FAQ

Vara turns a paper's methods into steps you can run. It is an experiment tool for wet-lab scientists: you make the scientific calls, and Vara handles execution and records. It is available on the web and as a native macOS app. On a phone, open the web app in your mobile browser, or add it to your home screen. It turns an experiment plan, protocol, or paper into an executable, structured workflow with linked parameters, run records, and AI-assisted failure review. It is built for graduate researchers, working scientists, and lab PIs.

Yes. Vara used to live at varaapp.site; since October 2026 the main site is varaos.com. Old links redirect to the same page on the new domain, and your account and data are unchanged. You sign in once on the new domain. Existing AI assistant connections, API keys and calendar subscriptions keep working.

Break the culture workflow into parameterized steps (seeding density, passage timing, reagent concentration), run them on a timeline with timers, and log results and deviations per run. Changing one parameter flags dependent downstream steps for recalculation, and iterations across versions are tracked.

Drop the paper's PDF into Vara. It extracts the method into parameterized steps and labels each field with a source-confidence level (explicit / partial / inferred / missing) linked to the original text. After you verify, you run it, and can use AI to review failures.

Vara labels every AI-extracted field with a source-confidence level: explicit, partial, inferred, or missing. The model extracts and you verify, rather than trusting it blindly. Calculations between parameters run on a deterministic engine, not AI guessing.

No. Vara imports plans you already discussed in ChatGPT, DeepSeek, or Claude: generate them in Vara's prompt format and paste them back for one-click parsing. You can also upload a protocol as PDF, image, or SOP. This is designed to avoid cold-start data entry.

Yes. Vara has a remote MCP connector. Once you connect it in an MCP client such as Claude, ChatGPT, Doubao, Tencent WorkBuddy, Claude Code, or Cursor, the AI can read your experiments and, when you ask, save experiments, steps, run logs, and schedule items to Vara. Experiments your AI imports arrive as drafts with a source on each parameter, and they become experiments only after you review and confirm them in Vara. Vara is not listed in the ChatGPT app directory yet, so for now you add it by hand from Plugins in ChatGPT. See Connect Vara to AI Assistants in the help center for setup.

Vara supports discipline-specific reproduction across 10 disciplines, handling code, formulas, and data fields differently per field. Content currently focuses on wet-lab disciplines: life science, biology, and chemistry.

Vara has a free tier that manages 3 experiments. Paid plans are Pro at $6 per month and Pro+ at $19 per month, billed in USD and processed by Creem; see the pricing page. On Pro and Pro+ you can also use your own language model key (BYOK) in Vara AI.

One wet-lab researcher reported that after managing and reproducing experiments in Vara, trial-and-error and repeated runs dropped by about 60%. Linked-parameter recalculation, source-confidence labels, and failure review are the main reasons for fewer wasted repeats.

Account, sign-in, password and billing emails are always sent. Beyond those, there are two kinds you can unsubscribe from: up to two getting-started emails in the first 8 days after you sign up, and one reminder when an experiment you created has no runs logged after 14 days (at most once per experiment and once every 30 days). Each email has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. Unsubscribing stops both kinds and does not affect account emails.

Notion is generic notes. Benchling is enterprise ELN for biology. Vara is specifically for wet-lab researchers, AI is first-class (parse PDFs / edit experiments directly), data is structured (params + steps + materials), not document blobs. Fastest onboarding for solo researchers.

Vara's AI providers are hosted in mainland China, and the cross-border link from our servers occasionally fluctuates. On connection failures or temporary provider errors, Vara automatically retries up to 2 more times; if it still fails you'll see The AI service is temporarily unstable (cross-border network) or AI service temporarily unavailable. Retrying in a few minutes usually works, and what you typed in the chat is not lost. If it says too many requests or the quota is used up, wait as the message says. If it keeps failing, switch to another model in the model selector (bottom-right).

The current model has no vision. In the model selector, pick one with vision support (e.g. Doubao Seed / MiMo / Kimi), then re-upload.

Check Settings → Appearance → AI output language. Pick "Force Chinese" or "Follow system" (with Chinese UI). AI output language is independent of UI, so you can use Chinese UI but English output for sharing with overseas collaborators.

All data lives in a managed cloud database (Asia-Pacific / Singapore region), with automatic periodic snapshot backups. The macOS client edits offline and auto-push on reconnect. For a local copy, go to Settings → Data → Export all my data and download a ZIP with all your records (JSON plus a few CSV tables) the original attachment files, and the paper files you uploaded to your experiments (500 MB in total for both; files over the cap are listed, not bundled). You can also export an experiment as a Word document, a sub-experiment as a Word or PDF checklist, and a parsed paper as a PPT draft (see the export guide). If anything is missing from the self-serve export, email support@varaos.com and we will respond within 30 days.

No. Quota is a sliding window: once your earliest charge slides out of the 5-hour / 7-day window, part of it restores automatically. No need to wait for month start.

Yes. Pro ($6/month) and Pro+ ($19/month) can be bought on the pricing page; payments are processed by Creem and you can cancel anytime. During the beta, completing the survey or using an invite code also gets you 30-90 days of Pro for free. Beta users who completed the pricing survey on or before October 7, 2026 (Beijing time) get 10% off their first subscription, applied automatically at checkout. This commitment does not expire, but surveys submitted after that date do not qualify.

Check Web first (Web is source of truth). If client is newer, push to Web. Stuck syncs: email support@varaos.com with account email.

Settings → [Feedback] button or email support@varaos.com. Include: steps to reproduce + screenshot + browser/OS + email.