Ask Rivul
Ask Rivul is RAG over your Library: it finds the relevant passages in the papers you pick, answers with your AI provider, and cites each passage by page.
On this page
Ask a question
- Step 1: Open Ask Rivul in the sidebar, under Write.
- Step 2: Type a question about your papers, or pick a starter: Summarize my papers, Compare methods, or Find open questions.
- Step 3: Press Enter or click Send question. The answer streams in with numbered citations.
Ask Rivul needs an AI provider connected in Settings → AI provider. Your provider bills you for each answer.
Choose what Rivul AI reads
By default Ask Rivul reads All my papers. The sources button under the question box names the current sources (All my papers, a number of papers, Rivul Index, or Add sources when none are picked); click it to open Choose what Rivul AI reads. Under Your library, pick All my papers to search every paper with extracted text, Choose papers and PDFs to pick up to 6, or No sources (general AI).
Turn on Rivul Index to add indexed scholarly papers as evidence. Asking across all your papers uses your library only, so the Rivul Index is off while All my papers is selected.
With no sources, the answer is labeled as a general AI answer and is not checked against sources. Only papers with extracted text can be read; if none are ready, the dialog links to Library.
Read the answer and its passages
An answer from your library lists the passages it cites, each with its paper and page. Click Open in reader to see the passage in the PDF before you quote or cite it.
If no passage matches, Ask Rivul says No matching passages in your library instead of answering from general knowledge. If sources were found but the model did not answer, the sources stay listed and the answer is marked unavailable.
A cited passage shows where an answer came from. It does not prove the answer is right, so read the passage before you rely on it.
How retrieval works
When a PDF is added, Rivul AI splits its extracted text into passages and indexes them for full-text and meaning-based search on its own server. At question time it retrieves up to 8 passages for the answer and sends only those passages and your question to your AI provider.
Adding a PDF sends nothing to an AI provider. See Privacy and AI use for exactly what leaves your account.
Something here wrong or missing? Use the contact form.