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AI Features

Ask the Story, chapter recaps, and character profiles for all SyncFiction users.

Overview

SyncFiction includes AI-powered features that help you get more out of the fictions you read. Ask the Story and Recap work on every fiction in your Library; character profiles are shown on any fiction's page.

All AI features are available to all users, within a daily limit.

Preparing a fiction

After you add a fiction, SyncFiction prepares its text for the AI features in the background. Until that's done, the Ask and Recap buttons are grayed out and show "Processing...".

Ask the Story

Ask the Story lets you ask questions about a fiction and get answers grounded in the actual text. It searches the fiction for relevant passages and answers based on them, with links to the chapters it drew from.

How to use it

  1. •
    Open a fiction from your Library (or use the buttons directly on its Library card)
  2. •
    Click Ask — the Ask the Story panel opens
  3. •
    Type your question (e.g. "What happened to the protagonist in chapter 12?" or "How does the magic system work?")
  4. •
    The AI searches through the fiction's content and responds with relevant information

Spoiler awareness

Ask the Story searches across all available chapters. If you haven't caught up yet, responses may contain spoilers from later chapters.

What works well

  • •
    Questions about specific events, characters, or plot points
  • •
    "What happened when..." or "How does X relate to Y?"
  • •
    Clarifying confusing plot elements or magic systems
  • •
    Finding specific scenes or quotes

Chapter Recaps

Recaps provide an AI-generated "Previously On..." summary, helping you remember what happened before continuing a fiction you haven't read in a while.

How to use it

  1. •
    Open a fiction from your Library (or use the buttons directly on its Library card)
  2. •
    Click Recap — the Previously On... panel opens
  3. •
    Under Where did you leave off?, pick the last chapter you read. It defaults to the last chapter you sent to your e-reader
  4. •
    Click Generate — the recap covers chapter 1 up to the chapter you picked, so it contains no spoilers beyond it

Processing time

Recaps are generated on demand and may take a moment depending on how many chapters they cover.

Characters

SyncFiction automatically detects the characters in each fiction and builds a reference of who appears in the story.

How to use it

  1. •
    Open any fiction's detail page
  2. •
    Scroll to the Characters section (it appears once character detection has finished for that fiction)
  3. •
    Search or browse the characters and open one to see their full profile

Spoiler gate

Set your current chapter in the Characters section or on a character's page to limit descriptions to what you've already read, avoiding spoilers from later content.

Daily Limits

Ask the Story and Recaps share one daily allowance of 10 questions or recaps per day.

The Ask the Story panel shows how many you have left. The allowance resets at midnight UTC. Browsing character profiles doesn't count toward it.

FAQ

Can I use AI features on any fiction?

Ask the Story and Recap are available for fictions in your Library — add a fiction first to use them. Character profiles are shown on every fiction's page, whether or not it's in your Library.

Why are the Ask and Recap buttons grayed out?

The fiction is still being prepared for the AI features. This happens automatically after it's added — try again in a few minutes.

Why is the AI response inaccurate?

Ask the Story works best with specific questions. Broad or ambiguous questions may return less relevant results. Try rephrasing your question to be more specific.

Why does the AI mention events I haven't read yet?

Ask the Story searches across all chapters. For a spoiler-free refresher, use a Recap up to your current chapter, or the spoiler gate in the Characters section.

What models does SyncFiction use?

Ask the Story, recaps, and character descriptions are generated with Google's Gemini models. OpenAI is used for text embeddings (finding relevant passages) and for background analysis such as summaries and character detection.

What's Next?