Xavi
An open sports notebook and canvas you draw and think in, together with Xavi — football first.
Xavi is Specula's sports notebook: an open, interactive canvas for any visual or analytical sports idea — tactics, notes, teaching, diagrams, match situations, player movement, explanations, brainstorming, analysis, simulations and more. Football is the deepest; basketball and tennis boards work too. Xavi is powered by GPT-5.6 Luna — OpenAI for its reasoning capabilities.
You and Xavi work on the same page: you move players, draw, write notes — and Xavi draws, explains, challenges you and plays out matches right there on the canvas. Anything you make can be replayed step by step or shared as a link.
Around the notebook
- The dock sits centred at the bottom. The blue microphone is the main button: tap it to talk to Xavi. While Xavi is drawing or speaking, the same blue pill becomes Stop. Next to it are the text field, the drawing tools and Reconstruct (the magnifier), which rebuilds a moment from a photo or screenshot. On a phone the dock stretches across the bottom of the screen.
- Xavi is the Blue Bot in the headband, in his own spot in the bottom-right corner (just above the dock on a phone). His speech bubble opens above him while he works or talks, and tucks away once he's quiet — tap him to see his last message again, or to hide it. Drag him anywhere and he stays there, even after a reload; double-click (or double-tap) to send him home. He shows how he feels, too: he thinks while he works, celebrates when you solve a problem, looks surprised when your idea doesn't work yet, and gets a little cross if you cut him off mid-sentence.
- The ⋯ menu at the top right holds Voice speed, Snapshots and Export.
- Dark mode follows your appearance setting in Settings → Appearance (or your device, if it's set to System). The board, the pitch and every panel switch with it; exported images always use the light paper.
Share a board
Tap Share at the top right to open the share panel:
- Link — a page anyone with the link can open, no account needed, where the board replays step by step in Xavi's own voice, in time with the drawing (tap Watch Xavi explain to start). Under Who can open it you can add a password, make the link expire (in 24 hours, 7 or 30 days, or on a date you pick) and turn Allow download off so viewers can watch but not copy the board into their own notebook. The panel shows whether the link has been opened, how often and when last. Update refreshes it with your latest board and keeps these settings; Stop sharing revokes it at once. Sharing needs a Google sign-in.
- Replay — watch the board's story again, step by step.
Every board keeps its story: each step Xavi draws, with what it said, and each change you make. Undo takes a step out of the story too. The Share button at the top works for any board.
Real match situations
Upload a screenshot of a match moment with Reconstruct (the magnifier in the dock). Xavi rebuilds it as an editable board — players where they actually stand, teams, the ball, and shirt numbers or names it can read — and turns the key decision into a question: "Here's the moment before the goal. What should the left-back have done?"
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Players Xavi wasn't sure about are drawn faded with an orange ?, and the question card shows how many there are (2 to check). Tap it — or tap the player — and fix it in one tap: Looks right, Edit number or Remove. Moving or renumbering a player also settles it.
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Move players to show your answer, then Check my idea. Hint nudges; Show me plays the best answer, always from the moment as it was rebuilt; press it again to replay it from the start. Screenshot shows or hides your upload behind the board.
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Correct anything Xavi got wrong by dragging it, or by telling it ("that's Martinelli, not Saka").
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Challenge a friend shares the moment as a link. They see the question and can Try it yourself — it opens at the moment before any answer. Your uploaded screenshot is never shared; the answer criteria are never shown.
Simulate a match
Ask Xavi to "simulate Arsenal v Chelsea" or "play out the final". Xavi plays the whole match with a match engine and shows it on the board: every goal appears as the move that made it — the passes, the runs, the shot and the ball crossing the line — and the scoreboard changes only when a goal really happens. Xavi names the teams and, when it has real data, their formations, players and strength ratings; the engine decides what happens on the pitch. Ask for a scoreline ("simulate a 3–2") and you get a match that ends that way, with every goal still shown as a real move.
A simulation shows one way a match could unfold. It isn't a prediction, and its results aren't checked against real matches.
It starts with a problem
Open Xavi and a tactical problem is already on the pitch — for example "They are pressing your build-up 4v3. Your No. 6 is blocked. How do you escape the press?" Your team is blue and attacks left to right; the opponent is coral; goalkeepers are green.
There are 30 problems in three themes — build-up and progression, pressing and defending, attacking and transitions — from beginner to elite. Next problem picks the easiest one you haven't solved yet, staying in the same theme while there are some left. Signed in, what you've solved is kept on your account on every device; as a guest it lasts until you leave.
- Drag players and the ball to try an idea. Xavi notices meaningful changes and reacts briefly ("He's free there").
- Hint gives a nudge, one at a time — never the answer.
- Check my idea asks Xavi to judge your solution: what works, what fails, how the opponent would respond, and an alternative.
- Show me plays the solution step by step from the starting position — your players glide into place and the opponents react as they would in a match — and replays it from the start each time you press it. Try again puts the players back; Reset starts the problem over.
- Once it's solved, the key principles appear. Next problem is a little harder.
Football, basketball and tennis
Football comes first, and Xavi also draws on a basketball court or a tennis court. Pick the surface in the tools (Sport: Football / Basketball / Tennis) or just ask — "show a pick and roll", "draw a serve-and-volley pattern" — and Xavi switches the board for you. Spacing, player counts and the ball follow the sport.
Draw anything football
Type (or say) what you want: "Draw a goalkeeper diving to save a shot", "a stadium", "a striped shirt", "a passing drill for six players", "explain offside". Xavi draws it step by step as editable pieces you can move, resize, recolour or delete. Follow up with "make the goalkeeper bigger" or "change the shirt to red".
Xavi always draws on the board that's open — "on this board", "here" or nothing at all means the current one. For a fresh page, say so: "…on a new board". Switch pages at the top right; the New blank drawing button opens one too.
Xavi answers in the language you use — ask in English, it replies and speaks in English, whichever team or country you ask about. To switch, just ask ("answer in Spanish"). While Xavi listens or works, a light traces the text box and the controls.
Ask Xavi to explain
Ask Xavi to explain anything — "What is offside?", "Explain a low block", "What's the difference between zonal and man marking?" — and it explains it out loud while it draws it: the pitch, the players, the line or the runs that matter, labelled as it goes. You never need to add "draw it".
Questions that aren't about play on the pitch — "How should I prepare for my exams?", "What should I eat before a match?", "How do I become an agent?" — get clear written notes instead, with headings and bullet points, and no pitch in the way. On a board that already has a drawing, the notes go beside it without covering anything.
Xavi picks the clearest picture: one pitch for a situation, two small pitches side by side for a comparison, a table or chart for numbers. When a real photo explains it better — "Explain Messi's movement in this situation" — Xavi finds one, puts it on the board and draws the runs and notes right over it, with the source credited under its line.
Several things at once
Ask for everything in one go — "Find images of Messi, write some interesting facts about him and draw his movement" — typed or spoken. Xavi does every part: a photo that actually shows the subject, the facts written on the page beside it, and the drawing. Before it finishes, it checks that each part is really on the board; anything missing is added straight away, and if something truly can't be done (no matching photo exists, for instance), Xavi tells you instead of pretending.
Changing and removing things
Ask in your own words — "delete the image", "remove the pitch", "take the red players off", "clear the board" — and Xavi removes exactly that and nothing else. You can also do it yourself: select anything and press Delete (or tap Delete in the small bar), and use the pitch button in the tools to hide or show the pitch. Undo brings anything back.
Xavi remembers you
Xavi shares Specula's memory, so it already knows you. Your name, preferred language, role, interests and how you like answers — what you told Specula when you signed up and in Settings — and everything Specula research remembers about you apply in Xavi from the first word, typed or spoken. Ask "What's my name?", "What languages do I speak?" or "What do you know about me?" and Xavi answers straight away, without drawing anything.
Xavi also remembers what happens in the notebook: what you're working on together and your earlier Xavi conversations, even after a reload or on another device. Tell it something about yourself ("I also speak Italian") and Xavi offers to make it part of what Specula knows about you; tell it something about your work in Xavi ("we're working on my rondo drills") and it offers to keep it with Xavi. Each one appears under Xavi's line as a card with its exact text: press Save to keep it (or Update, when it corrects something saved). Asking Xavi to forget something works the same way, with Remove. Xavi never changes your memory on its own, because what it researches or sees in a screenshot could carry instructions. Answers about you are never part of a board's replay or shared link.
Everything is in Settings → Memory: edit or delete anything, or switch memory off — then Xavi neither reads nor saves memories (your profile still applies), and Delete all also clears your Xavi conversations.
Teams, names and stats
- "Draw the current Arsenal XI" — Xavi looks up the latest line-up and draws the whole team in formation, with shirt numbers and names.
- "Give them names" — adds names to the players already on the board.
- "Show me Arsenal's stats this season", "Premier League table", "compare Saka and Salah" — Xavi draws a table and a bar chart from what it found. Each one is a single piece you can move, resize or recolour.
Tools
The pen button opens the tools: the sport, select, your players, opponents, ball, pass arrows, runs, lines, zones, notes, pen, eraser and move. Select several things with Shift or by dragging a box; group, duplicate, reorder or delete them from the small bar that appears, or recolour them with its colour dots. ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z undoes, ⇧⌘Z redoes.
On your phone
Xavi works on phones and tablets in portrait and landscape. The board fills the screen and moves to show what Xavi just added; pinch to zoom and drag with two fingers to look around. The heading sits under the top bar, and the rarer controls (redo, new drawing, voice speed, snapshots, export) are in the ⋯ menu. The dock runs across the bottom: the microphone, then Ask Xavi… to type, then the tools and Reconstruct.
Voice
Xavi speaks its lines out loud. Use the speaker button at the top right to mute or unmute it, and ⋯ → Voice speed (0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x) to change how fast Xavi talks and draws.
Tap the blue microphone and talk: "Move the winger inside", "Give me a hint", "Stop", "Undo that". While Xavi is listening, a small moving orb takes the microphone's place; when you stop talking it turns into a spinner while Xavi works out the answer. Tap the microphone again to turn voice off (it also turns itself off after a minute and a half without speech). Voice and typing share the same board. While Xavi is drawing or speaking, the microphone becomes Stop — tap it (or press Esc) to halt Xavi, even mid-sentence.
The latest information
Ask about anything current, typed or spoken — "Draw Arsenal's current formation", "How did Real Madrid set up in their last match?" — and Xavi searches the web first, reads the most useful pages, and builds the drawing from what it found. The sites it used appear under its line so you can check them.
Images
Upload a tactics screenshot or a football sketch with Reconstruct (the magnifier in the dock). Xavi rebuilds it as editable pieces on a new page and keeps your image faintly behind it for reference. Check the result — details in an image can be uncertain, and Xavi marks what it wasn't sure about.
Keeping your work
Signed in, your notebook is saved to your account: every board with its step-by-step story, your snapshots, your problem progress and your conversation with Xavi follow you to any device, and changes are saved a moment after you make them. The notebook opens instantly from this device's copy while the account catches up. As a guest you have one board and nothing is saved: sign in to add more boards and keep them. Every board you or Xavi start stays in Boards (the board name at the top right): open any of them again, or tap the bin, then Delete, to remove one for good — on every device. Xavi never deletes old boards on its own. Use ⋯ → Snapshots to keep versions and ⋯ → Export for an image, a PDF or an editable board file.
To remove a snapshot, open ⋯ → Snapshots and tap the bin next to it. Your research history is in the sidebar and on the History page: tap the bin next to any item to delete it for good.