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Grounded research, your way (Plain-language)

Technical version: ../technical/research-harness.md

What this is

On the Study & prep screen you can now pick how you want to research a job's prep materials, and then ask questions and get answers backed by real sources — with the sources shown right next to the answer so you can check them.

The choices

  • Local RAG (offline) — the new one. It reads this job's prep materials on your own computer, finds the parts that match your question, and writes an answer that quotes those parts. It shows you exactly which sources it used, with a match score. No Google or Claude account needed, and nothing leaves your machine — it uses a small AI model running locally.
  • NotebookLM (local export) — writes the prep files so you can add them to your own NotebookLM.
  • NotebookLM (send via MCP) — if you've set that up, sends them straight into your notebook.
  • Claude Project (brief) — builds a Claude Project loaded with the prep, to ask questions there.

The last three answer questions inside that other tool (under your own account). Local RAG answers right here. Local RAG is picked by default when it's ready.

How to use it

  1. Pick a harness (Local RAG is selected by default).
  2. Click Ingest prep sources — this loads the job's materials into the harness.
  3. For Local RAG, type a question and click Ask. You'll get an answer plus the exact sources it came from, each with a match score.

The promise: no making things up

The answer is only ever built from the sources it shows you. If it doesn't have enough to answer, it says so — it won't invent an answer. If the local model isn't running, it still shows you the matching sources so you can read them yourself.

Your privacy

Local RAG runs entirely on your computer. Nothing is uploaded, no account is created, no password is ever touched. The NotebookLM and Claude choices still work exactly as before, and still ask you to confirm before anything is sent anywhere.

A real example

For a Mastercard job, asking "What ATS or assessment platform does this job use?" returned: "The job uses the Workday ATS platform," with the ATS source shown underneath as the evidence.