Sometimes every word is familiar and the sentence still does not make sense. Aoede now lets me ask about the current passage from inside the reader. It can translate, explain the grammar or vocabulary, or take a free-form question, then stream the answer beside the text while keeping the original passage in view. Playback pauses automatically while I ask, with a setting to turn that behavior off.
The assistant is local-first. It can use Apple's on-device model or a local OpenAI-compatible server, with Shikisha providing the shared backend layer and native Anthropic support when I deliberately choose a cloud model. The useful change is not adding a chatbot. It is removing the copy, switch apps, paste, and find-my-place-again loop from reading.