Getting Started with AI Crucible

Welcome! This guide will teach you the basics of using AI Crucible in just 5 simple steps. No complex examples—just the essentials you need to get started.

Quick Start: If you want to jump right in, you can select one of our 50+ professionally crafted suggested prompts displayed at the bottom of the prompt input. These cover common business, technical, and creative scenarios. Just click any prompt to get started!

By the end of this guide, you'll know:

Time to read: 5-10 minutes Typical cost: $0.10-0.25 per session Speed: 3-5 minutes per run

Want detailed examples? After completing this guide, check out:

Let's get started!

Understanding the Basics

Before we start, here's what makes AI Crucible different: instead of asking one AI model for an answer, you'll orchestrate 3-4 models working together through a structured strategy. Think of it as assembling a team of experts rather than consulting just one advisor.

The four key decisions you'll make:

  1. What problem are you solving? (Your prompt - or choose from suggested prompts)
  2. Which strategy fits your goal? (How the models will collaborate)
  3. Which AI models should participate? (Your team of experts)
  4. How many refinement rounds? (How much iteration you need)

Pro Tip: Not sure what to ask? The suggested prompts at the bottom of the input field provide excellent starting points for business strategy, technical analysis, creative writing, and more. They show best-practice prompt structure you can learn from.

Your First AI Crucible Session: 5 Simple Steps

Let's walk through the basics. We'll keep it simple so you can get started quickly.

Step 1: Choose Your Strategy

Start with Competitive Refinement - it works great for most tasks!

What it does:

Perfect for:

Strategy Selection

Quick Strategy Picker:

Want to dive deeper? Check out our Competitive Refinement guide or Expert Panel walkthrough for complete examples.

Step 2: Select Your AI Models

AI Crucible offers 33+ models across 8 providers. Here are recommended combos to get started:

Budget-friendly (~$0.05-0.15):

Balanced — recommended (~$0.15-0.25):

Premium (~$0.40-0.80):

Browse all 33+ models: See the full list with specs, pricing, and provider details on the Model Specs page.

Models Selection

Pro tip: Start with the balanced combo. You can always adjust based on your needs and budget.

Step 3: Set the Number of Rounds

Start with 3 rounds - works for most tasks!

What happens in each round:

Quick guide:

Pro tip: Enable "Adaptive Iteration Count" in Settings → Optimizations (/user/optimization) to automatically stop when models reach consensus, saving you money!

Rounds Selection

Step 4: Write Your Prompt

Quick Start Option: Use a Suggested Prompt

New to AI Crucible? You don't have to start from scratch. At the bottom of the prompt input area, you'll find professionally crafted sample prompts covering common use cases:

How to use suggested prompts:

  1. Browse visible prompts: The interface shows 2-5 prompts directly (depending on your screen size), displaying each with an optional strategy emoji that indicates which ensemble strategy works best for that prompt type
  2. Access more prompts: Click the "+XX" button to open a searchable dropdown containing all 50+ available prompts
  3. Search and filter: If the dropdown has more than 5 prompts, you'll see a search input to quickly find prompts by keyword (e.g., "security", "marketing", "code")
  4. Select a prompt: Click any prompt to automatically populate the input field—the selected prompt's recommended strategy (if available) will also be applied
  5. Customize: Modify the prompt for your specific needs or use it as-is
  6. Run: Click "Send" to start your ensemble process

These prompts are designed to demonstrate best practices: clear context, specific requirements, and structured deliverables. They're excellent examples to learn from, even if you modify them significantly. Many prompts include a recommended strategy (indicated by an emoji) to help you get started quickly.

Prompt Selection

Writing Your Own Prompt

What makes a good prompt?

✅ Be specific - Include context, audience, and goals ✅ Set constraints - Word count, tone, format ✅ Define deliverables - What exactly do you want? ✅ Provide examples - Show what good looks like (optional)

Example prompt structure:

[What you want created]

CONTEXT:
- [Background information]
- [Target audience]
- [Current situation]

REQUIREMENTS:
- [Specific requirement 1]
- [Specific requirement 2]
- [Specific requirement 3]

DELIVERABLES:
1. [Deliverable 1]
2. [Deliverable 2]
3. [Deliverable 3]

TONE: [Professional/Casual/Technical/etc.]
LENGTH: [Word count or length guidance]

Pro tip: The more specific you are, the better the results. Don't be afraid to add details!

Want to see a complete example? Check out the Competitive Refinement guide for a full walkthrough with a product launch email campaign.

Prompt Input

Step 5: Review and Run

Before clicking "Run," you'll see:

Configuration summary:

Typical costs:

Typical time: 3-5 minutes

What's the Arbiter Model?

The arbiter is like a "judge" that:

Pro tip: You can change the arbiter model in Chat Defaults (/user/chat-defaults) for higher-quality analysis.

Need Help Configuring? Use the AI Assistant

Not sure which strategy, models, or rounds to pick? Open the AI Prompt Assistant (click the AI Assistant button or press Cmd+A / Ctrl+A). It analyzes your prompt in real-time, classifies it into one of 14 categories, and recommends the optimal strategy, models, round count, and arbiter — all with one-click apply. Learn more in the AI Prompt Assistant Guide.

Ready? Click "Run" and watch the magic happen!

What Happens When You Click "Run"

You'll see models working in real-time!

Round 1: Independent Creation (0-60 seconds)

What you see:

What's happening:

Round 1 Running

Round 2: Learning & Improvement (60-120 seconds)

What you see:

What's happening:

Round 2 Running

Round 3: Final Polish (120-180 seconds)

What you see:

What's happening:

Round 3 Running

Pro tip: You can expand each round to see the full responses as they're generated!

Understanding Your Results

After execution completes, you'll see:

1. Conversation History

All rounds organized and easy to review:

🔵 Round 1 - Initial diverse responses

🟡 Round 2 - Improved versions

🟢 Round 3 - Final polished versions

2. Final Results & Insights

Scroll down to see the synthesized results:

Best Response Tab

Final Response

Evaluations Tab (click to load)

Evaluations

3. Share Your Results

Want to share your comparison with colleagues? Click the Share button to:

You can revoke sharing at any time from the same dialog.

Cost and Time Breakdown: The Final Tally

Actual Results for This Session

Total Cost: ~$0.10 (plus ~$0.02 for arbiter analysis = ~$0.12 total)

Model Costs (3 models × 3 rounds):

Arbiter Model (Gemini 3 Flash):

Total Actual Cost: $0.1179 (~$0.10 models + ~$0.02 arbiter)

Total Time: Approximately 3-4 minutes

Key Insights:

Actual Cost

What We Accomplished

From a single prompt and ~$0.12 total (~$0.10 for models + ~$0.02 for arbiter synthesis), you received:

✅ 9 distinct subject line options (3 per model in Round 1) ✅ 3 refined subject line sets in Round 2 (after competitive improvement) ✅ 3 final polished versions in Round 3 (convergence and excellence) ✅ Cross-model critique and learning (visible improvement across all 3 rounds) ✅ Final synthesized recommendations combining best elements ✅ Evaluation scores showing Claude Sonnet 4.5 as winner (9.5/10) ✅ Similarity analysis showing strong diversity (70% unique content per model) ✅ Multiple export formats for team collaboration

Compare to traditional approaches:

Approach Time Cost Quality Diversity
Single ChatGPT prompt 30 sec $0.03 Medium Low (one perspective)
Manual iteration (3 prompts) 5 min $0.09 Medium-High Medium (your prompt variations)
Hiring copywriter 2-5 days $200-$500 High Low (one writer's style)
AI Crucible Ensemble 3-4 min $0.16-0.18 High High (3 expert perspectives)

Key Takeaways and Best Practices

What Made This Successful

  1. Clear, specific prompt with context, requirements, and constraints
  2. Right strategy choice (Competitive Refinement for creative iteration)
  3. Diverse model selection (different strengths from different providers)
  4. Appropriate round count (3 rounds for creative task)
  5. Convergence detection (saved money without sacrificing quality)

Quick Start Scenarios

Scenario Strategy Models Rounds
Blog Post / Creative Writing Competitive Refinement GPT-5 Mini, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Gemini 3 Pro 3
Business Decision Analysis Collaborative Synthesis or Expert Panel Claude Sonnet 4.5, GPT-5.1, Gemini 3 Pro 2-3
Social Media Content Competitive Refinement GPT-5 Nano, Gemini 3 Flash, Claude Haiku 4.5 2-3
Code Review Expert Panel Claude Opus 4.6, GPT-5.2, DeepSeek Reasoner 2
Red Team / Stress Test Red Team / Blue Team Grok 4, Claude Sonnet 4.5, GPT-5 Mini 2-3
Project Planning Hierarchical or Expert Panel Claude Sonnet 4.5, GPT-5.1, Gemini 3 Pro 2-3

Explore More Features

AI Crucible has grown well beyond core ensemble chat. Here are the key features to explore:

Search & History

Use the Search page (/search) to find past conversations by prompt text, strategy, or model. Filter by strategy type to quickly locate previous work.

Benchmarks

Visit the Benchmarks page (/benchmarks) to see how different strategies and model combinations score across categories like creative, business, technical, and research prompts. Use this data to pick the best setup for your task.

Evaluations Dashboard (Pro)

In Settings → Evaluations (/user/evaluations), review detailed scoring and tagging data across your sessions. Tag evaluations for easy retrieval and track model performance over time.

MCP Integration (Pro)

Connect external Model Context Protocol servers in Settings → MCP (/user/mcp) to give your models access to external tools and data sources during ensemble runs. Add, configure, and manage MCP servers from a single page.

Custom Models (Pro)

In Settings → Custom Models (/user/custom-models), connect any OpenAI-compatible API—self-hosted models, Ollama, OpenRouter, etc.—and use them alongside built-in models in your ensemble runs.

Expert Personas

In Settings → Expert Personas (/user/experts), create and manage reusable expert personas for the Expert Panel strategy. Assign a default model and custom description to each persona so you can quickly assemble specialized panels.

Your AI Crucible Journey

Congratulations! You've completed your first ensemble AI project. Here's what to do next:

1. Try Your Own Project (Right Now!)

Pick something you actually need:

Use one of our Quick Start Scenarios above and customize it for your needs.

The best way to learn is by doing!

2. Explore Different Strategies

Try these next:

When to try each:

3. Customize Your Settings

Make AI Crucible work your way:

Go to Settings (⌘/Ctrl+,) to access multiple configuration pages:

Page Path What You Can Do
Chat Defaults /user/chat-defaults Default models, arbiter model
Optimizations /user/optimization Streaming, Adaptive Iteration, Semantic Caching, Context Compression, Smart Model Selection
Cost Controls /user/cost Budget limits, token limits
Usage /user/usage Spending stats, optimization savings
Expert Personas /user/experts Create/manage reusable expert personas
MCP (Pro) /user/mcp Connect external MCP tool servers
Custom Models (Pro) /user/custom-models Add OpenAI-compatible endpoints
API Keys /user/api-keys Manage your provider API keys
Evaluations (Pro) /user/evaluations Review scores and tags across sessions
Public Chats /user/public Manage your shared/public chats

New in Optimizations:

4. Use Suggested Prompts & the AI Assistant

Don't start from scratch:

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I choose the right strategy?

Start with Competitive Refinement for creative tasks (writing, marketing, brainstorming). Use Expert Panel for specialized perspectives on complex decisions. Use Debate Tournament to stress-test ideas. Try Chain-of-Thought for step-by-step reasoning and Red Team / Blue Team for adversarial security testing. See the Seven Strategies Guide for detailed comparisons.

How many models / rounds do I need?

3 models and 3 rounds is the sweet spot for most tasks ($0.15-0.25, 3-4 minutes). Use 2 rounds for simple tasks, 4+ models for complex analysis or debates. Enable Adaptive Iteration Count in Optimizations to let AI Crucible stop early when responses converge.

Why are my results generic?

Your prompt likely needs more specificity. Instead of "Write a blog post about productivity," try: "Write an 800-word blog post for remote workers about productivity, focusing on time-blocking techniques. Tone: practical and encouraging." Include context, audience, constraints, and deliverables.

How can I reduce costs?

  1. Use 2-3 models instead of 4-5
  2. Enable Adaptive Iteration Count and Semantic Caching
  3. Enable Smart Model Selection to auto-match model tier to complexity
  4. Use budget-friendly models: GPT-5 Nano, Gemini 3 Flash, Gemini 2.5 Flash, DeepSeek Chat
  5. Set word count limits in your prompt

Can I use my own models?

Yes! Pro users can add Custom Models via any OpenAI-compatible endpoint in Settings → Custom Models (/user/custom-models). This lets you connect self-hosted models, fine-tuned variants, or any provider that exposes an OpenAI-compatible API.

Can I share my results?

Yes! Click the Share button on any completed chat to generate a public read-only link or embed code. Manage all your shared chats in Settings → Public Chats.

What's the difference between ensemble AI and ChatGPT?

ChatGPT gives you one model's perspective. AI Crucible coordinates multiple models through structured strategies—giving you more diverse, balanced, and higher-quality results by combining different models' strengths and having them learn from each other.

Is my data private?

Prompts are only sent to models that you select. We don't train on your data, don't share it, and you can delete your history anytime.

Final Thoughts: You're Ready!

You've just completed your first ensemble AI project! Here's what you learned:

What Makes AI Crucible Different?

Instead of asking one AI for an answer, you're orchestrating multiple AI models working together. It's like having a team of experts instead of consulting just one advisor.

The result? Better quality, more diverse perspectives, and higher confidence in your decisions—all for less than $0.20 and 3-4 minutes. Plus sharing, benchmarks, evaluations, and MCP tool integration to take your workflow even further.

Your Next Step

Don't wait—try it now! Pick something you actually need, use one of the Quick Start Scenarios above, and see the difference ensemble AI makes.

Remember: The best way to learn is by doing.

Welcome to ensemble AI. Welcome to AI Crucible!