Quick Analysis vs. Full Analysis
When you're ready to analyse a Dossier, The Archiver offers two modes: Quick Analysis and Full Analysis. Here's what each does and when to use them.
Quick Analysis
What it does: The AI reads all the files in your Dossier in a single pass and produces a concise summary with highlights.
Output includes:
- A narrative overview
- Key themes and subjects
- Important people and places
- Significant quotes
How long it takes: Usually 30–60 seconds.
Best for:
- Getting a fast overview of a new collection
- Checking whether a set of files is relevant to your research
- Smaller Dossiers (up to ~50 files)
- When you need something quick, not comprehensive
Full Analysis
What it does: The AI runs a multi-pass analysis:
- Survey pass — reads all files and builds an overview
- You review — you can approve or adjust the AI's reading before it continues
- Deep read — the AI reads the most important files in much greater detail
- Packaging — the AI assembles the final structured report
Output includes all Quick Analysis outputs, plus:
- Detailed narrative sections with citations
- A full chronological timeline
- Entity cards (people, organisations, places)
- Connections between items
- Key findings and conclusions
- Research gaps and unanswered questions
- Suggested follow-up questions
How long it takes: 3–10 minutes depending on the size of the Dossier.
Best for:
- In-depth research projects
- Large Dossiers (50+ files)
- When you need a publishable-quality summary
- Producing output for a Finding Aid or report
Choosing between them
| Quick | Full | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | ~1 minute | 3–10 minutes |
| Depth | Overview | Comprehensive |
| Best for | Exploration | Research reports |
| Follow-up questions | Limited | Full support |
Start with Quick Analysis to check you have the right files in your Dossier. If the overview looks good, run a Full Analysis for the detailed report.
Running the analysis
- Open your Dossier
- Click Analyse
- Select Quick Analysis or Full Analysis
- (Full Analysis only) Optionally enable Intelligence Boost — this uses a more powerful AI model for better results on complex collections, but takes longer
- Click Start
The analysis runs in the background. You can leave the page and come back — the results will be waiting for you.