01 / reflection, reimagined

Sharpen your reflective skills with AI.

Riff doesn't have the answers. It has better questions, the kind that help you find yours.

* Riff is now free for everyone. No credit card — just an access code. Used by 1,000+ educators.

the turned table

Most chatbots answer. Riff asks.

Reflection is a muscle. Riff is the partner that keeps gently turning the question back to you, where the learning actually happens.

everything else
Any chatbot.

You ask. It answers.

You Question Bot
Riff
Riff.

Riff asks. You reflect.

Riff Question You
65,000+
conversations
1,000+
educators
3,000+
bots created
1M+
questions posed
free for all · get your code

Riff is free now. You just need a code.

Tell us who you are and how you plan to use Riff — it takes about a minute. We'll email your access code as soon as it's granted.

If you're a student, use the link your teacher shared — or try Riff as a learner. The application is for educators, coaches, and school leaders.
riffaccess code ····–····
What we ask
1. Who you are
2. Where you teach, coach, or lead
3. How you plan to use Riff
Takes about a minute. Your code arrives by email. Start your application
two practices · one tool

For the ones asking,
& the ones answering.

for learners riff asks

Reflect, with backup.

Riff supports the part of learning that happens after class, the part you usually do alone.

  1. 1.

    Personal, not generic

    Every question Riff asks is shaped by what you just said. No prompts to copy in. No template to fill.

  2. 2.

    Pause to think

    Riff is built to be patient. Conversations go where you let them, and stop when you say so.

  3. 3.

    Yours to keep

    Export the transcript, anonymize it, share it with a coach, or keep it private. Your call, your data.

you author for educators

Build your own bot.

no code. Spin up a reflection bot tuned to your class, your prompt, your tone. Drop it into your LMS, a website, or a Friday email.

  1. 1.

    Author in plain language

    Describe the kind of reflection you want. Riff handles the question generation; you handle the framing.

  2. 2.

    See the patterns

    Read individual transcripts or zoom out to themes across a cohort. Spot what's surfacing, without surveilling.

  3. 3.

    Embed anywhere

    A snippet, a link, an iframe. Riff goes wherever your students already are.

in the wild

Four ways people actually use it.

01
riff

End-of-week journaling

Five minutes on a Friday with a bot that asks better questions than "how was your week?"

02
riff

Project retrospectives

Close a sprint, a studio, or a group project with questions that dig past "it went fine."

03
riff

Post-class debrief

Hand learners a Riff link instead of an exit ticket. Get reflection instead of compliance.

04
riff

Coaching between sessions

Coaches hand clients a Riff link between 1:1s, so the thinking keeps moving and the next session starts deeper.

the thinking behind it

Built on a small library.

Rifflection didn't fall out of the sky. It's a working hypothesis with a paper trail: an essay, a book, and a few decades of learning science underneath.

* Lineage
  • Roy Pea Distributed intelligence. Minds rarely think alone; tools and people extend cognition. Pea, 1993
  • Donald Schön The reflective practitioner. Knowing-in-action sharpened by reflecting-in-action. Schön, 1983
  • John Dewey Experience becomes learning only when it's examined. The original case for reflection in education. Dewey, 1933
About the author

Leticia Britos Cavagnaro

A scientist-turned-designer (PhD, Developmental Biology, Stanford). She has taught at the d.school since 2006, created Advanced Reflective Practice in the MS Design Impact program, and co-founded the University Innovation Fellows, a community of students and educators from 300+ universities.

questions about questions

Frequently asked.

How is this different from ChatGPT?

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ChatGPT is built to answer. Riff is built to do the opposite: it stays in the question-asking seat and keeps turning the conversation back to you, where the learning happens.

How do I get an access code?

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Riff is free for everyone — we just ask you to apply first. Share a few details (name, organization, how you plan to use Riff) in the chat on this page, and we'll email your code as soon as access is granted.

Can I customize the bots for my class or team?

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Yes. Educator access includes a no-code authoring tool. Describe the kind of reflection you want, the tone, the boundaries, and we shape the bot around that.

What about data and privacy?

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Conversations are stored so educators can read transcripts or see patterns longitudinally. Learners can stay anonymous; educators choose what's shared. As with any AI, we recommend clear guardrails, and we'll help you set them.

Ready to be asked better questions?

Riff is now free for everyone — you just need an access code. Applying takes about a minute.