SixSentences

An inspectable research workspace—from literature discovery to evidence, data, figures, and writing.

Discover evidence  ·  Analyse research data  ·  Trace decisions  ·  Build research workflows

Website  ·  Hosted app  ·  Get started  ·  Web client  ·  Roadmap  ·  Contributing

_{The repository includes the sanitized workspace client in apps/web; hosted infrastructure and commercial services remain separate.}

Important

Early alpha (v0.1.0-alpha.1). Public APIs, UI contracts, and serialized outputs may change. SixSentences makes transformations and assumptions easier to inspect; it does not guarantee an exhaustive search, methodological compliance, or scientifically valid conclusions.

What is open

SixSentences is broader than a systematic-review library. This repository opens two complementary parts of the research workspace while keeping their runtime boundary explicit:

Surface	What is included	Runtime boundary
Research engine	A typed Python library and CLI for literature discovery, local corpora, evidence synthesis, reporting, and bounded research-data analysis	Runs locally; only explicitly named connectors use the network
Web client	A sanitized Next.js interface spanning search, library, projects, data, figures, surveys, interviews, knowledge, brainstorming, and manuscript workflows	Requires a separately supplied compatible API; it is not a standalone backend

The Python package is not the server for the web client. Opening both surfaces lets contributors inspect and extend the research logic and the workspace interface without pretending that the complete hosted SaaS stack is present.

What ships today

Discover and organize evidence

• Parse Boolean queries into a typed syntax tree and compile parameterized DuckDB predicates.
• Search public scholarly metadata through the explicit OpenAlex connector, or export query syntax for PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore with translation losses surfaced to the caller.
• Build and verify a checksummed, caller-owned DuckDB/Parquet corpus from WorkRecord JSONL; no scholarly corpus or full text is bundled.
• Deduplicate valid canonical DOIs, preserve companion-report relationships, follow citation links, and rank records with decomposed signals.

Analyse caller-owned research data

• Import bounded CSV, TSV, JSON, and ordinary first-worksheet XLSX tables with explicit file, row, column, cell, archive, and decompression limits.
• Reject oversized or ambiguous inputs instead of silently sampling or truncating them.
• Profile every accepted row deterministically, including missingness, types, cardinality, top values, and numeric summaries.
• Run typed recipes for missingness, descriptive statistics, grouped summaries, complete-case Pearson correlation, and classic DerSimonian–Laird random-effects pooling, with method limits returned beside each result.

Trace methods and outputs

• Calibrate screening decisions, inspect exploratory reviewer INCLUDE-vote overlap, match source quotations, and record method profiles.
• Estimate capture-frequency coverage with Chao2 only after the caller makes the required independence assertion; an estimate is never presented as proof of completeness.
• Render caller-supplied PRISMA 2020 counts as text or deterministic SVG and construct PRISMA-S-style search records without claiming compliance.
• Validate externally generated query expansions without bundling an LLM, provider key, or agent loop.

Inspect and extend the workspace interface

The web client exposes the broader product vocabulary in source: literature runs and review, a research library, project context, Data Lab, Visual Lab, surveys, interviews, knowledge, brainstorming, and manuscript/LaTeX workspaces. It includes browser-side state, typed API calls, streaming progress, source and provenance displays, accessibility behavior, and focused UI tests.

These interfaces only become functional when connected to an API implementing their contracts. Hosted AI execution, persistence, authentication services, email delivery, and collaboration services are not supplied by this repository.

Repository map

.
├── src/sixsentences/   # Python research engine
├── tests/              # Python unit, contract, and adversarial tests
├── apps/web/           # Sanitized Next.js research-workspace client
├── docs/               # Project and release documentation
└── .github/            # Contribution, security, and release automation

The GitHub source tree contains both open surfaces. The Python wheel and source distribution published with a release contain the sixsentences-engine package, not a bundled web deployment.

Open-source and hosted boundary

Capability	This repository	Separately operated
Query translation, local corpus search, ranking, screening, and research-data primitives	Python library and CLI	Integrated hosted workflows may build on related concepts
Multi-workflow research workspace UI	Sanitized Next.js client source	Production deployment and compatible API
Accounts and authentication	Client-side flows and API contracts only	Identity, session, email, and account services
AI providers and orchestration	No provider keys or hosted orchestration	Model execution and provider operations
Billing, subscriptions, administration, and service operations	Excluded	Hosted service
Marketing and landing website	Excluded	sixsentences.com
Browser extension and macOS companion	Excluded from this release	Separately distributed products
Customer data, production configuration, backups, and analytics infrastructure	Excluded	Hosted service

This is therefore an open-source engine and web client, not yet a complete self-hosting stack. A compatible API can be implemented independently; the public compatibility contract will be hardened and documented over time.

Quick start

Python engine

SixSentences supports Python 3.12–3.14. Until a package-index release exists, install the exact alpha wheel from GitHub Releases:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install \
  https://github.com/SixSentences/sixsentences/releases/download/v0.1.0-alpha.1/sixsentences_engine-0.1.0a1-py3-none-any.whl
sixsentences --help

Parse once, then inspect what a target can and cannot preserve:

sixsentences query \
  '("active learning" OR screen*) AND review' \
  --target openalex

Profile and analyse a small synthetic dataset:

printf 'group,score\nA,2\nA,4\nB,8\n' > observations.csv
sixsentences data-profile observations.csv
sixsentences data-analyze observations.csv group-summary \
  --group-by group --value-column score --metric mean

Web client

The web client requires Node.js 22.9 or newer and a compatible API. Public configuration is read at build time; do not place secrets in NEXT_PUBLIC_* variables.

git clone https://github.com/SixSentences/sixsentences.git
cd sixsentences/apps/web
cp .env.example .env.local
npm ci
npm run dev

The development UI is then available at http://localhost:3000. A successful page render does not imply that API-backed actions are available. See apps/web/README.md for the configuration and integration contract.

Command-line map

Command	Purpose	Network
query	Parse and compile for DuckDB, OpenAlex, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, or IEEE Xplore	No
corpus-build	Build a checksummed local corpus from WorkRecord JSONL	No
corpus-search	Verify and search a caller-owned local corpus	No
rank	Rank JSONL work records against a typed review protocol	No
coverage	Estimate capture-frequency coverage with explicit assumptions	No
prisma	Render caller-supplied PRISMA counts as text or SVG	No
expansion-validate	Validate externally generated query candidates	No
data-profile	Import and deterministically profile a bounded table	No
data-analyze	Run an explicit deterministic analysis recipe	No
openalex-search	Fetch public scholarly metadata from OpenAlex	Yes

Run sixsentences <command> --help for the complete input contract. The OpenAlex command reads an optional key from OPENALEX_API_KEY; never commit keys or sensitive research data.

Architecture

flowchart LR
    subgraph OSS[This repository]
        E[Python engine and CLI]
        W[Next.js web client]
    end
    I[Caller-owned metadata and tables] --> E
    E --> O[Inspectable local outputs]
    W --> A[Compatible API]
    A -. independently implemented .-> S[Research services and storage]
    H[Hosted SixSentences] -. one compatible deployment .-> W

Loading

The engine keeps local transformations explicit and names networked operations. The web client is a separate browser application: its configured API origin is a trust boundary, and research content sent through it is governed by that API's deployment and policies.

Reproducibility and limits

• Pin the exact engine release or commit and complete environment; preserve input hashes, query strings, recipe parameters, and the repository revision.
• Pass an explicit reference year to ranking when a stable replay matters.
• Table profiles use every accepted row. Import limits are safety and scientific-integrity boundaries, not a sampling policy.
• XLSX support reads the first worksheet and cached scalar values without executing formulas, macros, scripts, external relationships, or embedded objects.
• Ranking scores prioritize inspection; correlations do not establish causation; pooled effects do not validate comparability, bias, or an analysis plan.
• PRISMA rendering consumes explicit counters. It cannot infer that a review or search method was compliant.
• The web client does not make an API reproducible by itself. Record the client revision, API implementation/version, model/provider configuration, and relevant workflow settings when reporting results.

Development and review

Python checks:

uv sync --frozen --group dev
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run mypy src/sixsentences
uv run pytest -q
uv build

Web checks:

cd apps/web
npm ci
npm run typecheck
npm run test:security
npm run test:ui
npm run build

Dependencies are locked in uv.lock and apps/web/package-lock.json. Review the exact artifact you distribute: a lockfile records dependency metadata but does not by itself establish which optional platform packages a built image contains.

Start with CONTRIBUTING.md, then read GOVERNANCE.md and ROADMAP.md. Contributions use the Developer Certificate of Origin 1.1, not a separate CLA. Every human contributor signs off their own commits. Report vulnerabilities through the private flow in SECURITY.md, never in a public issue.

Citation

If this software contributes to research, cite the exact release or commit and describe which engine and/or web-client functions were used together with the surrounding method. Machine-readable metadata is available in CITATION.cff.

License and marks

Except for separately identified marks and third-party material, source code and written documentation are licensed under the Apache License 2.0. Dependencies and adapted components retain their own terms; see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

The SixSentences name, logo, icon, and visual identity are project marks and are not licensed for reuse under Apache-2.0. Customary attribution and nominative use remain permitted; see TRADEMARKS.md.