Research
Research is a notebook: each run searches the Rivul Index and your library, then writes a cited brief and a findings table with your AI provider.
On this page
Open Research
Click Research in the sidebar, under Write, to open a research note, or open Research inside a paper to keep drafting and evidence side by side. In the note, Cite adds a source to the most recently edited paper.
Start broad, then narrow
Both sources are on by default: Rivul Index and the usable text in your library. Turn one off to search only indexed papers or only your saved sources; at least one stays on. Inside a paper, Research also offers This paper.
Library grounding requires extracted text. If the library has only metadata records or unusable extracts, the Library source stays off and the note explains why, so you can continue with indexed papers.
The sources apply to the next question. Sources from earlier questions stay listed in the note but do not silently constrain a new topic.
Ask and refine
Type a natural research question, comparison, or claim to test, then click Run research. Short academic terms such as RAG and LLM are accepted and expanded for scholarly retrieval when their meaning is known.
While a run works, a progress card shows its three steps: Search sources, Select evidence, and Write cited brief. Stop ends the run.
Each follow-up is added to the note as a new section, so one note keeps the whole line of questioning.
Read the brief and its sources
Each section lists its sources, numbered as the brief cites them. Cited marks a source the brief or findings reference; Not used marks one that was found but not cited. Click a number such as [2] to highlight that source.
Sources sit in a column beside the note on wide screens, where Hide sources gives the note the full width. On narrower screens they follow the note. Copy BibTeX copies every source in the note.
Search works without an AI key. If the brief cannot be written, for example because no AI provider is connected, the sources found stay listed and the note says what failed. A paper list or abstract is never presented as a completed model answer.
Use evidence in a paper
Inside a manuscript, Use answer in paper inserts the completed answer as editable draft text. Each finding also has its own actions: Use in paper inserts a finding with its citation, Add cautious summary inserts a hedged account of a disagreement, and Note as limitation records a gap.
Cite adds a bibliographic record; Save to library retains an external paper. Always open the source and verify the claim before keeping generated prose.
Rivul Index coverage
Papers uses the Rivul Index. If scholarly retrieval is unavailable or partial, Rivul AI states that limitation instead of hiding it.
For similar-paper discovery from a saved source, open Library and click the Find related papers action on its row. Rivul AI combines overlap inside your library with indexed recommendations when they are available.
Agents and Ask Rivul
For a question that needs many searches, run a research agent; it writes a cited report and keeps every step in Runs. For a question about your own papers, Ask Rivul answers from their passages.
Something here wrong or missing? Use the contact form.