How to vibe codeResearchRabbit
Follow your curiosity with visual literature discovery
researchrabbit.ai ↗Academic Research & Literature Discovery
The verdict: can you vibe code ResearchRabbit?
Build a local personal citation explorer using OpenAlex and Cytoscape, but expect weeks of work on graph rendering and data pipelines.
Replicating ResearchRabbit for personal use means you aren't cloning their private 310M-article database from scratch; you would query public scholarly APIs like OpenAlex or Semantic Scholar. However, the engineering challenge shifts to client-side performance: rendering an interactive citation network with thousands of nodes, smooth physics layouts, and responsive topic clustering in a web browser requires serious frontend architecture. Furthermore, syncing collections cleanly with Zotero involves navigating rigid bibliographic schemas and rate limits.
Estimated effort: 4-6 weeks of part-time development
What you can't replicate
- ResearchRabbit's active user community and shared collection network
- Proprietary recommendation model tuning trained on millions of real researcher exploration paths
Founded
2020
Raised
—
Team
10-15
Cheapest paid tier
$0
What ResearchRabbit does
An interactive bibliographic discovery engine that maps citation networks, co-authorship graphs, and research genealogies from seed papers.
Core features
- Seed paper input and bibliographic metadata ingestion
- Interactive citation network graph visualization
- Co-authorship and research genealogy mapping
- Topic clustering and paper recommendation algorithms
- Project collection management and folder organization
- Zotero reference manager bi-directional sync
The business
Pricing
- Free$0
- ResearchRabbit+$10/mo
- InstitutionCustom
Funding
Unknown / bootstrapped
Pay vs build, cumulative
Break-even at month 3 — after that, every month is money kept.
The hard parts of vibe coding ResearchRabbit
- Indexing and querying 310+ million academic articles with cross-referenced citation links
- Rendering smooth client-side network graphs with thousands of interactive nodes and edges
- Designing recommendation algorithms that accurately map topic proximity from seed collections
- Maintaining stable two-way synchronization APIs with third-party reference managers like Zotero
How to vibecode ResearchRabbit
Prerequisites
Node.jsfree
Runtime environment for building and executing the web application stack.
GitHubfree
Source code repository and deployment integration.
OpenAlex API / Semantic Scholar APIfree
Free scholarly metadata source replacing the proprietary 310M article index.
AI coding tools
Recommended stack
| Frontend | Next.js |
|---|---|
| Backend | Next.js API routes |
| Database | Turso |
| Auth | better-auth |
| Payments | none |
| Other | Cytoscape.js or Sigma.js for graph visualization, Vercel AI SDK |
Hosting & infrastructure
| Vercel | Hosting the Next.js frontend and serverless API endpoints. | $0/mo |
| Cloudflare | Serverless edge database hosting via Turso/D1 integration. | $0/mo |
Build guide
01Project Scaffolding & Database Setup
Initialize the Next.js project with TypeScript, configure Tailwind CSS, set up Turso SQLite for local collections, and integrate better-auth for single-user authentication.
Create a new Next.js 16 project with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS. Configure better-auth with SQLite via Turso to handle user sessions and project collections. Create database schemas for projects, saved papers, and seed collections with proper foreign keys and indexes. Write a test script to verify database connectivity and basic CRUD operations.02Scholarly API Integration Client
Build a robust TypeScript service layer to query the OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar APIs for paper metadata, references, citations, and author profiles.
Create a scholarly data service in TypeScript that interfaces with the OpenAlex API and Semantic Scholar API. Implement methods to search papers by keywords, fetch paper metadata by DOI/ID, and retrieve inbound/outbound citation graphs for a given list of seed paper IDs. Implement caching mechanisms to prevent rate limiting and handle API error responses gracefully.03Interactive Citation Graph Visualization
Implement an interactive node-link network visualization component using Cytoscape.js or Sigma.js to render papers, citations, and co-authorship links smoothly.
Build an interactive graph visualization component using Cytoscape.js inside a Next.js client component. The graph must render papers as nodes and citations as directed edges, supporting zoom, pan, node selection, and physics layout algorithms (cose or fcose). When a node is clicked, display a detailed sidebar with paper metadata, abstract, authors, and options to add it to the active seed collection.04Recommendation & Topic Clustering Engine
Develop heuristic and vector-based recommendation algorithms that suggest related papers and cluster collection items by topic proximity.
Implement a recommendation and topic clustering engine in the backend. Given a set of seed paper IDs in a collection, aggregate their citation neighborhoods, compute overlap scores to rank related works, and cluster papers based on shared references and keyword tags. Expose an API endpoint that returns clustered recommendation groups for the frontend visualization.05Collections, Projects, and Zotero Export
Build UI and backend logic for organizing papers into named projects and collections, with export functionality compatible with Zotero reference formats (BibTeX/RIS).
Build a project and collection management dashboard in Next.js. Users can create multiple research projects, add papers from the graph view into specific collections, add custom notes, and export selected collections in BibTeX and RIS formats for direct import into Zotero. Ensure responsive layout and clean state management.
Cost vs paying for ResearchRabbit
What will you build it with?
Starting total with Claude Code$0 one-time
Starting costs (one-time)
- AI Coding Assistant (Cursor/Claude Pro)$20
Total~$20 one-time
Ongoing costs (monthly)
- Vercel Hobby & Turso Free Tier$0/mo
- OpenAlex / Semantic Scholar APIs$0/mo
Total$0/mo
Paying for ResearchRabbit
$10/mo
Your time to build
35-50 hours
AI tool credits
$20
Break-even
Never (built for learning & personal research utility)
Vibe code ResearchRabbit: FAQ
- Can you vibe code ResearchRabbit yourself?
- Serious undertaking — 42/100 vibecodeable. Build a local personal citation explorer using OpenAlex and Cytoscape, but expect weeks of work on graph rendering and data pipelines.
- How long does it take to vibe code ResearchRabbit?
- 4-6 weeks of part-time development — roughly 35-50 hours of hands-on time with an AI coding agent.
- How do you build your own ResearchRabbit?
- Scoped to personal use: Next.js on the front, Next.js API routes behind it, Turso for data. Follow the 5-step build guide on this page — each step has a paste-ready prompt for an AI coding agent.
- How do you code your own ResearchRabbit without being an expert?
- Use an AI coding tool (Claude Code or Cursor) and work in small steps: scaffold, data model, core screens, then deploy. Realistic effort: 4-6 weeks of part-time development. The prompts on this page are written so the AI does the heavy lifting.
- How much does it cost to vibe code ResearchRabbit instead of paying?
- About ~$20 one-time to start and $0/mo to run, versus $10/mo for ResearchRabbit. Break-even: Never (built for learning & personal research utility).
- What stack should you use to vibe code ResearchRabbit?
- Next.js; Next.js API routes; Turso; plus Cytoscape.js or Sigma.js for graph visualization, Vercel AI SDK.