Ask the Prof
Learn
AI research

Use the AI Research Assistant

Ask any question across every map you've made. Get a grounded answer with citations.

5 min read 6 steps
Your Second Brain isn't just a pretty tree — it's a searchable knowledge base. The AI Research Assistant pulls from every map, PDF, and highlight you've ever made, then answers your question with Claude Sonnet 4.5 grounded in that corpus. This tutorial covers asking questions, following citations, saving research notes, and Deep Research mode.
  1. 01

    Step 1 — Open Research

    Press ⌘/Ctrl + K from anywhere in the app, or click the magnifying glass in the sidebar. The Research panel slides in from the right with an empty question box.

  2. 02

    Step 2 — Ask in plain language

    Type a specific question. 'What does Popper say about falsifiability?' beats 'Popper'. The more precise your prompt, the tighter the citations. Press Enter to submit.

  3. 03

    Step 3 — Read the streaming answer

    Claude streams the response token-by-token. Every claim comes with a citation chip — hover to see the source snippet, click to jump to the exact map element or PDF highlight it's drawn from. Nothing is invented — if the corpus doesn't know, the assistant says so.

  4. 04

    Step 4 — Toggle Deep Research

    For complex questions flip the Deep Research switch in the panel header. The assistant chains multiple searches, explores relationships, and builds a longer, better-structured answer. It takes longer but handles multi-step questions beautifully.

  5. 05

    Step 5 — Save the response

    Click 'Save to Memory' to pin the answer — it becomes a research note accessible from the /memory page. Subsequent questions automatically consider your saved notes as context, so your assistant gets smarter the more you use it.

  6. 06

    Step 6 — Drop into a map

    Every paragraph of the answer has a quick-add button. Click it to insert that paragraph as a new map element on your current map, with the citation preserved as a sub-note. Your map grows organically alongside the conversation.

Pro tip: ask follow-up questions in the same session to keep Claude's context. Each new session starts fresh.
Marvex Studio logo — AI mind mapping app for PDFs and research
© 2026 marvex.app · The Ultimate Research Lab