14 KiB
14 KiB
Cogniscor - Interactive Mode Guide
🎯 What is Interactive Mode?
After Cogniscor generates your company research, it shows you the executive summary and asks:
"Is this executive summary good?"
You can:
- ✅ Accept - Keep the results as-is
- 🔄 Request improvements - Ask for specific additional information
- ❌ Cancel - Keep current results without changes
This feature uses AI to perform focused follow-up research based on your specific needs!
🚀 How It Works
Step 1: Initial Research
./cogniscor.sh https://github.com
Cogniscor collects and analyzes company data...
Step 2: Review Executive Summary
After analysis, you'll see:
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║ 📄 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PREVIEW ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
# Executive Summary: GitHub, Inc.
*Generated: 2025-10-07 17:30:00*
## Overview
GitHub is a developer platform that allows developers to create, store...
## Key Facts
**Industry:** Software Development Platform
**Founded:** 2008
**Headquarters:** San Francisco, California
...
(showing first 50 lines)
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║ REVIEW & FEEDBACK ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Is this executive summary good? (yes/no/improve) [yes]:
Step 3: Your Choice
Option A: Accept (Default)
Is this executive summary good? yes
✓ Great! Reports saved and ready to use.
Option B: Request Improvements
Is this executive summary good? improve
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║ 🔍 CUSTOM SEARCH REFINEMENT ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Describe what you want to find or improve:
Examples:
- 'Find more information about their engineering culture'
- 'Get details about their remote work policy'
- 'Focus on recent product launches and roadmap'
Your request: Find more about their engineering culture and tech stack
Step 4: Focused Research
Cogniscor then:
- Plans focused search with AI
- Discovers specific URLs likely to have that information
- Scrapes focused sources (company blog, engineering pages, etc.)
- Verifies content matches the company
- Enhances the report with new information
- Shows updated summary
🔍 Performing focused research based on your request...
📋 Search Plan:
Focus: Engineering culture, tech stack details, development practices
URLs to try: 5
Search queries: 3
🌐 Collecting focused information...
Trying: https://github.blog/engineering
Trying: https://github.com/about/careers/engineering
Trying: https://github.com/about/engineering-culture
✓ Collected information from 3 sources
🔍 Re-analyzing with focused information...
✓ Analysis complete
📝 Enhancing executive summary...
✓ Executive summary updated with focused information
✨ Research refinement complete!
💡 Example Improvement Requests
1. Engineering Culture
Your request: Find more about their engineering culture and development practices
What AI does:
- Searches for engineering blog
- Looks for careers/engineering pages
- Finds tech talks and presentations
- Extracts culture information
- Adds "Engineering Culture" section to summary
2. Remote Work Policy
Your request: Get details about remote work and work-life balance
What AI does:
- Finds careers page
- Looks for "remote" and "work from home" mentions
- Checks employee reviews for WLB mentions
- Searches for remote work announcements
- Adds to "Company Culture" section
3. Recent Products
Your request: Focus on recent product launches in the last 6 months
What AI does:
- Searches newsroom/press releases
- Looks for blog announcements
- Finds product pages
- Filters for recent dates
- Creates "Recent Product Launches" section
4. Compensation & Benefits
Your request: Find information about salary, benefits, and stock options
What AI does:
- Searches careers page for benefits
- Looks for Glassdoor compensation data
- Finds press releases about equity
- Checks for compensation philosophy
- Adds "Compensation & Benefits" section
5. Tech Stack Details
Your request: Get comprehensive details about their technology stack and infrastructure
What AI does:
- Finds engineering blog posts
- Looks for tech talks and conference presentations
- Searches for "built with" or "powered by" mentions
- Checks job postings for required skills
- Expands "Technology Stack" section
🎯 Best Practices
Be Specific
❌ Bad: "Find more information" ✅ Good: "Find information about their internship program and new grad hiring"
❌ Bad: "Improve the report" ✅ Good: "Get details about their diversity and inclusion initiatives"
Focus on One Topic
✅ Good: "Focus on their AI/ML engineering team and projects" ❌ Too broad: "Find everything about engineering, products, culture, and benefits"
Ask for Findable Information
✅ Likely available: "Engineering culture", "recent news", "product roadmap" ❌ Unlikely: "Internal politics", "secret projects", "unpublished financials"
⚙️ Configuration
Enable/Disable Interactive Mode
Interactive mode is enabled by default when AI is configured.
To disable it:
# Use the --no-interactive flag
./cogniscor.sh --no-interactive https://github.com
Or in scripts/automation:
# Always disable for batch processing
for url in $(cat companies.txt); do
./cogniscor.sh --no-interactive "$url"
done
Interactive Mode Requirements
- ✅ AI must be enabled (requires OpenAI API key)
- ✅ Terminal must support user input
- ✅ Not using
--no-interactiveflag
If AI is disabled, interactive mode is automatically skipped.
💰 Cost Impact
Each improvement cycle adds:
- Focused search planning: ~$0.003
- URL discovery: ~$0.002
- Additional scraping: ~3-5 new sources
- Content verification: ~$0.003
- Report enhancement: ~$0.005
Total per improvement: ~$0.015
Example:
- Initial research: $0.035
- One improvement: +$0.015
- Total: $0.050
Still very affordable!
🔄 Multiple Improvements
You can iterate multiple times:
Round 1: Initial research → "Find engineering culture"
→ Enhanced with engineering info
Round 2: Review again → "Now get details about benefits"
→ Enhanced with benefits info
Round 3: Review again → "Perfect, looks good!"
→ Final report saved
Each round adds ~$0.015 in API costs.
🎨 Example Session
$ ./cogniscor.sh https://stripe.com
... [research happens] ...
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║ 📄 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PREVIEW ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
# Executive Summary: Stripe, Inc.
## Overview
Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform...
## Key Facts
**Industry:** Financial Technology (Fintech)
**Founded:** 2010
... [showing first 50 lines] ...
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Is this executive summary good? (yes/no/improve) [yes]: improve
Describe what you want to find or improve:
Your request: Find more about their payment processing fees and pricing model
✓ Got it! I'll search for: "Find more about their payment processing fees and pricing model"
🔍 Performing focused research based on your request...
📋 Search Plan:
Focus: Payment processing fees, pricing structure, transaction costs
URLs to try: 4
🌐 Collecting focused information...
Trying: https://stripe.com/pricing
Trying: https://stripe.com/docs/pricing
Trying: https://stripe.com/payments/pricing
✓ Collected information from 3 sources
🔍 Re-analyzing with focused information...
✓ Analysis complete
📝 Enhancing executive summary...
✓ Executive summary updated with focused information
✨ Research refinement complete!
📁 Results saved to: ./data/stripe/
✓ Reports now include detailed pricing information!
🎁 Benefits
For Interview Preparation
- 🎯 Get exactly what you need - Ask for specific info
- 🔍 Deep dives - Focus on areas most relevant to the role
- ✅ Verify completeness - Make sure nothing important is missing
For Research Quality
- 🤖 AI-guided follow-up - Smart suggestions for additional sources
- 📚 Comprehensive coverage - Fill in any gaps
- ✨ Polished output - Enhanced reports with focused information
For Efficiency
- ⚡ Iterative refinement - Improve until satisfied
- 🎯 Targeted research - Only collect what you need
- 💰 Cost-effective - Only pay for improvements you request
🚨 Important Notes
Interactive Mode is Optional
# Skip interactive mode (faster, automated)
./cogniscor.sh --no-interactive https://company.com
# Enable interactive mode (default with AI)
./cogniscor.sh https://company.com
AI is Required
Interactive mode only works with AI enabled. Without AI:
- Reports are generated normally
- No interactive review
- No focused improvements
Automated Workflows
For scripts or CI/CD, always use --no-interactive:
#!/bin/bash
# Batch processing script
for company in github.com stripe.com notion.so; do
./cogniscor.sh --no-interactive "https://$company"
done
🎓 Tips for Great Results
1. Review the Initial Summary First
- Read through what was found
- Identify what's missing or weak
- Be specific in your improvement request
2. One Topic at a Time
- Focus on one area per improvement
- You can iterate multiple times
- Quality over quantity
3. Use Domain Knowledge
- If you're interviewing for engineering: "Find tech stack details"
- If you're interviewing for sales: "Find customer base and market position"
- If you're interviewing for product: "Find product roadmap and vision"
4. Check Focused Sources
- New sources are saved with type "focused_search"
- Review them to see where info came from
- Helps verify quality of improvements
📊 Improvement Request Examples by Role
Software Engineer
- "Get comprehensive details about their technology stack and infrastructure"
- "Find information about their engineering culture and development practices"
- "Look for details about their code review process and testing"
Product Manager
- "Find detailed information about their product roadmap and vision"
- "Get insights into their product development process"
- "Look for customer testimonials and product feedback"
Designer
- "Find information about their design system and tools"
- "Get details about their design team and culture"
- "Look for their design philosophy and process"
Sales/Business
- "Find detailed pricing and business model information"
- "Get information about their customer base and market segments"
- "Look for case studies and customer success stories"
Data Scientist
- "Find details about their data infrastructure and ML stack"
- "Get information about their AI/ML team and projects"
- "Look for publications or talks about their data work"
🔍 How AI Plans Focused Searches
When you request improvements, AI:
- Analyzes your request - Understands what you're looking for
- Reviews existing summary - Identifies gaps
- Suggests specific URLs - Company blog, docs, careers page
- Creates search queries - Targeted searches for the information
- Defines extraction focus - What to look for in content
- Plans report enhancement - How to integrate into summary
Example Plan for "engineering culture":
{
"urls": [
{
"url": "https://github.blog/engineering",
"reason": "Engineering blog likely has culture posts"
},
{
"url": "https://github.com/about/careers/engineering",
"reason": "Careers page describes engineering culture"
}
],
"searchQueries": [
"GitHub engineering culture",
"GitHub development practices"
],
"extractionFocus": "Engineering practices, team structure, culture values",
"reportEnhancement": "Add Engineering Culture subsection under Company Culture"
}
✨ Advanced Usage
Multiple Iterations
Round 1: "Find engineering culture" → Enhanced
Is this good? improve
Round 2: "Now get benefits and compensation" → Enhanced
Is this good? improve
Round 3: "Add details about interview process" → Enhanced
Is this good? yes → Done!
Combining with Verbose Mode
./cogniscor.sh -v https://company.com
See detailed logs of:
- What URLs AI discovers
- Why sources are chosen
- What content is extracted
- How reports are enhanced
🎉 Summary
Interactive Mode makes Cogniscor a collaborative research assistant:
- 🤖 AI does the heavy lifting
- 👤 You guide what matters most
- 🔄 Iterate until perfect
- ✅ Get exactly the information you need
Perfect for interview prep where you need specific insights about the company!
Try it now:
./cogniscor.sh https://github.com
# Review the summary
# Request improvements as needed
# Get the perfect research report!