# Search & citations

Every answer Axon gives is grounded in specific passages from your documents,
and you can always see which ones.

## Reading a citation

Answers carry numbered citations — small **[1]**, **[2]** markers in the
text — for the passages a claim came from. Click one to open that document
in the main area with the passage highlighted. It's the fastest way to check
whether an answer says what the document says, rather than taking it on
faith. See [How to: Check a citation against the source
document](https://exaflux.io/docs/axon/how-to/check-a-citation-against-the-source-document).

For the same evidence in full, click **Show sources and retrieval** — the
columns icon at the top right of the chat — to open the panel beside it. Its
**Citations** tab lists every passage the answer was shown, with the
document it came from and what kind of source that is — **Document**, **Web
page**, **Generated** (an artifact) or **From a chat**. Passages that were
retrieved but too weak to use are marked **Not used**. The **Trace** tab
shows each step the assistant took, and **Metrics** how long it took.

## "I don't have enough information"

When Axon says it can't answer, that's not evasion — it means the passages it
retrieved didn't clear the bar to support an answer. This is deliberate:
answering confidently from weak evidence is worse than saying so. If this
happens on a question you're sure your documents cover, try:

- Rephrasing — different wording retrieves different passages.
- Asking a follow-up that names the thing you want — Axon can search more
  than once, with different phrasings, in the same turn.
- Checking the file is actually indexed (see [Projects &
  sources](https://exaflux.io/docs/axon/projects-and-sources)).

See [How to: Get a better answer when Axon says it doesn't
know](https://exaflux.io/docs/axon/how-to/get-a-better-answer-when-axon-says-it-doesnt-know).

## The audit record

Every turn records what the model did and what it was shown — including
passages it *saw but didn't use*, which is the full answer to "why didn't it
mention X." From the chat's **More options** menu (the **⋮** at the top
right of the chat), **Save audit record** saves the whole
conversation's record — what was asked, what was retrieved, what was said —
as a document in the project's **Artifacts**. An audit record can't be
edited; you can export it to PDF from the viewer. See [How to: Export a full
audit record of a conversation](https://exaflux.io/docs/axon/how-to/export-a-full-audit-record-of-a-conversation).

The record also flags when a cited source has changed since the answer was
given, so you know whether a citation is checking against the document as it
stood at answer time or as it is in the folder now.

## Where citations can come from

A citation always points at something in the project: a file you added, a
web page you added as a source, or a document Axon produced that you added to
the project's sources. The kind of source is shown beside each passage, so
you can tell your own documents apart from something the model produced.