Research Librarian

Commission background research without ever handing your manuscript to an AI.

What it does

The research librarian is a sandboxed assistant that answers research questions and saves the result as a report in your book. The guiding rule is librarian, not ghostwriter: it researches for you, it does not write your story.

By design the librarian has no access to your manuscript. It runs in a separate, isolated container and only ever sees the question you type — never your chapters, entities, or notes. Anything it produces is a standalone research report that you choose whether and how to use.

Each finished query is saved as a report inside the book it was run from (research/ in the book's history), so your research lives alongside the writing it supports rather than in a separate tool.

Research focuses

The librarian does typed research. Before it searches, it works out what kind of subject your question is about and then plans, searches, and writes using methods tuned for that subject. A question about a battle is researched like history (causes, timeline, consequences); a question about a creature is researched like natural history (habitat, behaviour, life cycle). This grounding is what makes a report read like it was written by someone who knows the field, rather than a generic web summary.

You do not have to pick the focus. The librarian classifies your question automatically, and when a question is genuinely ambiguous it pauses to ask which focus fits best. If you would rather decide yourself, set the Focus control on the run page (it defaults to Auto); choosing General runs the research without a specific domain focus. The focuses currently available:

Story and craft

• General — the catch-all when a question does not fit a specific focus
• Literary Craft — writing technique: voice, structure, rhetoric, genre conventions
• Book Summary — an existing book: plot, characters, themes, style, reception
• Comparative — comparing two or more subjects: common ground, divergences, synthesis
• Concept — explaining an idea: definition, history, applications, debates
• Psychological — character and persona analysis: behaviour, motivations, frameworks

World and setting

• Geographical — a place: geology, climate, flora, fauna, human interaction
• Species — natural history: taxonomy, distribution, diet, behaviour, reproduction, conservation
• Language — a language: classification, phonology, grammar, distribution, history
• Creative Work — a single film, album, artwork, or game: creation, form, technique, themes, reception

History and society

• Historical Event — causes, timeline, key figures, consequences, historiography
• Historical Person — life, contributions, context, legacy
• Social Movement — origins, figures, ideas, tactics, legacy
• Legal Political — a legal or political framework: structure, principles, development, comparison

Knowledge domains

• Scientific — state of knowledge, key studies, open questions
• Technical — how something works: components, mechanics, applications, trade-offs
• Medical — a condition: causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis
• Financial — financial and economic topics: explainers, company and market analysis, event post-mortems

This set grows over time as new focuses are added, so treat the list as a snapshot rather than a fixed menu.

How to use it

Open New research from the research library, or go to /books/{slug}/research/run.

Ask a question — type what you want researched in the question box. Be specific; the librarian researches the question as written and cannot infer context from your manuscript.

Pick an effort level — quick, standard (the default), thorough, or deep. Higher effort runs more sub-investigations and costs more. Start with standard and raise it only when a question needs depth.

Choose the report language (optional) — the Language control sets the language the report is written in. It defaults to your book's language (the manuscript language in the Dashboard's Publishing section), so a German book gets German reports even when your interface is in English. Pick a different language for a single run from the list the research service offers; your book's language is always available even if it is not in that list. This controls the language the librarian writes in — quoted snippets from sources may stay in their original language, so a report is localized, not translated.

Estimate the cost first (optional) — Estimate cost runs a free planning pass that shows the sub-questions the librarian would pursue and an estimated price, without spending budget. If the plan looks right, confirm it to run exactly that plan; otherwise discard and refine your question.

Run it — the transcript pane streams progress phase by phase as the librarian works. A spinner shows while it is working between updates.

Answer a clarification — for an ambiguous question the librarian may pause and ask how to interpret it. Pick the option that matches your intent and it resumes on the spot.

Cancel — a running query can be cancelled at any time from the transcript pane. (The free estimate pass cannot be cancelled; it finishes in moments.)

Read the result — when the run finishes it is saved automatically. Open it from your research library, where the report renders with full formatting. External links in a report open in a new tab so a citation never navigates you out of Skribex.

Cost and budget

Research calls a paid model, so spending is capped per month. The run page shows your spend this month, your total spend, and your effective monthly cap. When the cap is reached, new queries are paused until the budget resets (on the configured reset day); existing reports stay fully available to read.

Notes

• The librarian never reads your manuscript. If a report seems to lack context, that is expected — give the relevant detail in the question itself.
• Reports are stored as portable Markdown inside the book and are versioned with the rest of your book's history.
• Book research is searchable from the omnibar (Cmd+K) alongside your manuscript and entities.
• If the research service is offline, the run page says so and disables new queries; saved reports remain readable.