Skip to content

Coarse (coarse.ink)

external · status: active · focus: review · discipline: general · started: 2026

Project page: https://coarse.ink/

Source: projects/landscape/coarse-ink.yml

Positioning

A web-based AI peer-review service: users upload academic papers (up to 50 MB) and receive AI-generated referee reports with 20+ detailed comments. Operates in two modes — web-based using user-supplied OpenRouter API keys, or local processing via Claude Code / Codex / Gemini CLI subscriptions. Sits squarely in the referee-simulation stage of the RISE pipeline.

Distinctive contribution

Open-source (MIT) and explicitly anti-commercial in framing — "Academic peer review runs on unpaid academic labor. Others decided to make a business out of that. We didn't like that." The site reports a blind self-evaluation against refine.ink, Stanford Agentic Reviewer, and reviewer3.com claiming higher coverage, specificity, and depth. Privacy-by-design: API keys remain in the user's browser tab and clear on close.

Evaluation scores

Dimension Score (0–3) Note
Lifecycle coverage 0 Single stage (referee simulation).
Autonomy level 2 Supervised: user uploads paper and receives a report; optional 'reviewer focus' notes steer emphasis.
Architectural transparency 2 Open source under MIT; multiple back-end models exposed (Claude, GPT-5, Gemini, DeepSeek). Internal orchestration not deeply documented in marketing.
Inputs supported 1 PDF + optional focus note; no integration of literature corpora or prior reviews.
Outputs / reproducibility 1 Reports are persisted client-side; not deterministic across runs by design (different model choices).
Internal evaluation 1 Self-reported blind evaluation vs. refine.ink, Stanford Agentic Reviewer, reviewer3.com; no third-party benchmark.
Openness 3 MIT-licensed; BYOK (bring-your-own-key) model; transparent pricing (~under $2/review with OpenRouter).
Maturity / traction 1 Active hosted service in 2026; user-base scope not publicly disclosed.
Cross-family policy 1 BYOK OpenRouter exposes Claude / GPT-5 / Gemini / DeepSeek as user-selectable executor — cross-family by user choice.
Runtime assurance 1 Single-pass review with focus-note steering; no published claim-audit harness.
Cross-platform portability 2 Multi-provider via OpenRouter + local Claude Code/Codex/Gemini CLI fallback.

Scored on 2026-05-18. See the evaluation rubric.

Tags

Pipeline stages: referee-simulation

Architectural features: tool-use human-in-loop

Inputs: submitted-paper-pdf reviewer-focus-note

Outputs: referee-report

Limitations

  • Single-stage tool; needs upstream paper provenance.
  • Quality varies with chosen back-end model.
  • Self-evaluation against competitors not independently audited.