Read papers in batches, extract evidence, and organize a source-grounded literature review you can keep editing.
The slow part of a literature review is never the writing. It is reading fifty to a hundred papers, tracking who claimed what, who contradicted whom, and which findings genuinely disagree, then reorganizing all of it into a line of argument that actually holds together. Skip that and you end up with a pile of abstracts rather than a review.
The review agent takes over that stage. You hand it the papers; it reads each one, extracts claims and evidence, clusters them by theme, and gives you an outline to approve before writing a single section. Once you approve it, the agent drafts section by section with citation numbering maintained throughout. What you get back is a long-form document you can keep editing, not a chat reply.
What it can do
Hundreds of papers per project
Upload PDFs in bulk. Each paper is read in full rather than sampled, and its research question, method, data, and conclusion are extracted. Where papers genuinely disagree, the conflict is flagged instead of averaged away.
Outline first, prose second
It does not dump a finished essay on you. It groups the literature by theme, proposes an outline with a clear narrative spine, and waits while you reorder sections, add themes, or drop them.
Citations stay consistent
In-text citations and the reference list share one numbering scheme. Add or remove a paper mid-draft and the numbers renumber, so you never end up citing [12] against a ten-item list.
Editable after delivery
The output is a document you keep working on. Ask for one section to be rewritten, reframed, or extended with newly found papers without regenerating the whole review.
How it works
Collect and readUpload the PDFs you already have, or let the agent search academic sources by topic. Every paper is read end to end, not skimmed.
Extract and clusterResearch question, method, sample, headline findings, and stated limitations are pulled from each paper, then related studies are grouped and points of agreement and conflict are identified.
Propose an outline and pauseThe clusters become a narrative structure delivered as a section-level outline. The agent stops here for your input, so you never discover a structural problem after a full draft exists.
Draft and iterateSections are written against the approved outline with citations attached as it goes. Afterwards any single section can be revised on its own.
Worked examples
A thesis literature review chapter
Here are 80 papers on large language models in educational assessment. Turn this into my thesis review chapter, focused on how the methods have shifted over the past few years.
First an outline organized as early rule-based work, the statistical learning period, the LLM era, and open disputes; after approval, a fully cited chapter draft.
A review article for submission
I am writing a review on gut microbiota and metabolic disease. Start by showing me which findings from the last five years actually contradict each other.
A list of genuine conflicts with supporting papers on each side, the sample differences involved, and plausible explanations, ready to become the disputes-and-outlook section.
Frequently asked questions
How many papers can it handle at once?
Batches in the hundreds. With large sets it reads in stages and retains a structured summary of every paper, so earlier reading is not lost as the count grows.
Will it invent references that do not exist?
The review is built from the papers you supply plus real sources it retrieves, and every citation points at a specific one. When a claim has no support in the available material, it says the material is insufficient rather than inventing a plausible-looking citation.
Can I submit the output directly?
You get a structurally complete, fully cited draft that removes the synthesis and drafting time. The scholarly judgement and final verification remain yours, so read it through before submitting anywhere.
Does it work with non-English papers?
Yes. Chinese and English sources can be mixed in one project, and the output language is whatever you specify regardless of the source language.