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

Recommended starter combo: 3 models

Budget-friendly:

Balanced (recommended):

Premium:

Why 3 models?

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.

Cost Estimate

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

Chat Finished

2. Final Results & Insights

Scroll down to see the synthesized results:

Best Response Tab

Model Comparison Tab (click to load)

Next Steps: Try It Yourself!

That's it! You now know the basics of AI Crucible.

Want to See a Complete Example?

Check out these detailed walkthroughs:

📧 Competitive Refinement Example - See a complete email campaign creation from start to finish with all 3 rounds

👥 Expert Panel Example - Watch four AI experts evaluate a remote work policy decision

Ready to Start?

Pick something you actually need:

Use the Quick Start Scenarios below and customize for your needs!

Step 9: Copy and Use Your Results

Now that you have excellent results, use the Copy button to quickly grab your content.

Using Your Results

The Best Response tab has a simple Copy button that:

How to use the copied content:

  1. Paste into your email tool (Gmail, Outlook, etc.)

    • Format is preserved
    • Ready to send or further edit

  2. Share with your team (Slack, Teams, etc.)

    • Clean markdown formatting
    • Easy to review and discuss

  3. Add to your docs (Google Docs, Notion, etc.)

    • Well-formatted and readable
    • Can be edited collaboratively

  4. Save locally (Text editor, note app)

    • Keep for reference
    • Iterate further

For our email campaign: Copy the merged response and paste it into Google Docs so the marketing team can collaboratively choose their favorite subject line and make final tweaks to the email body.

Pro tip: You can also select and copy specific sections from individual model responses in the conversation history if you prefer one model's approach for particular elements.

Best Results Copied

Step 10: Continue Refining (Optional)

Not quite satisfied? You can continue the conversation! Here are practical examples:

Option 1: Ask for Specific Improvements

Make it shorter:


The subject lines are great, but can we make them shorter?
Aim for under 50 characters for mobile readability.

Adjust the tone:


Can you make the email more casual and friendly?
Less corporate, more like talking to a colleague.

Add specific elements:


Add a P.S. section with a limited-time launch offer:
20% off for the first 100 sign-ups.

Option 2: Try a Different Angle

Different audience:


Now create a variation targeted at startup founders rather
than general remote workers. More emphasis on competitive
edge and efficiency gains.

Different format:


Convert the email into a LinkedIn post (300 words max)
with the same core message but adapted for social media.

Option 3: Request A/B Test Variations


Create three distinct variations of the winning email for
A/B testing, each emphasizing a different benefit:

1. Time savings, 2) Stress reduction, 3) Career advancement

Option 4: Expand on Specific Parts


Take the winning subject line and create 5 more variations
in the same style but with different hooks.

Pro tip: Each follow-up runs as a new round, so models will see the previous conversation and build on it!

Continue Conversation

Cost and Time Breakdown: The Final Tally

Actual Results for This Session

Total Cost: $0.1595 (plus $0.0160 for arbiter analysis = $0.1755 total)

Model Costs (3 models × 3 rounds):

Arbiter Model (Gemini 2.5 Flash):

Total Actual Cost: $0.1755 ($0.1595 models + $0.0160 arbiter)

Total Time: Approximately 3-4 minutes

Key Insights:

Actual Cost

What We Accomplished

From a single prompt and $0.18 total ($0.16 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 for Your Next Project

Now that you've completed your first project, here are ready-to-use scenarios:

Scenario 1: Write a Blog Post

Prompt template:


Write a blog post about [TOPIC] for [AUDIENCE].

Key points to cover:

- [Point 1]
- [Point 2]
- [Point 3]

Tone: [Professional/Casual/Technical]
Length: [800-1000 words]

Recommended setup:

Scenario 2: Analyze a Business Decision

Prompt template:


Analyze whether we should [DECISION].

Context:

- Current situation: [CONTEXT]
- Goals: [GOALS]
- Constraints: [BUDGET/TIME/RESOURCES]

Provide:

1. Pros and cons
2. Risk assessment
3. Recommendation with reasoning

Recommended setup:

Scenario 3: Create Social Media Content

Prompt template:


Create [NUMBER] social media posts for [PLATFORM] about [TOPIC].

Target audience: [AUDIENCE]
Goal: [ENGAGEMENT/AWARENESS/CONVERSION]
Tone: [DESCRIPTION]

Include relevant hashtags and emojis.

Recommended setup:

Scenario 4: Review and Improve Code

Prompt template:


Review this code and suggest improvements:

[PASTE CODE]

Focus on:

- Performance optimization
- Code readability
- Best practices
- Potential bugs

Recommended setup:

Scenario 5: Plan a Project

Prompt template:


Create a project plan for [PROJECT NAME].

Objective: [GOAL]
Timeline: [DURATION]
Team: [TEAM SIZE/ROLES]

Provide:

1. Milestones and timeline
2. Resource allocation
3. Risk mitigation strategies
4. Success metrics

Recommended setup:

Pro tip: Save these templates and customize them for your specific needs!

Common Beginner Questions

"How do I know which strategy to use?"

Quick guide:

Still unsure? Start with Competitive Refinement - it works well for most tasks!

"How many models should I use?"

Start with 3 models:

When to use more:

"How many rounds do I need?"

Simple rule:

Enable Adaptive Iteration Count to let AI Crucible decide!

"Why are my results generic?"

Make your prompt more specific:

Add context:

"How can I reduce costs?"

Easy wins:

  1. Use 3 models instead of 4-5 (saves 25-40%)
  2. Enable Adaptive Iteration Count (stops early when done)
  3. Set word count limits ("Keep responses under 500 words")
  4. Use cost-effective models:
    • GPT-5 Mini (excellent value)
    • Gemini 2.5 Flash (very affordable)
    • DeepSeek Chat (10x cheaper than GPT-4o)

"Can I use my own API keys?"

Yes! Go to Settings (/user/profile) to add your own:

Benefits:

"What if I don't like the results?"

You have options:

  1. Continue the conversation with follow-up prompts
  2. Try a different strategy with the same prompt
  3. Adjust your prompt to be more specific
  4. Review individual model responses - you might prefer one over the merged result

Next Steps: 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:

Chat Defaults (/user/chat-defaults):

Optimizations (/user/optimization):

Cost Controls (/user/cost):

Cost Metrics (/user/usage):

4. Use Suggested Prompts

Don't start from scratch:

Suggested prompts are at the bottom of every chat input!

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I choose the right strategy for my task?

Start with Competitive Refinement for most creative tasks like writing, marketing copy, or brainstorming. Use Expert Panel when you need specialized perspectives on complex decisions (finance, legal, technical). Use Debate Tournament to stress-test controversial decisions. See the Seven Strategies Guide for detailed comparisons.

How many models should I use?

Use 3 models for most tasks, which provides diverse perspectives at manageable cost ($0.15-0.25) and fast execution (3-4 minutes). This sweet spot balances quality, cost, and speed effectively. Use 4-5 models for highly complex decisions or maximum creative diversity. Use 2 models for quick iterations or budget constraints.

How many rounds should I configure?

Configure 3 rounds for most tasks: Round 1 for independent creation, Round 2 for improvement based on others' work, and Round 3 for final polish and convergence. This progression allows models to learn from each other and refine their outputs iteratively. Two rounds work for simpler tasks, but you miss the convergence that happens in Round 3.

Why are my results generic or not what I expected?

Generic results usually mean your prompt lacks specificity. Include clear context, specific requirements, constraints (budget, timeline, tone), target audience details, and desired deliverables. The more specific your prompt, the better the results.

How can I reduce costs?

Reduce costs by using fewer models (2-3 instead of 4-5), fewer rounds (2 instead of 3), choosing budget-friendly models (Gemini Flash, GPT-4o-mini), enabling convergence detection, and using caching for similar queries. Typical sessions cost $0.05-$0.50.

Can I use my own API keys?

Yes! AI Crucible requires you to provide your own API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and other providers. This gives you full control over costs and usage. Keys are encrypted and stored securely. Configure them in Settings.

What if I'm not satisfied with the results?

Continue the conversation with follow-up prompts to refine results, try a different strategy, add more models for additional perspectives, adjust the number of rounds, or make your prompt more specific. The app makes iteration easy.

How long does a typical session take?

Most sessions complete in 3-5 minutes for 3 models and 3 rounds. Time varies based on model selection (some models are faster), number of rounds, and prompt complexity. You can monitor progress in real-time.

Can I save and reuse my configurations?

Yes! Use the Template Library to save your favorite configurations including strategy, models, rounds, and prompt templates with variables. You can create custom templates and reuse them with one click.

What's the difference between ensemble AI and using ChatGPT?

ChatGPT gives you one model's perspective with its specific strengths and blind spots. Ensemble AI coordinates multiple models working together through structured strategies, giving you more complete, balanced, and higher-quality results by combining different models' strengths.

How do I know which models to choose?

Choose models from different providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) to maximize diversity in approaches and strengths. A good starting combination: GPT-5 Mini (fast, engaging), Claude Sonnet 4.5 (thoughtful, nuanced), and Gemini 2.5 Pro (multi-perspective). Different models excel at different aspects, so mixing providers gives you the best results. The app provides sensible defaults to get you started quickly.

Is my data private and secure?

Yes. Your prompts are only sent to the AI models you explicitly select using your own API keys. We don't train on your data, don't share it with third parties, and you can delete your history anytime. See User Settings (/user/settings) for detailed privacy controls.

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.

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. You'll be surprised how much better the results are than what you'd get from a single model.

Welcome to ensemble AI. Welcome to AI Crucible!