Ask questions across PDFs with source citations

Docspeed's ask tool answers questions over one or more documents and returns source document IDs, page indexes, and bounding-box citations. It prepares the documents through Parse, so the answer can be checked against document evidence. It is useful for clauses, notice periods, invoice questions, and cross-document summaries where a bare answer would be hard to audit.

Install and ask

Set DOCSPEED_API_KEY privately in your launching terminal, then connect Codex:

codex mcp add docspeed --url https://api.docspeed.ai/mcp/ --bearer-token-env-var DOCSPEED_API_KEY

For Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http --scope project docspeed https://api.docspeed.ai/mcp/ --header 'Authorization: Bearer ${DOCSPEED_API_KEY}'

Start a fresh session and approve the connection. The setup guide explains the companion skill, private key entry, and long-running tool timeouts.

Example prompt: “Compare the termination notice periods in these two PDFs. Cite each supporting passage and say when the documents do not answer a question.”

Upload each authorized PDF with the direct streaming upload helper and retain its file_id. Reserve files_upload for tiny inputs at most 4 KiB. Call ask with the ordered inputs and include_grounding: true. Reuse the returned session_id and exactly the same ordered inputs for follow-up questions. A stale or mismatched session must fail visibly rather than quietly starting a new conversation.

Check the answer

Each public citation identifies its source and includes page geometry: page_index, x, y, width, height, page_width, and page_height. Draw boxes in that page's coordinate frame. A cited box is evidence to inspect, not a guarantee that every sentence is correct. Preserve explicit missing answers and partial-page failures.

The recorded two-agreement Q&A contains original synthetic contracts, saved answers and exact citation boxes from an October 11, 2026 direct API run. It is not a native agent run. The initial answer correctly reported the notice periods but omitted the fee payer and due date; the page keeps that incomplete answer visible. Its follow-up distinguishes an unstated fee from an explicit waiver. Inspect the linked provenance and source-review records before drawing conclusions. This single recording is not a general accuracy benchmark.

Data and supported formats

Docspeed receives uploaded documents and processes them under your account's billing and quotas. Use only documents you are authorized to send. PDF and common document images are supported; native DOCX/XLSX needs separately arranged beta APIs. Do not use this route for a task that must stay local.

Read Ask's API contract, invoice extraction with evidence, privacy, and support.