to selected items with the Remind Me command available in the Data and contextual menus.
• Data > Move To > Put Back returns moved, classified, or trashed items back to their previous location. This command is also available via the context menu.
• Apply tags automatically with the new menu command Data > Tags > Assign Existing Tags. It uses DEVONthink's internal AI to look for tags on similar documents or find tags within the name and text and apply them automatically.
• Typewriter-like scrolling keeps the currently edited line in the center of the document window. Enable or disable this feature via the Format menu or in the Editing > Format settings.
• Change the scope bar options of toolbar searches with key commands. Press ⌃⌥1 through 4 while a search is active.
• Choose whether you want to show the documents contained in a selected group in the view/edit pane with the General > Interface > Preview group content setting.
• The General > Appearance settings allow assigning colors for duplicate and replicated items.
• The Editing > Format settings let you control margin, line spacing, and maximum line widths.
• We added Update name of WikiLinks in square brackets automatically to the WikiLinks settings.
• Disable automatically loading bookmarks with the Files > Preview > Automatically load bookmarks setting. This might help avoiding issues with problematic bookmarks.
• We added the option Files > Import > Use content creation & modification dates to use dates from a document's content instead of filesystem dates.
• Disable or enable sending anonymized usage data via the General > General > Usage: Send anonymized analytics data setting. See our company's Privacy page for more information on the data that may be sent.
• The menu command Help > Hidden Preferences lets you more easily access rarely used settings.
• We added many new smart actions, e.g., Script with Input/Output for processing and passing data, Set Script Input that holds data to be passed to the action, and a batch processing action, User Input that allows you to enter information each time the automation runs.
• We also added new placeholders, e.g., User Input holding the text you entered with the batch processing action of the same name, Script Output with the return value from the Script with Input/Output smart action, and Original Name using the originally imported name of a document.
• And we added many external scripts for use with the Script with Input/Output smart action, e.g., Text - Lowercase/Uppercase and Daily Quote, that execute and pass the result to the next actions.
• Add text to an existing document, by inserting, appending, or replacing the existing content, with the powerful update text AppleScript command.
• Install some popular script libraries from Late Night Software, e.g., Dialog Toolkit Plus, via the DEVONthink > Install Add-Ons panel.

NEW (Pro)

• DEVONthink can access external AI engines — both commercial and local models — in a complementary but powerful role to its internal AI. Currently supported commercial services are the latest models of: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Mistral AI, and Perplexity. Supported local AI applications are GPT4All, LM Studio, and Ollama. Depending on the capabilities of each model, DEVONthink supports these AI functions: vision, tool calls, reasoning, and deep research.
• A new Chat assistant lets you interact with external AI engines in a variety of ways, from document examination to impromptu inquiries. You access it in a new Chat inspector and Chat popover. Copy or save your chats as a document for later reference, if needed.
• We added a new suite of AI-driven templates in the Data > New from Template > AI submenu. These cover a variety of use cases, like deep research, image creation, story writing, and transcribing media and other documents into meeting notes.
• Using Apple's Vision framework, DEVONthink will index certain PDFs on import, e.g., those with no text layer, an incomplete one, or with unintelligible content. This makes PDFs searchable without doing OCR explicitly. You can disable this behavior with the Files > Import > Transcribe PDF documents setting.
• Via AI, DEVONthink can recognize text in images, including some handwriting, and speech converted to text in media documents. The results can be stored as searchable text, Finder comments, or in an annotation document.
• The Data > New > Generate Image command lets you create images via your chosen text-to-image AI engine without leaving the application.
• A new Search Assistant popover lets you write search queries in natural language and convert them to DEVONthink's search language via AI.
• The annotation commands in the Annotations > Reminders popup menu give you the option to insert AI-generated summaries. For images and media files that have recognized text saved as Searchable Text, you can insert the transcription.
• The menu command Edit > Summarize via Chat opens the Summarize popover for a selected document.
• Summarize selected documents via AI using Tools > Summarize Documents via Chat. Output to a chosen format, e.g., rich text or a Finder comment.
• The new Data > Recognize submenu gives you AI commands recognizing text and notes or barcodes in an image or transcribing speech-to-text.
• New commands in the Data menu's Rating, Label, and Tags submenus let you use AI to change the metadata on selected files.
• The new Graph inspector displays a variety of relationships for a selected document, e.g, WikiLinks, item links, mentions, etc.
• Produce auditing records listing the import, renaming, and deletion history of the contents of an audit-proof database via new commands in the File > Export and Tools menus.
• We added functions for importing email attachments, including Tools > Import Email Attachments, Files > Emails > Import attachments in the settings, and the import attachments of record AppleScript command.
• The new AI settings pane lets you control various AI functions: Chat for setting up your default AI engine, Summarization to setup how summarization is done, Image Generation, and Transcription.
• We added a Chat Font Size option in the General > Appearance settings to change the font size in AI-related actions, e.g., in the Chat assistant or the Summarize and Transform popover.
• We added a Recognition section to the Files > Import settings, containing options for processing incoming documents with AI, e.g., to transcribe media files or PDFs.
• The new setting Files > Tags > Import: Add Chat suggestion to documents lets you use AI to examine a document and add tags to it. You can limit the suggestions to already existing tags.
• Import messages or mailboxes from Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook with key commands that you set up in the Files > Emails settings.
• The new batch processing window offers several built-in configurations using AI in a variety of ways, e.g., classifying documents or renaming a document based on its content.
• Use AI-driven smart actions, e.g., Chat - Query for general AI queries, and the conditional Chat - Continue if action that only continues running with a positive response.
• Run OCR and use the created document for subsequent actions using the OCR & Continue smart action.
• We added new Chat Suggestions placeholders that DEVONthink resolves using AI, e.g., Price, Company, or Summary.
• Several new AppleScript commands let you use external AI, e.g., get chat response for message, download image for prompt, and transcribe record. These commands also include many deep parameters, e.g., model, temperature, and thinking, to create very detailed AI interactions.
• The new Chat category of the Scripts menu provides you with some useful example scripts.

Improved

• Markdown documents now support live scrolling in Side-by-Side view and the rendering updates as you edit. Also, WYSIWYG editing now displays image links as images and hides raw URL data in the Markdown source.
• Quickly create crosslinks between documents by typing >> and choosing from suggested matches.
• Square bracket WikiLinks now support alternate names and section anchors, e.g., [[Technical Note 15040|Email Issues#remedies]].
• Toolbar search results now support using the View > Show/Hide Details command to let you toggle displaying the matched item's location.
• Toolbar searches are now more forgiving with some syntax, internally correcting it as needed.
• You now can group your custom items in the Navigate sidebar, e.g., your favorites, smart rules, etc.
• We relabeled some inspectors: "See Also & Classify" is now See Also, "Custom" is now Data.
• The Info inspectors now include the Annotations & Reminders inspector.
• Reminders now launch DEVONthink one minute before an alarm is set so you no longer need to keep it running all the time. Also, the alarms now include Send Email with Item Link and a new Send Email with Attachment, allowing you to email the document directly.
• You can edit the outline in the Content > Table of Contents inspector. For text-based documents, e.g., rich text, moving sections in the inspector moves the document contents as well.
• When you use the Data > New > With Clipboard command, it more intelligently creates a format appropriate to the type of data on the clipboard, e.g., a Markdown document when it detects Markdown content.
• We reorganized the Settings panes to keep similar functions and concepts together. This reorganization has produced some new panes, e.g., the Files > Tags settings, as well as many updates to others, like setting label colors in the General > Labels view.
• You can assign colors to groups via the Generic inspector or Info popover.
• You can modify file dates and more types of custom metadata, e.g., currency, via smart rules and batch processing, including using AI suggested values.
• When the Verify & Repair Database command finds errors, they are now shown in a more informative window. When relaunching after a crash or force quit, DEVONthink will attempt to resolve errors it can.
• We have modernized and improved the AppleScript support. It comes with better JXA support, a new dictionary with code examples, new commands, properties, and parameters, and optimizations greatly improving the performance of filtering clauses, e.g., whose and where.
• We've also made many subtle cosmetic changes to DEVONthink including updating many icons, like property icons, special group icons like Contacts, and updated toolbar icons.

Improved (Pro)

• Email handling now uses AppleScript and shows more accurate mailbox structures which also load more quickly in the Import > Emails sidebar. It also shows unread email counts per-mailbox, similar to Apple Mail.
• The rewritten File > Import > References from Bookends command uses Bookend's improved AppleScript support and pulls in more information.

Improved (Server)

• We replaced the web interface with a rewritten, much more modern version, new login page, support for displaying more file formats, handling more data, and more robust interaction with DEVONthink.
• In the Server > Users settings, logged in users have an indicator next to their username. You can also set a Session Expiration to automatically log out idle users.

Improved (Sync)

• The approximate size of an encrypted database is now included in the sync data and used as the default size when importing the database on another Mac.