AI-native literature review workbench with citation grounding and contradiction detection. Ask a research question in the chat, review the proposed outline, and get a grounded literature review with verified citations — then keep editing it conversationally.
~15K lines (Python engine + React workbench) · 49 tests · 14 CLI commands · 19 API endpoints · 6 search sources
You: "Review CRISPR knockout strategies in CHO cells for productivity improvement"
LitScribe:
1. Plans research → proposes an editable section outline (skeleton-first)
→ you confirm / toggle / reorder sections, add constraints
2. Searches 6 academic databases → 50+ papers found
3. Filters + analyzes the most relevant papers (full-text when available)
4. Detects contradictions between papers
5. Writes the review section-by-section with live progress
6. Reviewer ↔ Synthesizer debate (2 rounds)
7. Verifies every citation against source paper (grounding)
8. Self-evaluates quality, loops back if needed
→ Review with [@key] citations, BibTeX, comparison table, timeline
→ Then refine it in chat ("更正式一点", "add a section on X") with version history
| Capability | LitScribe | ChatGPT | Elicit | PaperQA2 | SurveyG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-source search (6 databases, 325M+ papers) | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Citation grounding (verify every claim) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Contradiction detection (opposing findings) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅* | ❌ |
| Multi-agent debate (reviewer ↔ synthesizer) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Metacognitive quality loop | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Cross-lingual (Chinese ↔ English) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Local paper modes (draft/outline/augment) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Full-text via Unpaywall (68% OA coverage) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Auto methodology comparison table | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Research timeline (foundation→frontier) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Pandoc [@key] + BibTeX export | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Session persistence + knowledge base | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
PaperQA2/ContraCrow detects contradictions but doesn't generate reviews.
1. Contradiction-Aware Synthesis Existing tools either generate reviews (ignoring contradictions) or detect contradictions (without writing reviews). LitScribe is the first to do both end-to-end: detect → inject into narrative → present as critical analysis.
2. Metacognitive Quality Loop After self-review, the system evaluates which pipeline steps failed and autonomously re-runs them with adjusted strategy. Not just "loop back and try again" — it reasons about what to fix and how.
3. Search-Augmented Refinement When users say "add a section about X", LitScribe doesn't hallucinate — it searches for new papers on X first, analyzes them, then writes the section with real citations from newly found papers.
git clone https://github.com/arnold117/LitScribe.git
cd LitScribe
conda create -n litscribe python=3.12 && conda activate litscribe
pip install -e ".[dev]"
litscribe init # Interactive setup wizard (writes .env)
# or: cp .env.example .env and set llm-key, llm-location, llm-model
litscribe serve # Web workbench at localhost:8000 (recommended)
litscribe chat # Terminal — understands natural language
litscribe review "CRISPR CHO knockout" -n 12 # Direct CLI reviewThe prebuilt frontend ships under litscribe/api/static/dist, so litscribe serve
works out of the box. To develop the UI: cd frontend && npm install && npm run dev.
litscribe serve opens a three-panel chat-first workbench (React + TipTap):
┌──────────────┬───────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
│ Sidebar │ Editor (TipTap) │ Chat │
│ │ │ │
│ Sessions │ Rich-text review with │ Ask, plan, │
│ Versions │ citation hover tooltips, │ refine. │
│ Files │ track-changes diff, │ Live progress, │
│ Graph │ core / appendix split │ Stop & Retry, │
│ │ │ / commands │
└──────────────┴───────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘
- Skeleton-first generation — plan the outline, confirm it, then generate per-section
- Live progress — see searching / reading / writing per section, with a Stop button
- Multi-turn refine — edits resolve against recent conversation; every change is versioned
- Slash commands —
/grill-me,/diagnose,/abstract,/consistency,/search - Sidebar tabs — Sessions, Versions (restore any snapshot), Files (uploads + exports), Citation Graph
- Editor — citation hover cards, word-level track-changes, APA / Vancouver / bracket export, core vs. appendix
- Retry — failed requests (network, upstream LLM) offer one-click retry
sequenceDiagram
actor User
participant S as Supervisor<br/>(DeepAgents)
participant P as Pipeline
User->>S: "写个关于CRISPR的综述"
S->>S: Understand intent + confirm
S->>P: run_review(question, 12 papers)
rect rgb(240, 248, 255)
Note over P: Deterministic Pipeline
P->>P: 1. Plan (decompose sub-topics)
P->>P: 2. Search (6 academic databases)
P->>P: 3. Unpaywall (OA full-text lookup)
P->>P: 4. Read (analyze each paper)
P->>P: 5. Contradictions (pairwise)
P->>P: 6. Synthesize (parallel sections)
P->>P: 7. Debate (reviewer ↔ synthesizer)
P->>P: 8. Ground (verify citations)
P->>P: 9. Review (self-evaluate)
end
alt Score < 0.65
P->>P: Metacognition → re-run steps
end
P->>P: Save (session + knowledge base)
P-->>S: Review + References + BibTeX
S-->>User: 1,500 word review, score 0.82
graph LR
subgraph "Parallel Section Generation"
A[Intro] --> F[Assemble]
B[Theme 1] --> F
C[Theme 2] --> F
D[Conclusion] --> F
end
F --> G[+ Comparison Table]
G --> H[+ Research Timeline]
H --> I[+ Statistical Summary]
I --> J[+ Figure Suggestions]
J --> K[+ References]
subgraph "Quality Assurance"
K --> L[Debate<br/>2 rounds]
L --> M[Ground<br/>verify citations]
M --> N{Score ≥ 0.65?}
end
N -->|Yes| O[Done ✓]
N -->|No| P[Metacognition<br/>→ re-run]
graph TB
Q[Research Question] --> PLAN[LLM Plan<br/>sub-topics + queries]
PLAN --> |parallel| OA[OpenAlex<br/>250M+]
PLAN --> |parallel| EPM[Europe PMC<br/>40M+]
PLAN --> |parallel| PM[PubMed<br/>35M+]
PLAN --> |parallel| S2[Semantic Scholar<br/>200M+]
PLAN --> |parallel| AR[arXiv<br/>2M+]
PLAN --> |parallel| CR[CrossRef<br/>140M+]
OA --> DEDUP[DOI Dedup]
EPM --> DEDUP
PM --> DEDUP
S2 --> DEDUP
AR --> DEDUP
CR --> DEDUP
DEDUP --> KW[Keyword Filter]
KW --> LLM[LLM Selection<br/>top N relevant]
LLM --> UPW[Unpaywall<br/>OA PDF lookup]
UPW --> OUT[Papers<br/>ready for analysis]
style OA fill:#e8f5e9
style EPM fill:#e8f5e9
style PM fill:#e3f2fd
style S2 fill:#e8f5e9
style AR fill:#fff3e0
style CR fill:#e8f5e9
Every [@key] citation is verified against the source paper's actual findings. Unsupported claims are auto-detected and rewritten. Grounding accuracy: 83-100%.
Pairwise comparison finds opposing conclusions across papers:
[@cho2025]: "FUT8 knockout had no negative effect on cell growth"
[@lin2020]: "FUT8 knockout reduced cell viability by 40%"
→ Classified as "opposing_conclusions" (major) → injected into review
After synthesis, a reviewer agent critiques the review → synthesizer revises → up to 2 rounds. Catches unsupported claims, missing perspectives, weak synthesis.
System evaluates its own output and decides which pipeline steps to re-run (search? synthesize?) with adjusted strategy. Saves strategy to knowledge base for future reviews.
| Source | Coverage | Domain |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | 250M+ | All |
| Europe PMC | 40M+ | Life science |
| PubMed | 35M+ | Biomedical |
| Semantic Scholar | 200M+ | All |
| arXiv | 2M+ | CS/Physics/Math |
| CrossRef | 140M+ | All (incl. Chinese) |
Domain-aware: auto-skips arXiv for biology/medicine/chemistry. LLM-based paper selection filters irrelevant results. Unpaywall enriches 68% of papers with open-access full text.
litscribe draft my_review.md paper1.pdf paper2.pdf # Analyze your draft
litscribe outline *.pdf refs.bib # "What review can I write?"
litscribe augment "CRISPR delivery" papers/*.pdf # Your papers + online search"写个关于transformer的综述，3个主题" → run_review (Chinese)
"我有几篇论文的摘要，帮我看看能写什么" → suggest_outline
"加一段关于delivery methods" → refine_review (searches new papers first)
"这篇综述适合什么人看" → assess_reading_level
HMAC integrity on knowledge base (detect data poisoning), prompt injection filter, XSS prevention, rate limiting, PDF URL domain whitelist, parameterized SQL.
| Domain | Score | Papers | Words | Grounding | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biology (CHO CRISPR) | 0.82 | 9 | 1649 | 83% | 106s |
| CS (LLM reasoning) | 0.72 | 12 | 1535 | 63% | 121s |
| Medicine (scRNA-seq TME) | 0.65 | 12 | 1709 | 68% | 115s |
| CS (transformer attention) | 0.55 | 12 | 1643 | 62% | 153s |
| Chemistry (sesquiterpene) | 0.55 | 3 | 1338 | 100% | 103s |
Self-review score (0-1). Grounding = % citations verified against source paper.
LitScribe runs on any of three providers, selected via LLM_PROVIDER:
- openai (default) — any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (DeepSeek, Qwen, OpenAI, …)
- anthropic — Claude models (
pip install langchain-anthropic) - ollama — local models, no API key (
pip install langchain-ollama)
Beyond full reviews, 7 task templates reuse the pipeline with tailored prompts:
related-work · grant-background · research-proposal · abstract-generate ·
abstract-rewrite · translation · rebuttal.
A skills pack under skills/ exposes LitScribe workflows inside Claude Code:
lit-discuss · lit-search · writing-diagnosis · bib-format · quick-abstract.
# .env — 3 required vars (default: any OpenAI-compatible endpoint)
llm-key=sk-your-key
llm-location=https://api.deepseek.com/
llm-model=deepseek-v4-flash
# Optional: switch provider
LLM_PROVIDER=openai # openai | anthropic | ollama
# Optional (improve search coverage)
NCBI_EMAIL=your@email.com
NCBI_API_KEY=your-key
SEMANTIC_SCHOLAR_API_KEY=your-key| Command | Description |
|---|---|
litscribe init |
Interactive setup wizard — writes .env |
litscribe chat |
Interactive chat — understands intent, confirms before expensive ops |
litscribe review "question" |
Direct pipeline with progress display |
litscribe from-outline outline.md |
Generate a review from your own outline |
litscribe draft file.md *.pdf |
Analyze your draft against references |
litscribe outline *.pdf |
Suggest review structure from papers |
litscribe augment "topic" *.pdf |
Your papers + online search → review |
litscribe sessions |
List past reviews |
litscribe export markdown |
Export to file |
litscribe evaluate |
Benchmark across 5 domains |
litscribe serve |
Web workbench with SSE streaming |
litscribe skills |
View learned research skills |
| Method | Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|---|
| POST | /api/plan |
Research plan → proposed outline skeleton |
| POST | /api/review |
SSE streaming review pipeline |
| POST | /api/outline-review |
SSE per-section generation from an outline |
| POST | /api/upload-outline |
Parse uploaded .docx/.md/.txt outline |
| POST | /api/refine |
Modify review with chat history (returns diff) |
| POST | /api/chat |
Conversational endpoint |
| POST | /api/draft-review |
Analyze draft text |
| POST | /api/outline |
Suggest review from paper abstracts |
| POST | /api/compare-reviews |
Compare multiple past reviews |
| POST | /api/setup |
Save configuration from setup wizard |
| GET | /api/health |
Configuration status |
| GET | /api/sessions · /api/sessions/{id} |
List / view past reviews |
| GET | /api/share/{id} |
Shareable HTML page |
| GET | /api/claims |
Citation verification data |
| GET | /api/citation-network |
Paper relationship graph (Mermaid) |
| GET | /api/readability |
Reading level assessment |
| GET | /api/export/{format} |
Export (markdown/bibtex) |
- Thematic analysis with
[@key]Pandoc citations - ## References with BibTeX-compatible keys
- ## Methodology Comparison — table across all papers
- ## Research Timeline — foundation → development → frontier
- ## Statistical Summary — extracted p-values, effect sizes, sample sizes
- ## Suggested Figures — recommended visualizations with placement
litscribe/ Python engine (~12K lines)
├── agents.py DeepAgents supervisor + multi-provider model builder
├── config.py env config (openai / anthropic / ollama)
├── llm/adapter.py Uniform model interface
├── cli/main.py 14 CLI commands
├── api/app.py 19 API endpoints + serves the workbench
├── tools/
│ ├── pipeline.py 11-step deterministic pipeline
│ ├── search.py 6-source search + retry + cache
│ ├── contradictions.py Paper-level + claim-level detection
│ ├── debate.py Reviewer ↔ synthesizer (2 rounds)
│ ├── grounding.py Citation verification + auto-fix
│ ├── metacognition.py Self-aware quality loop
│ ├── synthesis.py Parallel section generation
│ ├── comparison.py Methodology table + timeline
│ ├── analytics.py Statistics, citation network, readability
│ ├── claim_chain.py Claim → evidence tracing
│ ├── cite_keys.py Pandoc [@key] + BibTeX
│ ├── refinement.py Search-augmented modification
│ ├── benchmark.py Multi-domain evaluation
│ ├── local_review.py Draft analysis, outline suggestion
│ ├── sanitize.py Prompt injection filter
│ ├── integrity.py HMAC data integrity
│ ├── diff.py Colored diff display
│ ├── output.py Auto-save with versioning
│ └── status.py PipelineState + routing
├── services/ arXiv, PubMed, S2, OpenAlex, EuropePMC, CrossRef, Unpaywall, Zotero, PDF
├── models/ Paper, ResearchPlan, PaperAnalysis, ReviewOutput, ReviewAssessment
├── store/ SQLite sessions, knowledge base (HMAC), vectors
├── evolution/ 3-tier memory + SkillEvolver
├── plugins/graphrag/ Entity extraction, Leiden communities
├── exporters/ BibTeX, citation formatter, Pandoc
└── prompts/ LLM prompts + 7 writing templates
frontend/ React + TipTap workbench (~3K lines)
├── src/App.tsx State, generation flows, persistence
├── src/api.ts Typed API client + SSE reader
└── src/components/ Sidebar (4 tabs), Editor, Chat, DiffView, SetupWizard
skills/ Claude Code skills pack (5 skills)
conda activate litscribe
pytest tests/ # 49 tests
litscribe evaluate # Benchmark
litscribe --helpMIT