How-To Guides
Welcome to Marvin. These guides walk you through every common task — from starting your first project to reviewing your findings. For a quick orientation first, see getting started.
Start a research project
Click New Project in the sidebar. Marvin will ask you for a few things to get going:
- A project name — something clear and descriptive.
- Your research question — the concrete question you want answered. Specific questions produce better results than vague ones. For example, instead of "study protein folding," write "Identify the key structural features that distinguish misfolded proteins in early-onset Alzheimer's."
- Data (optional) — any files, datasets, or background material you want Marvin to consider.
From your inputs, Marvin drafts a plan of attack. Review it, and when it captures what you're after, click Approve and launch. Not quite right? Click Refine with Marvin and tell Marvin what to change — it will revise the plan before you approve.
For a deeper tour of the interface, see navigating the UI.
Give Marvin context
The quality of Marvin's output depends on the quality of your input. Be specific about what you want to learn — state the exact question rather than a broad topic. Include any relevant background, constraints, or prior knowledge you want Marvin to consider.
Define what success looks like. If you're looking for a particular format, a specific depth of analysis, or results scoped to certain conditions, say so upfront. The more clearly you communicate your intent, the more useful the output.
You can refine or redirect at any point during a run. If the initial results aren't quite what you needed, send a follow-up — Marvin adapts to new direction mid-stream.
To see the range of tasks Marvin can take on, see what Marvin can do.
Review a run's results
Find your run in the project history. Click into it to open the findings panel, where all results are organized for easy review.
Each finding displays three key pieces of information: the conclusion, the evidence that supports it, and a confidence level. This structure helps you quickly assess what Marvin found and how certain the answer is.
Use the filters to narrow results by confidence level. If you refined your question over the course of a run, filtering lets you isolate the most relevant findings without wading through everything.
Build on previous findings
Start a new run from within the same project. Marvin automatically has access to that project's full history — every prior result — so you don't need to copy anything over.
Just tell Marvin in plain language which earlier results you want to build on and what new angle to explore. For example: "Take the structural findings from my last run and test them against this new dataset."
Use this to dig deeper into a specific finding, test its assumptions with new data, or expand the scope to related questions. Each run can stand alone or layer on what came before.
Manage your billing
Check your current usage at any time by clicking the account indicator in the sidebar (your name and plan badge at the bottom). It opens your account details, where you'll find your usage, balance, and recent activity.
To add credits, click Add credits and choose an amount. Credits are applied immediately, never expire, and can be used across any project in your account.
You can view your plan and manage upgrades from the same account panel. You can also set a spending cap to control monthly costs — Marvin will stop running once it's reached, and you'll get the option to increase the cap, upgrade, or add credits.
For the full picture on plans, credits, and spending caps, see plans and billing.
Review or share findings
Open the findings panel to review everything Marvin produced. You can read each finding's conclusion, supporting evidence, and confidence level directly in-app, and copy a finding's contents to paste into a doc, wiki, or message to colleagues.
Findings live in your project, so you can return to them any time and copy what you need whenever you need it.
Stop or pause a run
Click Stop Marvin in the top bar at any time. The run pauses immediately, preserving everything computed up to that point, and any findings produced so far are saved.
You can resume a paused run later, or review the partial results right away. Nothing is lost when you interrupt.
If you need to redirect mid-run, stopping gives you a clean break point. Resume when you're ready with an updated question or approach.
Ask for help
If something isn't working as expected or you have questions, reach out to [email protected]. Include what you were trying to do, what happened (or didn't happen), and the name of your project so we can investigate quickly.
For common questions, check our FAQ first — you may find a quick answer there. For anything else, see contact & support for full details.
Most inquiries receive a response within 1-2 business days. For urgent issues affecting active runs, mention it explicitly in your email subject line.