How it works

Last updated: April 5, 2026

How Board Game Librarian works

This section explains the pipeline behind every answer — from the moment a rulebook PDF enters the system to the moment you read the response on your screen. If you just want to understand the big picture, start with the pipeline overview. If you want to know exactly how a specific piece works, each sub-topic goes one level deeper.

Articles in this section

How Board Game Librarian answers your questions — The full walk-through: game selection, question analysis, vector search, AI synthesis, and citation. Read this first if you are new.

The question & answer pipeline — A compact diagram of the processing stages every question goes through.

How I read rulebooks — What happens when a PDF is uploaded: text extraction, chunking, embedding, storage.

From PDF to answer: how rulebooks become knowledge — The complete journey of a rulebook, with the design choices explained.

How I generate answers — The synthesis step: how the AI combines retrieved chunks with your question to produce a cited answer.

Ten languages, one answer — How the system handles multilingual queries and rulebooks without training separate models per language.

Beyond the rulebook: how community knowledge works — Tier 2 explained: when and how the system pulls from community forum discussions.

I got the wrong answer — why? — A practical debugging guide for when an answer doesn't match your rulebook.

If you have 5 minutes: read The question & answer pipeline. If you have 20 minutes: read How Board Game Librarian answers your questions. If an answer surprised you: jump straight to I got the wrong answer — why?.