Multimodal AI Research Workspace
From Any Source to Research
Rivul AI (rivul.ai) is a free Multimodal AI Research Workspace for anyone who works from sources. Bring in academic papers found among 300M+ indexed paper records, PDFs and scans, meetings and recordings, and your own library. Then work across them with AI: ask your documents with Ask Rivul, write cited briefs in Research, and run agents that search, read and report. Rivul MCP brings the same search into Claude Code, Codex or Cursor.
Free for every account. Sign in with Google; AI features run on your own API key (BYOK).
Included with every free account
Every Source, Every Feature, Free
Nothing here is behind a plan. AI features use your own key from Google Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Mistral, or Meta, and that provider bills you directly. Each account stores up to 5 PDFs.
- Search metadata for 300M+ papers in the Rivul Index, no key needed
- Library for PDFs, DOIs, arXiv IDs, .bib files, Google Drive and Zotero
- Document OCR for PDFs, scans and images
- Transcribe recordings, and Listen to papers and drafts read aloud
- Ask Rivul: answers from your own papers, cited by passage and page
- Research notebook: cited briefs with a findings table
- Research agents, agent runs, and reusable skills
- Rivul MCP and REST API for Claude, Cursor, Codex and your own apps
- Citation tools, numbered citations, and export to Word, LaTeX and BibTeX
- Account-data export stays available, with deletion whenever you want
Write
Papers, Research and Ask Rivul
Where your sources become answers: your library answers with its own passages, a question becomes a cited brief, and a draft keeps every source attached.
Papers
A Draft That Keeps Its Sources
The Papers editor is where research turns into a manuscript. Numbered citations follow first appearance and the reference list stays in sync, while AI actions work from your library on your own key.
- Grounded autocomplete from your library, on your own key
- Tracked suggestions you accept or reject
- Export to Word, LaTeX, Markdown, plain text, or BibTeX
Also in Papers: Claim checking against the cited passage · Evidence table · Related Work draft · Draft review · Reproducibility checklist · Similarity check · Preflight before export · Version history and restore · Word (.docx) import · Word, LaTeX, Markdown and BibTeX export · IEEE submission ZIP export
Read Writing, Claim checking and Export.
![Rivul AI paper editor with a draft titled Faster LLM inference: speculative decoding and 4-bit weights, numbered citations [1] to [7], and the Drafting panel with Draft Related Work and Generate abstract.](/_next/image?url=%2Fapp-screens%2Ftour-papers.webp&w=3840&q=95&dpl=dpl_5V3iHF2LC6fnunY2SUxvV8GGM4RD)
Research
A Research Question Becomes a Cited Brief
Research is a notebook. Ask a question, keep the Rivul Index and your Library on or turn one off, and each run shows three steps: Search sources, Select evidence, and Write cited brief. The result is a cited brief and a findings table.
- Search works without a key; the brief uses your AI provider
- Every source listed as Cited or Not used
- Follow-up questions become new sections in the same note
Also in Research: Gaps and contradictions across sources · BibTeX for every source in the note
Explore Open Research or read how to read a brief and its sources.
Ask Rivul (RAG)
Answers From Your Own Papers
Ask Rivul is retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) over your Library. It finds the relevant passages across the papers you pick, answers with your AI provider, and cites each passage with its page. With no sources picked you get a clearly labeled general AI answer.
- Answers cite the passages they use, with page numbers
- Open any cited passage in the reader
- Runs on your own AI key (BYOK)
Agents
Rivul MCP, Agents and Skills
Hand a question to an agent, give it reusable skills, or bring Rivul's search into the AI tools you already use.
Rivul MCP
Use Rivul Inside Claude, Codex or Cursor
Rivul MCP is a remote MCP server at rivul.ai/mcp. Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cursor, Google Antigravity, Meta Muse Code, and any client that supports remote MCP servers can search the Rivul Index and look up paper records through read-only tools.
- Tools: search_papers, get_paper_details, usage_status
- Browser sign-in (OAuth) or a workspace MCP key, revocable at any time
- No daily cap; fair-use rate limits apply
Also in Rivul MCP: REST API with an OpenAPI schema · OAuth sign-in for AI clients · Access keys · API playground · Usage and activity
See Rivul MCP or set up an MCP client.
Agents and Runs
Research Agents That Search, Read and Report
An agent is a saved research brief: a goal, its sources (the Rivul Index, your Library, and web search where your AI provider offers it), a depth, and an output. Give it a question and it searches, reads the most relevant papers, and writes a report that cites each claim. Runs keeps every run with its steps, sources, and report.
- Quick runs up to 5 model steps, Thorough up to 12
- Up to 20 agents and 30 runs a day per account
- Runs keeps each run's steps, sources and report
Also in Agents and Runs: Report, evidence table, annotated bibliography, or related work output · Web search where your AI provider offers it
Read Agents and Runs.
Skills
Reusable Instructions for Agents
Skills are reusable instructions in the SKILL.md format. Attach them to an agent to guide its method and writing, start from a Rivul skill, or write your own.
- 65 Rivul skills in ten categories, plus 644 community skills from skills.sh
- Up to 50 skills of your own
- Up to 4 skills per agent
Read Skills.
Sources
Library, Search Papers and Connectors
Research starts from whatever you have: academic papers, your own PDFs, and the services you already keep them in. None of it needs an AI key.
Library
A Private Library for Your PDFs
Keep the papers you work from in one private library. The reader searches inside each PDF, and Ask this paper answers from the open document on your own key.
- Up to 5 stored PDFs, 10 MB each
- Add by upload, DOI, arXiv ID, .bib file, Google Drive, or Zotero
- Scanned PDFs are read with OCR when you add them
Also in Library: PDF reader with highlights and notes · Ask this paper · Similar papers · Open-access PDF fetch · OCR and re-extract for scans · Refresh citation data
Read Library and the Add menu.
Search papers
Search Metadata for 300M+ Academic Papers
Search paper records (titles, authors, abstracts, citations and open-access links) by title, author, topic, or DOI, then save a paper to your Library, cite it, or open it.
- Metadata for 300M+ scholarly works in the Rivul Index, 20 results per page
- Paper metadata from the open OpenAlex dataset (CC0)
- Sort by relevance, most cited, newest, or oldest
- No API key needed
Also in Search papers: Search suggestions · Saved searches with new-paper checks · DOI lookup
Connectors
Every Service Rivul Connects To
Connectors lists every service Rivul AI connects to: files, AI clients, and the AI provider whose key runs your AI features.
- Google Drive and Google Docs picker
- Zotero import, and push back to Zotero
- Your AI provider: Google Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Mistral, or Meta
Read Connectors and the Zotero workflow.
Convert
Document OCR, Transcribe and Listen
Scans, images, recordings and text all become something you can search, read, or hear. These run on Rivul AI's own servers or in your browser, with no AI key.
Document OCR
Text From PDFs, Scans and Images
Document OCR returns the text of PDFs, scans and images without adding them to the Library.
- Up to 10 files at a time, 25 MB each
- First 50 pages of each file
- Plain text or Markdown output
Read Document OCR.
Transcribe
Recordings Become Timestamped Text
Transcribe turns lectures, interviews and recordings into text with timestamps.
- Up to 10 files at a time, 500 MB each
- 2 hours of audio a day; record up to 10 minutes in the browser
- Export .txt, .srt, .vtt or .docx
Read Transcribe.
Listen
Hear Any Paper or Draft Read Aloud
Listen reads a paper, a draft, or pasted text aloud.
- The browser voice has no limit
- The Rivul voice reads 300,000 characters a day
- The sentence being read is highlighted
Read Listen.
Tools
Citation Tools
Format a DOI or a saved paper in IEEE, ACM, APA, MLA, or Chicago, build a BibTeX entry, convert BibTeX or RIS, or fill an evidence table from saved papers. No AI model is needed.
Read Citation tools.
Anyone who works from sources
Who It's For
Students
Turn a recorded lecture into timestamped notes with Transcribe, then ask your readings questions with Ask Rivul.
Engineers
Search metadata for 300M+ papers from Claude Code, Codex or Cursor through Rivul MCP, or call the REST API from your own scripts.
Academics
Run a research agent on a question and get a report that cites each claim, then keep the draft's citations in sync in Papers.
Researchers
Read a scanned report with Document OCR and put its findings beside the papers in your Library in a cited Research brief.
Questions researchers ask
Before You Start
What sources can Rivul AI work from?
Papers found in the Rivul Index of 300M+ paper records, PDFs you upload or pull by DOI, arXiv, .bib, Google Drive or Zotero, scanned documents and images through OCR, and audio or video through Transcribe. Ask Rivul, Research and agents then work across those sources.
Do I need an API key to search papers?
No. Search runs on the Rivul Index of 300M+ scholarly records and needs no key. Your own AI key is used only for AI features.
Is my unpublished work private?
When you request an AI feature, the relevant text and passages are sent to the AI provider you connected, using your own API key. Rivul AI never trains models on your drafts or library and never sells your content. Export or delete everything whenever you want.
How do answers show their sources?
Ask Rivul cites each passage with its page, and the Research notebook lists every source it found as Cited or Not used. Open the source before you rely on a claim; a cited record does not prove the claim.
Can I use Rivul from Claude, Cursor or Codex?
Yes. Rivul MCP is a remote MCP server with read-only tools for scholarly search and paper records. Each account can use it at no cost under fair-use rate limits.
Which features use my own AI key?
Only the ones where AI writes something: Ask Rivul answers, the Research brief, agent runs, PDF chat, and editor AI actions. Search papers, the Library, OCR, Transcribe, Listen, Rivul MCP, citations, and export need no AI key.
Can I ask questions across my own PDFs?
Yes. Ask Rivul searches the papers and PDFs in your library, picks the passages that answer your question, and cites each one with its page. Choose all papers, a few, or one. It runs on your own AI key.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The workspace runs in a mobile browser, with the sidebar in a menu. Long drafting and PDF reading are easier on a larger screen.
Research workflows
Common Research Workflows
Follow an evidence-first path for the research task in front of you, then inspect the product details behind it.
Bring a Source. Leave With Research.
Search, ask, research, and cite in one free workspace.
Search papers, add PDFs, or convert scans and recordings to text.
Ask your library, write a cited brief, or run a research agent.
Cite it, export it, or reach it from Claude, Cursor or Codex.
Sign in with Google.