Use Virgil

01 · Capture

Save your first passage

Open a page you want to learn from with the Virgil extension connected. You can save an exact passage or the whole page.

1. Highlight the useful passage, or leave the page unselected.
2. Choose Pin, or use Pick what to pin when several blocks belong together.
3. Wait for the saved receipt in the side panel. One online selection opens its lesson there. A queued receipt means the pin is stored locally and still needs to reach your service.

Course sources arrive as proposals with exact source quotes. Dates that are ambiguous become questions. Nothing becomes a course objective, obligation or commitment until the learner confirms it.

02 · Learn

Start a short lesson

For a quick explanation of a saved passage, open its Quick take in the side panel. For a prepared lesson, open Learn, choose 1, 3 or 5 minutes, then select Start on the recommended action. Answer the recall check or record what happened after the activity.

Lessons may explain from nothing, rebuild something partly known, or go straight to a difficult boundary. They keep their sources visible and a separate verifier can withhold a defective section before it teaches.

When Gemini, AI Mode, Gemini Notebook or another browser-carried agent is the better place to go deep, Virgil opens it only when asked, with the source and question prepared. Nothing is sent behind the learner's back. Virgil does not read answers back as authority; the loop closes when the learner records what happened under External.

Between lessons

What starts the background work?

Saved pins and learner actions can trigger processing. A confirmed intake or an explicit Process action starts the background job. Once started, it can continue in Google Cloud while you are away.

An additional scheduled sweep is optional and off by default. You do not need it for work triggered by pins and learner actions.

03 · Grow

Correct what Virgil thinks you know

Open Insights to review what Virgil thinks you understand. Its conclusions are labelled my read; your own statements are labelled your words. Confirm a useful read, correct an inaccurate one or reject it. Use Tell Virgil something to add a teaching preference or explain what you still need.

What you saved on Tuesday can shape Thursday's three-minute lesson. Thursday's answer can change Friday's recommendation. Demonstrated work, feedback and outcomes outweigh an early self-assessment. Completion alone never becomes mastery.

Check that your correction appears under your words. It guides the next lesson. Background work may also propose new material, with the gap it is meant to address. Review a proposal before adding it to your studies.

04 · Manage

Manage courses, deadlines and drafts

Board separates Get started, Currently learning, Recharging, Paused and Learnt. My studies holds courses and materials. Plan holds confirmed commitments and results. The full collection remains available, but Learn still opens on one useful move.

My studies holds the subjects and courses you are actively learning. Course sources can arrive as pasted text or a document drop. Virgil proposes objectives, obligations, dates, and questions as drafts. Nothing enters your plan until you review and confirm it.

1. Add the syllabus, rubric, assignment brief, or other course source.
2. Review the exact source beside each proposed objective or obligation.
3. Answer any clarification question instead of letting an ambiguous date become a guess.
4. Confirm only the items that belong in your course and plan.

Plan combines those dated commitments with the study time and work you add yourself. A due date can raise a topic's urgency, but it cannot erase the evidence about what you actually understand.

Paste your own work into Check a draft. Virgil reviews it against the assignment and the weak spots already visible in your learning record. It names the issue and points to the relevant passage. It leaves the writing to you.

When criteria are present, Mark checks one row at a time and quotes the learner's work for every verdict. One miss remains a send-back. Review and Mark never rewrite the answer, and neither changes the learning record unless the learner chooses a follow-up action.

05 · Customize

Manage access, models and privacy

Settings holds account access, model routes, connection checks, spend boundaries, processing cadence, pause, domain exclusions, backup and restore. The page theme has two choices everywhere: Whiteboard and Blackboard.

Each self-hoster supplies their own Google Cloud/Firebase project and model credentials. Google handles sign-in; Virgil receives no password. The owner can add or remove verified-email members under Settings → General → People. Members inherit that installation's server-side model and billing boundary while each Firebase identity routes to an isolated learner board.

Each model connection has assigned jobs, and a failed provider cannot spend through another connection. Pause and exclusion controls live where the learner can inspect them, not behind a hidden administration route.

Architecture diagram

How the background work runs

The service handles immediate requests. Longer processing runs as a separate job. Open the map for the stages, model routes and checks, or read the submission architecture.