Add follow-up questions feature to AI chat #14354

Muskan244 · 2025-11-19T15:17:58Z

This PR implements a follow-up questions feature to AI chat. After the AI responds to a user's question, the system automatically generates 3-5 relevant follow-up questions that appear as clickable links below the chat.
Changes:

Added new "Generate follow-up questions" setting in AI preferences
Created FollowUpQuestionGenerator class to generate questions via AI
Integrated follow-up generation into AiChatLogic after each AI response
Added UI component to display clickable follow-up question links
Questions are cleared when any new message is sent

Steps to test

Go to Preferences → AI, enable AI with API key, and check "Generate follow-up questions"
Open an entry with a PDF attached and click the "AI chat" tab
Send a question and verify that 3-5 clickable follow-up questions appear below the chat
Click a follow-up question and verify it sends automatically and new questions appear
Disable the setting in preferences and verify no follow-up questions appear

Mandatory checks

I own the copyright of the code submitted and I license it under the MIT license
I manually tested my changes in running JabRef (always required)
[/] I added JUnit tests for changes (if applicable)
I added screenshots in the PR description (if change is visible to the user)
I described the change in CHANGELOG.md in a way that is understandable for the average user (if change is visible to the user)
[/] I checked the user documentation: Is the information available and up to date? If not, I created an issue at https://github.com/JabRef/user-documentation/issues or, even better, I submitted a pull request updating file(s) in https://github.com/JabRef/user-documentation/tree/main/en.

Implement automatic generation of follow-up questions after AI responses in the chat interface. Users can click suggested questions to continue the conversation naturally. Changes: - Add Generate follow-up questions setting in AI preferences - Create FollowUpQuestionGenerator to generate questions via AI - Update AiChatLogic to generate questions after each response - Display clickable follow-up question links in chat UI - Clear questions when new message is sent

Implement automatic generation of follow-up questions after AI responses in the chat interface. Users can click suggested questions to continue the conversation naturally. Changes: - Add Generate follow-up questions setting in AI preferences - Create FollowUpQuestionGenerator to generate questions via AI - Update AiChatLogic to generate questions after each response - Display clickable follow-up question links in chat UI - Clear questions when new message is sent # Conflicts: # jablib/src/main/resources/csl-styles

…bref into fix-for-issue-12243

ThiloteE · 2025-11-20T21:33:13Z

Things I would like you to address in this PR:
I tried generating follow up questions and it simply works. Great job!
Only one tiny thing is amiss: I think you should limit the number of follw up questions to three (or maybe add a preference that lets users choose the number and set the default to three). As you can see the questions may be too long for the GUI:
Possible follow up PR:
Since we have a user base that does not only speak English, it would be good to expose this instruction as a template in the AI preferences, so that every user can manually translate this instruction to their own language, Here:

Maybe far in the future, we can make it dependent on the set user language, but that's a long shot.

InAnYan · 2025-11-21T15:13:43Z

What would anyone think about this:

I think there are too many buttons for questions. What if we could hide "Try these examples" as soon as there are follow up questions?

InAnYan · 2025-11-21T15:15:11Z

CHANGELOG.md

 - We added the possibility to configure the email provided to unpaywall. [#14340](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/pull/14340)
 - We added a "Regenerate" button for the AI chat allowing the user to make the language model reformulate its response to the previous prompt. [#12191](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/12191)
 - We added support for transliteration of fields to English and automatic transliteration of generated citation key. [#11377](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/11377)
+- We added a "Generate follow-up questions" feature to AI chat that suggests relevant questions after each AI response. [#12243](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/12243)


I think you can remove "Generate . So maybe "we added the generation of follow-up questions in AI chat"

Sure, I will update the CHANGELOG.md

InAnYan · 2025-11-21T15:18:32Z

jablib/src/main/java/org/jabref/logic/ai/AiDefaultPreferences.java

    public static final boolean ENABLE_CHAT = false;
    public static final boolean AUTO_GENERATE_EMBEDDINGS = false;
    public static final boolean AUTO_GENERATE_SUMMARIES = false;
+    public static final boolean GENERATE_FOLLOW_UP_QUESTIONS = false;


Maybe it can be true by default? Because I think users could miss this feature if it's turned off.

However, on the other hand, users interested in AI features will always open AI preferences at least once in order to add API key

Should I set it as true by default or leave it as false?

I want to know other people's opinions, but for now you can leave false

Options:

nagging after some weeks: "Did you know?" -- I don't like this

have it turned on - and enable quick turn off (we have this at user comment field)

have it turned off - and have a quick-turn on possibility (as we do at Mr. DLib)

I would vote for option 3 - but as follow-up PR to have the PRs reviewable and get finished parts in main fast.

InAnYan · 2025-11-21T15:20:43Z

Okay, good! But the follow up questions template must be an AiTemplate

Muskan244 · 2025-11-21T16:09:08Z

Things I would like you to address in this PR:
I tried generating follow up questions and it simply works. Great job!
Only one tiny thing is amiss: I think you should limit the number of follw up questions to three (or maybe add a preference that lets users choose the number and set the default to three). As you can see the questions may be too long for the GUI:

I will limit the number of generated follow-up questions to three by default and will try to add the preference for users too.

2. Possible follow up PR:
Since we have a user base that does not only speak English, it would be good to expose this instruction as a template in the AI preferences, so that every user can manually translate this instruction to their own language, Here:

I would be happy to look into adding this in a follow-up PR.

Muskan244 · 2025-11-21T16:24:35Z

Okay, good! But the follow up questions template must be an AiTemplate

Thanks, I will update the follow-up questions to use an AiTemplate instead of the current inline string.

…mplate - Default follow-up questions at 3 - New user preference to configure maximum number - Converted prompt to AiTemplate for consistency

…bref into fix-for-issue-12243

Muskan244 · 2025-11-21T19:44:38Z

I have implemented these changes:

Limited the number of generated follow-up questions to three by default
Added a user preference to customize this limit
Converted the follow-up questions instruction into an AiTemplate

What would anyone think about this:

I think there are too many buttons for questions. What if we could hide "Try these examples" as soon as there are follow up questions?

I have not worked on this part yet. If you would like me to include it in this PR, please let me know and I will be happy to update it.

koppor · 2025-11-21T20:39:49Z

I think there are too many buttons for questions. What if we could hide "Try these examples" as soon as there are follow up questions?

I have not worked on this part yet. If you would like me to include it in this PR, please let me know and I will be happy to update it.

Very OK for me to do that in a separate PR.

koppor · 2025-11-21T21:07:21Z

Isn't there a JavaFX element for increasing and decreasing numbers?
Should we add "Automatically" at the new bullet point? - To be consistent to the other two settings?

koppor · 2025-11-21T20:40:22Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/ai/components/aichat/AiChatComponent.java

+        // Get the current questions (this is thread-safe)
+        List<String> questions = new ArrayList<>(aiChatLogic.getFollowUpQuestions());
+
+        // Update UI on the JavaFX Application Thread


Suggested change

// Update UI on the JavaFX Application Thread

koppor · 2025-11-21T20:40:33Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/ai/components/aichat/AiChatComponent.java

+    }
+
+    private void updateFollowUpQuestions() {
+        // Get the current questions (this is thread-safe)


Suggested change

// Get the current questions (this is thread-safe)

koppor · 2025-11-21T20:41:16Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/preferences/ai/AiTab.java

        autoGenerateEmbeddings.selectedProperty().bindBidirectional(viewModel.autoGenerateEmbeddings());
        autoGenerateEmbeddings.disableProperty().bind(viewModel.disableAutoGenerateEmbeddings());
+        generateFollowUpQuestions.selectedProperty().bindBidirectional(viewModel.generateFollowUpQuestions());
+        followUpQuestionsCountTextField.valueProperty().addListener((observable, oldValue, newValue) ->


for unused varialbes, use _.

Didn't that IntelliJ show to you - or do you use another IDE?

Yes, IntelliJ did highlight it. I will replace the unused variables with _ to follow the convention.

koppor · 2025-11-21T21:09:33Z

jablib/src/main/java/org/jabref/logic/ai/chatting/FollowUpQuestionGenerator.java

+                line = line.trim();
+                line = line.replaceAll("^[-*•]\\s*", "");
+                line = line.replaceAll("^\\d+\\.\\s*", "");
+                line = line.replaceAll("^[\"']|[\"']$", "");


Chain these calls instead of assignments to the same variable

koppor · 2025-11-21T21:11:51Z

Please add a hover on the questions - I cannot see the full question

Muskan244 · 2025-11-21T22:04:02Z

Isn't there a JavaFX element for increasing and decreasing numbers?

Yes, I think there is JavaFX Spinner<Integer>. I will replace text field so users can easily increase/decrease the number of follow-up questions.

Should we add "Automatically" at the new bullet point? - To be consistent to the other two settings?

I will also update it to include “Automatically” for consistency with the other bullet points.

Siedlerchr · 2025-11-21T22:19:44Z

jabgui/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/ai/components/aichat/AiChatComponent.java

+        List<String> questions = new ArrayList<>(aiChatLogic.getFollowUpQuestions());
+
+        // Update UI on the JavaFX Application Thread
+        Platform.runLater(() -> {


Use UiTaskExecutor.runInJavaFXThread( () ->

Muskan244 added 9 commits November 19, 2025 19:26

Add CHANGELOG.md entry

c86fd77

Add CHANGELOG.md entry

e822313

Merge branch 'fix-for-issue-12243' of https://github.com/Muskan244/ja…

010e33d

…bref into fix-for-issue-12243

Fix submodules, CHANGELOG.md and overwrite issues

6f17bb1

Fixed issues in rewritten files to match original files

604f44d

Fix submodules modified test

49ac25e

Fix format indentation

f368e18

koppor requested review from InAnYan and ThiloteE November 20, 2025 10:40

koppor added the status: ready-for-review Pull Requests that are ready to be reviewed by the maintainers label Nov 20, 2025

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Merge branch 'main' into fix-for-issue-12243

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Muskan244 added 2 commits November 22, 2025 00:26

Add preference for max follow-up questions and migrate prompt to AiTe…

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…mplate - Default follow-up questions at 3 - New user preference to configure maximum number - Converted prompt to AiTemplate for consistency

Merge branch 'fix-for-issue-12243' of https://github.com/Muskan244/ja…

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…bref into fix-for-issue-12243

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Merge branch 'main' into fix-for-issue-12243

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Muskan244 commented Nov 19, 2025

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ThiloteE commented Nov 20, 2025

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