2. Core Features
Here's a breakdown of what the plugin can actually do once you've fetched the data for a book.
This is a list of everyone mentioned in the story.
- Details: Tap any character's name to read their bio, role, and occupation.
- Search: Use the search icon to find a specific person quickly.
| Characters List | Character Detail |
|---|---|
 |
 |
- Fetch More: If you notice a minor character is missing, hit "Fetch More Characters". The AI will do another pass just looking for names it missed.
Tip
If you have multiple entries for the same person (e.g., "Dracula" and "Count Dracula"), you can merge them. See Data Management & Settings for details on Merging Duplicates. For information on how X-Ray data gets fetched and updated — including the background auto-fetch feature — see the Fetching Data page.
The Timeline gives you a chronological summary of the plot, broken down by chapter. It follows your Spoiler Protection settings, so it won't show you events you haven't read yet if you're using Spoiler-free mode.
When reading a series, keeping track of what happened in previous volumes can be difficult. The X-Ray plugin solves this by fetching a recap of all previous books in the series:
- Auto-Prompting: When you open a book that is Book 2 or later in a series (either detected via metadata or AI), the plugin will ask if you want to load a recap of the previous books.
-
Smart Integration:
-
Merged Bios: Character, location, and term descriptions from prior books are merged into the current book's list and prefixed with
[From Book X]. - Timeline Recap: A collapsible ── Prior Books ── header is added to the top of your timeline. Expanding it lets you view consolidated recaps of the events of each previous book.
-
Merged Bios: Character, location, and term descriptions from prior books are merged into the current book's list and prefixed with
- Caching: Recap data is saved globally under the series' unique name, meaning it only needs to be fetched once for the entire series.
Note
You can configure and manually trigger series fetching under Data Management & Settings.
- Historical Figures: If you're reading historical fiction or non-fiction, this pulls up real-world info about actual historical people mentioned in the text. We've refined these prompts for better accuracy and fewer false positives when identifying real-world figures.
- Locations: Gives you a quick description and context for the places the story happens.
For books with complex worldbuilding (like Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or technical non-fiction), the plugin tracks unique jargon, items, factions, and constructed languages.
- Worldbuilding Context: Get quick definitions for setting-specific vocabulary (e.g., magic systems, special artifacts).
- Inline Lookup: Checking terminology is fast and seamless using the inline footnote popup directly from the text.
The Book Type determines which AI extraction strategy is used for gathering data, directly affecting the type of terminology and information the AI looks for:
- Fiction: Focuses on characters, plot timelines, and world-building terms (e.g., factions, spells, lore, items).
- Non-Fiction: Focuses on technical terms, concepts, and real-world historical figures.
- Auto-Detect (Default): Lets the AI automatically decide whether the book is Fiction or Non-Fiction after the first data fetch.
You can configure this setting under Tools Menu → X-Ray → Settings → Content & Fetch Settings → Book Type.
The plugin includes an offline-first Unit Converter that automatically identifies physical measurements in the book's text and provides on-the-fly conversions (e.g., converting miles to kilometers, or Fahrenheit to Celsius).
- How it Works: The plugin scans the book text for numbers followed by unit symbols or aliases. When found, they are underlined in the reader view. Tapping the underlined text opens a brief, unobtrusive tooltip showing the converted value.
- Vague Quantifier Support: The scanner is smart enough to handle imprecise values (e.g., "a few miles" will show a conversion like "≈4.83 km").
-
Supported Categories:
- Length: Miles, feet, yards, inches, meters, kilometers, centimeters, millimeters, etc.
- Weight / Mass: Pounds, ounces, stones, kilograms, grams, milligrams.
- Temperature: Fahrenheit, Celsius.
- Volume: Gallons, quarts, pints, cups, fluid ounces, liters, milliliters.
- Speed: mph, km/h, knots, meters per second.
- Area: Acres, hectares, square feet, square miles, square meters, square kilometers.
You can configure which categories are scanned and set your conversion preferences under the Unit Converter menu in settings.
If you want to know a bit more about the author, go to Tools Menu → X-Ray → Author Info. If it's empty, you can run a quick search to pull their bio and birth/death dates.
- Lookups & Navigation — details on the Footnote Popup UI, Gestures, and Mention scanning.
- Data Management & Settings — information on Merging Duplicates, description lengths, linked entries, and maintenance.
- Fetching Data — how data is initially gathered and updated in the background.