How to use
Tapasya is a recommendation system built on top of RAG.
Free access comes first: open search, ask a real question, and use the same app surface across search, passage chat, reading list, and essay. Tapasya retrieves passages, narrows them into evidence, answers with citations, and keeps updating a reading trail so the next turn can get sharper.
Free access
Tapasya is publicly accessible. Free users get the real product, not a stripped-down mode: search, passage conversation, reading list, and essay all live on the same path.
The limits are on usage and persistence, not on which features you are allowed to see. Sign in when you want longer-lived history and saved work.
Start with a real question
Tapasya works best when you ask something with stakes, not a keyword query. The system is built for live inquiry: confusion, tension, comparison, revision.
How do I build deeper friendships?Why do I keep resenting the work I depend on?What kind of honesty is Nietzsche asking for here?
Search does more than answer
A search turn does not just return text. It loads session context, searches the corpus, selects the strongest passages, generates a cited answer, and updates the reading list for the next turn.
Immediate output
A grounded answer with citations back to passages.
Persistent state
An evidence trail: passage registry, reading list, and journey context.
Use the reading list as the main recommendation surface
The reading list is not a bookmark tray. It is the visible recommendation layer built from the same evidence pass that grounded the answer. As the conversation gets longer, the system has more useful state to refine what you should read next.
If a search result matters, open the cited passage. If a passage keeps surviving across turns, treat that as signal.
Move into passage mode when one source becomes central
Search is for orientation. Passage conversation is for pressure. Once one passage is clearly doing the work, stop staying broad and interrogate that text directly.
This is where Tapasya becomes more useful than ordinary chat. You are no longer asking a model for a theme. You are testing one source against your question.
Use essay mode to turn reading into thought
Essay mode is where orientation turns into authorship. Bring over the question, the passages, and the tensions that survived search. Draft something. Then use the companion to tighten, challenge, or deepen it.
Search finds material. Passage mode sharpens interpretation. Essay mode forces ownership.
What to optimize for
- Follow citations back to the source whenever the answer matters.
- Treat repeated passages in the reading list as evidence, not decoration.
- Use shorter follow-up questions once the inquiry has narrowed.
- Move into essay mode when you need a position, not just orientation.
- Treat the assistant as a thinking aid, not an authority.