Vault features

Arguflow Vault is a tool for managing your argument evidence. It's a place to store your evidence, organize it, and lexically or semantically search through it.

If you are reading this as a member of the competitive debate community then you will be happy to know that Arguflow Vault contains every card from the OpenCaselist wiki. This means that you can search for any card that has been uploaded to the OpenCaselist wiki and view it in Arguflow Vault. You can also filter so as to only see cards from a specific school, year, file name, and more.

Additionally the demo of Vault is free for all. You can sign up for an account at vault.arguflow.ai.

1. Semantically searching for evidence

Semantic search is our core feature. With traditional lexical search (google, duckduckgo, etc.) you search for a word or phrase and the search engine returns results that contain that word or phrase. With semantic search you search for a concept and the search engine returns results that contain that concept.

This means that when searching with Arguflow Vault you can search for a concept like "the United States should not have invaded Iraq" and get results that contain that concept even if they don't contain the exact phrase "the United States should not have invaded Iraq".

If you have a competitive background and are using the demo client at vault.arguflow.ai then you may be interested to know that to some extent, searching for theory like Kritiks, Counterplans, and Disadvantages is possible with semantic search.

2. Lexically searching for evidence

Full text search is also supported in Arguflow Vault. This means that you can search for a word or phrase and get results that contain that word or phrase just like you would with google or duckduckgo.

3. Auto-cut evidence

Arguflow Vault supports auto-cutting evidence. This means that when using the "Create Evidence" form, you can paste text, press the "auto-cut" button, and Arguflow Vault will automatically cut the text for you.

4. Filtering evidence from the OpenCaselist wiki by school, year, file name, and more

Arguflow Vault contains every card from the OpenCaselist wiki. This means that you can filter for cards from a specific school, year, file name, and more.

To get a handle on good filters to use, we suggest searching for cards and seeing how the OC_Path field is formatted.

We have preset options for filtering based on OpenCaselist dataset, but you are able to add custom filters as well. For example, if you want to filter for cards from Michigan, you can add a filter for OC_Path that contains Michigan.

5. Filtering evidence based on source URL (reuters, nyt, Washington Post, etc.)

Arguflow Vault supports filtering evidence based on the source URL. This means that you can filter for cards from a specific source like Reuters, the New York Times, or the Washington Post.

We have preset options for filtering for some sources, but you are able to add custom filters as well. For example, if you want to filter for cards from Bruegel, you can add a filter for Source URL that contains bruegel.org.

6. Case brief upload and parse

Arguflow Vault supports uploading case briefs in the form of PDFs and DOCX files. When you upload a case brief, Arguflow Vault will parse it, extract the cards from it, and then place them all into a "collection" (read more on that below).

This feature can be extremely convenient when you need to do disclosure. Instead of having to put your case onto a USB, share a gdoc link, or email it to your opponent, you can just upload it to Arguflow Vault and share a link to your case brief collection.

After you upload a case brief, it will be parsed and you will receive a notification when it is done. You can then view the case brief and see all the cards that were extracted from it.

If you want the benefits of semantically searching for your case brief, but do not want to enter it into the public domain, then you can upload it as a private case brief. Private case briefs are only visible to you.

7. Creating collections of evidence cards

If you come from a competitive debate background then think of a basic collection as a substitute for a block file, although it can be used for much more than that. If you are not a debater then think of a collection as a folder that you can put evidence cards into.

A collection is a group of evidence cards that you can query as a group separate from the global evidence database. You can create a collection by uploading a case brief, uploading a file, or by adding cards to it manually.

Collections can be shared with other users via sending them a link. Collections can also be made private. This means that if you create a collection and add private evidence to it, then the collection will be public but the evidence within it will only be visible to you.

8. View community collections that contain evidence cards

Similar to Spotify Community Playlists, Arguflow Vault allows you to create collections of evidence cards. These collections can be public or private. If they are public then other users can view them. If they are private then only you can view them.

On all cards, you can see which collections they are in by clicking the "community" button on the top right of the card. This will show you all of the collections that the card is in.

9. Creating evidence cards

You can create evidence cards manually by clicking the "Create evidence" button on the home page. You can also create evidence cards by uploading a case brief file.

When creating a single evidence card you must enter a link and some content available at that link. The link can be a link to a website, a link to a google doc, or a link to a PDF. When you add the content, you are free to cut (syntax highlight) it however you like.

If you do not want to allow other users to see your evidence then you can create a private evidence card. Private evidence cards are only visible to you.

10. Duplicate evidence detection

With the power of semantic search comes the ability to detect duplicate evidence. When you upload a case brief or create a new evidence card, Arguflow Vault will check to see if it already has that evidence in its database. If it does, then it will not create the card as a duplicate.

As you search for and view cards, Arguflow Vault will also show you if it has detected any duplicates of the card you are viewing. This can be useful if you want to see if there are any other cards that make the same argument as the card you are viewing or different cuts (syntax highlights) of the same card.

If you want more details on how Arguflow Vault detects duplicate evidence then you can read our documentation on the card creation.

11. Evidence verification

Arguflow Vault verifies that the content of a card is actually available at the link you provide. This means that if you create evidence and Arguflow Vault does not find its content at the link you provide, then it will not show that card as "verified".

Verified cards are marked with a green checkmark on the top left of the card.

After you create evidence via the form or file upload, you will receive a notification when Arguflow Vault has finished verifying it. You will not receive a notification if the card does not pass verification.

12. Voting on evidence

Arguflow Vault allows you to vote on evidence. You can vote on evidence by clicking the upvote or downvote button on the top left of the card. You can also vote on evidence by clicking the upvote or downvote button on the top right of the card when viewing a collection.

We added this feature so that users can be somehow rewarded for uploading good evidence. We also added it so that users can be warned about bad evidence. If you see a card that has a lot of downvotes then you should be skeptical of its quality.

You are able to see a given users total "score" (upvotes - downvotes) when viewing their profile. This can be useful if you want to see how much other users have contributed to the community.

13. User profile settings

You are able to change your profile settings by clicking the "Settings" button on the top right of any page. You can change your username, hide your email, and/or add a link to a website you want to promote.

14. View top contributors

You can view the top contributors to Arguflow Vault on the homepage. This will show you the users who have the most "points" (upvotes - downvotes).

15. Update your evidence cards' syntax highlighting

You can update the syntax highlighting of an evidence card that you created by clicking the "edit" button on the top right of the card. This will allow you to change the syntax highlighting of the card to whatever you want.

However, you cannot change the content of the card. If you want to change the content of the card then you must create a new card.

16. View individual evidence card

You can view an individual evidence card by clicking on it. This will take you to a page that shows you the card and its metadata.

This is useful if you want to share a single card with someone else.

17. Delete your evidence cards

You can delete your evidence cards by clicking the "delete" button on the top right of the card. This will delete the card from the database and it will no longer exist in our database.

18. View a user's profile and basic stats on their contributions and research abilities

You can view a user's profile by clicking on their username. This will take you to a page that shows you their profile and basic stats on their contributions and research abilities. This page also contains their public collections (or priviate if you view yourself) and the cards they have created.

19. View recently created evidence cards

You can view the most recently created evidence cards on the homepage. This will show you the most recently created evidence cards.