Why Online Mode is recommended for most Sets

If you are starting a new pinakea Set, use Online Mode unless you have a specific reason to use Mixed Mode.

Online Mode is the recommended default because it gives higher-quality results and gets a Set ready to use much faster. Mixed Mode can avoid OpenRouter cost for automatic item processing, but the Mac does the work locally. On larger Sets, that can mean hours or days of processing before the Set has caught up.

The short version:

• Use Online Mode for larger Sets and Sets that may grow over time.
• Use Mixed Mode for smaller Sets when avoiding OpenRouter cost for automatic item processing matters more than speed and output quality.
• Use Online Mode once a Set is around 1,000 items or larger. This is practical guidance, not a hard limit.

What the two modes do

Task	Online Mode	Mixed Mode
Embeddings	OpenRouter	Local on your Mac
Short summaries	OpenRouter	Local on your Mac
AI titles	OpenRouter	Local on your Mac
AI tags	OpenRouter	Local on your Mac
Chat	OpenRouter	OpenRouter
Longer summaries	OpenRouter	OpenRouter

Mixed Mode keeps automatic item processing local, but it is not a fully private or fully offline mode. If you chat with your Set or generate longer summaries, relevant content still goes through OpenRouter.

Switching is real reprocessing

Switching modes later is possible, but it is not just a label change. The two modes use different embedding paths, so pinakea has to reprocess the Set.

When switching Online Mode to Mixed Mode:

• Online embeddings generated with OpenRouter credit are replaced.
• Those embeddings cannot be reused in Mixed Mode.
• Existing summaries, titles, and tags are kept.

When switching Mixed Mode to Online Mode:

• Local embeddings, AI-generated summaries, AI-generated titles, and LLM tags are cleared.
• Online Mode regenerates them through OpenRouter.
• That regeneration uses OpenRouter credit. For a large Set, this can add up.

This is another reason to choose Online Mode first for a new or growing Set.

Why Mixed Mode exists

The main user benefit of Mixed Mode is simple: automatic item processing can run without OpenRouter cost.

For a small Set, that can be useful. You can let the Mac process embeddings, short summaries, AI titles, and AI tags locally, and avoid paying OpenRouter for those automatic pipeline stages.

The tradeoff is that local processing is slower and lower quality, and it can make the Mac busy while the Set catches up.

The tradeoffs in Mixed Mode

Mixed Mode is real and supported. The cost shows up in time, quality, and Mac load.

• Long processing time. What Online Mode can process quickly may take hours or days locally on a larger Set.
• Mac under load. Your Mac does the AI work. Keep it plugged into power during significant processing. Expect heat, battery drain, and reduced responsiveness while the local pipeline runs.
• The Set is not fully ready until processing catches up. Search quality, summaries, titles, and tags depend on pipeline work being finished.
• Lower-quality search foundation. The local embedding model is weaker than the Online Mode embedding path, which can affect semantic search and retrieval quality.
• Weaker short summaries. Local summaries are much weaker because the local model has less capability and a smaller context window.
• Weaker titles and AI tags. Local titles and LLM tags can be less accurate because the local model understands the content less well.
• Not fully private or offline. Chat and longer summaries still use OpenRouter in Mixed Mode.

This is why pinakea recommends Online Mode for Sets around 1,000 items or larger.

When Mixed Mode makes sense

Mixed Mode can make sense when all of this is true:

• The Set is small.
• Avoiding OpenRouter cost for automatic item processing matters to you.
• You are willing to wait for local processing.
• You accept lower-quality automatic summaries, titles, tags, and embeddings.
• You understand that chat and longer summaries still use OpenRouter.

If you are unsure, choose Online Mode.