askround 0.1.0__tar.gz

askround-0.1.0/LICENSE

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askround-0.1.0/PKG-INFO

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+Metadata-Version: 2.4
+Name: askround
+Version: 0.1.0
+Summary: See what ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity recommend: ask them all the same question with web search and read whether your product is named, where, beside which rivals, and what they claim about it.
+Author: Alexandre Oliveira
+License-Expression: Apache-2.0
+Project-URL: Homepage, https://github.com/alegauss/askround
+Project-URL: Repository, https://github.com/alegauss/askround
+Project-URL: Issues, https://github.com/alegauss/askround/issues
+Project-URL: Changelog, https://github.com/alegauss/askround/blob/main/docs/CHANGELOG.md
+Keywords: ai-visibility,llm-visibility,generative-engine-optimization,chatgpt,gemini,claude,perplexity,mcp,cli
+Classifier: Development Status :: 3 - Alpha
+Classifier: Environment :: Console
+Classifier: Intended Audience :: Developers
+Classifier: Operating System :: OS Independent
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: Only
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12
+Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13
+Classifier: Topic :: Internet :: WWW/HTTP :: Indexing/Search
+Classifier: Topic :: Utilities
+Requires-Python: >=3.11
+Description-Content-Type: text/markdown
+License-File: LICENSE
+Provides-Extra: dev
+Requires-Dist: pytest>=8; extra == "dev"
+Requires-Dist: ruff>=0.6; extra == "dev"
+Dynamic: license-file
+
+# askround
+
+**Site:** [alegauss.com/askround](https://alegauss.com/askround/), with a real
+recorded round. **Docs:** [install, a first session, prompt sets, budget, reports, the MCP
+tools and the CLI](https://alegauss.com/askround/docs/).
+
+People now ask ChatGPT or Gemini which app to use, and you cannot see the answer they
+get. askround asks the assistants for you: the same question to OpenAI, Gemini,
+Anthropic and Perplexity, with web search on, several times each. It tells you whether
+your product is named and in which position, which rivals sit around it, what the
+answers claim about it, and which of your pages they cite.
+
+A real run, from 12/11/2026: four questions about Modelado, a Windows photo-to-3D app,
+one run each on two providers (`askround run examples/modelado.toml --runs 1`):
+
+| # | question | purpose | openai | gemini |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| 1 | What is a free offline app to turn a photo into a 3D model on Windows? | generic | 0/1 | 0/1 |
+| 2 | What app can turn a photo into a 3D model on Windows without an NVIDIA GPU (AMD or CPU only)? | constraint | 1/1 | 0/1 |
+| 3 | What Windows app can turn a photo into a relief STL for 3D printing? | use case | 0/1 | 0/1 |
+| 4 | Qual app de Windows transforma uma foto em modelo 3D usando só a CPU, sem placa NVIDIA? | language | 1/1, #1 | 0/1 |
+
+Each cell is the number of runs that named the app, then its position. ChatGPT finds
+Modelado when the asker has no NVIDIA card, and Gemini doesn't find it at all. That is
+who the app is for, and what its first screen has to say.
+
+**askround measures the APIs, not the apps.** An API answer with web search is close to
+what the chat apps say but not the same page: the apps add memory, personalisation and
+their own choice of model. askround records what produced each answer (the model asked
+for and the one that answered, the search tool, the settings, the time), and every
+report is about the API.
+
+```
+pip install askround          # from a checkout until the first release: pip install .
+askround doctor               # which providers have a key
+askround ask "What app can turn a photo into a 3D model on Windows without an NVIDIA GPU?" \
+    --product "Modelado,alegauss.com/modelado" --extract
+```
+
+Python 3.11 or later and the standard library only, so nothing in it is specific to one
+system; it is tested on Windows.
+
+Every provider whose API key is in the environment is asked in parallel:
+`OPENAI_API_KEY`, `GEMINI_API_KEY` (or `GOOGLE_API_KEY`), `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` and
+`PERPLEXITY_API_KEY`. askround reads the keys at call time and never stores them.
+`askround doctor` lists which providers can run here: the key variable (never its
+value), the model, the search tool and a free check call; `--no-check` makes no call.
+
+Web search is on, through each provider's own search tool, because that is how
+assistants find and recommend products. Each answer is printed with the sources it
+cited. `--no-search` asks the same question without search, to compare.
+
+Each round is saved under `.askround/rounds/<date>/<time>-<question>/` (change it with
+`--out` or `ASKROUND_DIR`): `round.json` holds the question and each provider's answer,
+search queries and sources, and `<provider>-<run>.json` the raw response as the provider
+sent it. Assistants answer differently from one run to the next, so a product is
+reported as "named in 2/3 runs, positions #1, #3, -", never from a single answer.
+
+| Option              | What it does                                        |
+| ------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
+| `--provider NAME`   | ask only this provider (`openai`, `gemini`, `anthropic`, `perplexity`), repeatable |
+| `--model PROVIDER=MODEL` | pin the model one provider uses, e.g. `openai=gpt-5-2025-08-07`, repeatable |
+| `--no-search`       | ask without web search                              |
+| `--runs N`          | ask each provider N times, in fresh conversations (default 3) |
+| `--product NAME[,ALIAS...]` | report how many runs named the product and its position in each, repeatable |
+| `--extract [PROVIDER]` | read each answer's recommendations in order with a model (one extra call per answer), so "Best fit" in a table or "my first choice" in prose ranks the product first |
+| `--locale COUNTRY[:LANG]` | ask as someone in this country, e.g. `BR:pt-BR`; repeat to compare countries side by side |
+| `--out DIR`         | where the round is saved                            |
+| `--json`            | print the round as JSON                             |
+
+Without `--extract`, a product's position is read from the answer's text: its place
+among the top-level list items, numbered headings and table rows. With it, a small model
+(gpt-5-mini, gemini-2.5-flash or claude-haiku-5-5, whichever has a key; override with
+`ASKROUND_EXTRACT_MODEL`) lists what the answer recommends in its own order, each with a
+quote. The text stays the check: a product counts as named only if its name is in the
+answer, and a quote not found in the answer is marked `(?)`. Positions ranked this way
+show a `*`.
+
+Give the product's own places among its names, anything with a dot: a domain or a URL
+prefix (`--product "Modelado,alegauss.com/modelado,github.com/alegauss/modelado"`).
+The report then says, per provider, how many answers cited one of its pages and which
+kind (site, repository, store, docs), and `round.json` lists every page and the
+third-party domains cited. Tracking parameters are dropped; Gemini's redirect links are
+counted by the domain in their title.
+
+`--check-links` follows every link an answer writes beside the product's name (in its
+table row or list item, or close to it in prose), images included, and flags those that
+land on someone else's page, such as another app's Store page shown for yours, or that
+are broken. A page counts as the product's when it is on one of its places or its
+title names it.
+
+With `--extract`, the report also lists what the answers claim about the product, from
+tables and prose: `CPU only: Check build`, `Cost: Free, open-source`, each with the
+providers that said it and the passage it came from. A claim whose quote is not in the
+answer is counted apart and never shown as a finding.
+
+With `--extract`, the report also lists the rivals: every other product the answers
+recommend, with how many answers named it, its rank in each and which providers did
+(the first ten in the report, all of them in `round.json`, each with the quote that
+recommends it).
+
+Each API takes a different part of a locale, and only for its search: OpenAI,
+Anthropic and Perplexity an approximate country, Gemini a language. What a provider
+cannot take is recorded on the answer and shown as "ignored by the API". Write the
+question in the language you are testing: that is still the strongest signal.
+
+A rate limit, a server error, a timeout or a dropped connection is retried up to three
+times with backoff (honouring `Retry-After`); a rejected key or a missing model is not.
+An answer that still fails is recorded with its error, the rest of the round carries
+on, and the report lists the failures at the end.
+
+The model per provider is overridden with `ASKROUND_OPENAI_MODEL`,
+`ASKROUND_GEMINI_MODEL`, `ASKROUND_ANTHROPIC_MODEL` and `ASKROUND_PERPLEXITY_MODEL`.
+
+## A product file, and the facts the answers get wrong
+
+```toml
+# modelado.toml
+[product]
+name = "Modelado"
+places = ["alegauss.com/modelado", "github.com/alegauss/modelado"]
+
+[[fact]]
+attribute = "Runs without an NVIDIA GPU"
+value = "Yes: any DirectX 12 GPU through DirectML, or the CPU"
+page = "https://alegauss.com/modelado/"   # where it should be said plainly
+```
+
+`askround ask "..." --product-file modelado.toml --extract` asks about the product the
+file describes and compares what the answers claim with its facts, in one more call: a
+claim that contradicts a fact, or doubts it ('CPU only: Check build'), is reported as a
+fact gap with the page that should state the fact plainly and the product's pages the
+answers did cite.
+
+## What a round costs
+
+Before a round, askround prints an estimate from the number of calls, the tokens a
+searched answer usually takes and each provider's prices, and refuses a round above the
+cap you set (`--max-cost 0.50`, or `ASKROUND_MAX_COST`) before anything is sent. After
+it, the report gives the actual cost per provider from the usage each API reported,
+the extraction pass included.
+
+The prices are a dated table in `plugin/src/askround/costs.py`: Anthropic's from its model table
+of 2026-11-03, the others the last known list prices, to be checked against the
+providers' pages. `ASKROUND_PRICES` names a JSON file that replaces any of them:
+`{"models": {"gpt-5": {"input": 1.25, "output": 10.0}}, "search": {"openai": 0.01}}`.
+
+### A budget an agent cannot raise
+
+Set what askround may spend in its config file, `%APPDATA%\askround\config.toml` on
+Windows, `~/.config/askround/config.toml` elsewhere (or the file `ASKROUND_CONFIG`
+names):
+
+```toml
+[budget]
+day = 1.00
+month = 10.00
+```
+
+Every saved round adds its actual cost to `spent.jsonl` beside the rounds. A run whose
+estimate would pass the day's or the month's budget is refused before any call
+(`budget.over`): it waits for you. You approve it by running it with `--approve`, or
+raise the budget; an agent using the MCP tools cannot do either, and every paid result
+it gets says what has been spent against the budget. `askround budget` shows it.
+
+### The same question twice costs once
+
+A question asked again the same way within a day (the same text, providers, models,
+locales and search, as many runs, extraction if wanted) returns the stored round, marked
+with its age, and calls no provider. A round where some answers failed is asked again.
+`--fresh` (or `fresh: true` over MCP) asks anew; the window is set in the config file:
+
+```toml
+[reuse]
+max_age_hours = 24   # 0 turns reuse off
+```
+
+## Prompt sets: the same questions every week
+
+Add `[[question]]` entries to the product file and it becomes a prompt set:
+
+```toml
+[[question]]
+text = "What app can turn a photo into a 3D model on Windows without an NVIDIA GPU?"
+purpose = "constraint"     # generic, constraint, use case, language
+locale = "BR:pt-BR"        # optional
+runs = 3                   # optional
+```
+
+A question that names the product it tests (its name, an alias, one of its places, or
+a phrase listed under `phrases`) measures nothing, so it is refused before anything is
+paid for. A question that asks about the product on purpose is marked `brand = true`
+(or `--brand` on `ask`); it runs, and is reported apart.
+
+A round sends the same text to every provider, so a question that carries personal data
+(an email address, a phone number, a CPF, an IP address, an API key, or a name on your
+own list in `ASKROUND_PRIVATE` or the file `ASKROUND_PRIVATE_FILE` names) stops before
+anything is sent, naming the question and what it found.
+
+`askround run modelado.toml` asks every question as its own round, kept together in
+one set directory, and prints one table of question by provider before each question's
+report. `askround report` on the set's directory prints it again.
+[`examples/modelado.toml`](examples/modelado.toml) is the set this tool was built from.
+
+## Which question leads to the product?
+
+```
+askround discover modelado.toml --seed "free offline app photo to 3D model on Windows"
+```
+
+From the seed and the product file's facts, a model writes variants (a constraint the
+product meets, a use case, another language) that never name the product; askround
+runs them with the seed and ranks them by how often and how high the product appears.
+It runs once per question by default, which is a sketch: add the promising questions
+to the product file and `askround run` them with more runs.
+
+## Does a recommended product exist?
+
+```
+askround lookup "MeshForge3D" "Modly" --context "a Windows photo-to-3D app"
+askround ask "..." --extract --check-rivals     # the top 10 rivals of a round
+```
+
+Each name is looked up on GitHub first (free; a repository of that name with at least
+10 stars), then with one searched call on OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini, which answers
+found, ambiguous or not found with the page. A "found" whose page is not among the
+pages that search returned is downgraded to ambiguous. `--no-web` keeps it to GitHub.
+The report marks each checked rival, and names the ones found nowhere.
+
+## The series
+
+Every round saved also appends one line per answer to `series.jsonl` beside the rounds:
+when, which question and set, which provider and model, and what was read (each
+tracked product's mention and position, the recommendations, the cited pages, the
+claims). It is an index of the rounds, so `--rebuild` writes it again from them.
+
+```
+askround series --product Modelado                     # answers naming it, per week
+askround series --product Modelado --by day --question nvidia
+```
+
+`askround diff` compares the latest two runs of the same questions (or two you name)
+and lists only what changed, per question and provider: the product's share and best
+position, rivals that appeared or left, its pages newly cited or no longer cited, and
+claims made or dropped.
+
+## Export, and a weekly round
+
+`askround export --product Modelado` writes the product's numbers from the series, one
+row per day, provider and question (answers, named, frequency, best and mean position,
+rivals, its pages cited), as CSV, JSON, or with `--format daily` in the shape a
+`daily.json` of numbers per product takes (`{product: {day: {"assistants": {...}}}}`).
+`--from`/`--to` bound the days and `--file` writes it out.
+
+askround does not schedule itself; the system does. Every Monday at 08:00, on Windows:
+
+```
+schtasks /Create /SC WEEKLY /D MON /ST 08:00 /TN askround-modelado ^
+  /TR "cmd /c cd /d D:\work && askround run modelado.toml --extract --max-cost 2 && askround export --product Modelado --format daily --file modelado-assistants.json"
+```
+
+and with cron:
+
+```
+0 8 * * 1  cd ~/work && askround run modelado.toml --extract --max-cost 2 && askround export --product Modelado --format daily --file modelado-assistants.json
+```
+
+The keys come from the environment the task runs in; `--max-cost` keeps an unattended
+run from spending more than you agreed to.
+
+## The report
+
+```
+askround report                     # the latest round, as Markdown
+askround report <round dir> --json  # one round, as JSON for a pipeline
+askround report --product Blender   # the same round, read for another product
+```
+
+`report` reads a stored round back and sums it up: for each product, a table of
+provider by share of runs and positions, what the answers claim about it, which of its
+pages they cite, then the rivals. The JSON holds the same facts and never the answers'
+text, which stays in `round.json`.
+
+## Research mode
+
+```
+askround research "Which open-source image-to-3D models allow commercial use?"
+```
+
+asks every provider once with search, reads each answer for the factual statements it
+makes (each with a quote found in the answer), merges the statements that say the same
+thing, and lists the claims by how many providers support them, each with every
+provider's passage and the sources, those naming the claim's subject first and primary
+ones (repositories, licence texts, papers, official docs) before secondary ones.
+Support is agreement among assistants, not proof: check a claim at its primary source.
+
+Where the assistants disagree on a fact (one says a model's licence allows commercial
+use, another that it does not), the report opens with it: both sides, their passages,
+and the primary sources to read to settle it.
+
+## For agents: the plugin and the MCP server
+
+In Claude Code, the plugin installs the MCP server, four slash commands (`/askround:ask`,
+`/askround:run`, `/askround:report`, `/askround:diff`) and a skill that tells the agent to
+run a question across assistants itself, instead of asking you to paste ChatGPT's
+answer. The plugin carries the package (`plugin/src/askround`) and runs it with the
+Python on the machine, so nothing else is installed and nothing has to be on the PATH:
+
+```
+/plugin marketplace add alegauss/askround
+/plugin install askround@askround
+```
+
+To wire a project for everyone who clones it, run `askround install` in it (or
+`python plugin/scripts/askround.py install <project>` from a checkout) and commit
+`.claude/settings.json`: it names the marketplace and enables the plugin, keeping every
+other setting, so each clone is offered the plugin on its first session.
+`askround install --check` writes nothing and exits 1 when the entries are missing, for
+CI. Claude Code on the web installs no plugin, so `askround install --vendor` also copies
+askround into `.claude/askround/` with a launcher and names it in the project's
+`.mcp.json`; commit both, and `--vendor --check` says when the copy is behind. The server
+alone: `claude mcp add askround -- askround mcp`. Either serves:
+
+| Tool | What it does |
+| --- | --- |
+| `askround_ask` | ask a question across providers; returns the report and lists the answers |
+| `askround_answer` | the full text of one answer, with its sources |
+| `askround_run` | run a prompt set (a product file); returns the set's report |
+| `askround_research` | a research question everywhere, its claims merged by support |
+| `askround_job` | a round started with `background: true`: its progress, then its result |
+| `askround_report` | the report of a stored round or set |
+| `askround_diff` | what changed between two runs of the same questions |
+| `askround_doctor` | which providers can run (key variable names, never values) |
+
+The same refusals hold for an agent: personal data, a question naming its product, and
+a run estimated above `max_cost` (or `ASKROUND_MAX_COST`) stop before anything is
+paid for. The tool schemas are written for the project the server runs in: only the
+providers with a key, the product files found at its top or one directory down (with
+their question counts) under `askround_run`'s `file`, and your day and month budget, with
+what is already spent, beside `max_cost`.
+
+`askround_ask` returns a brief: a few hundred tokens for a whole round (a real 2x2 round
+with extraction: 614 characters, against 12,253 of answers). Each fact in it carries the
+ids of the answers it came from (`openai#2`, `openai@BR#2`); `askround_answer` with an
+id returns that answer, or with `around: "<quote>"` only the passage behind the fact.
+`detail: true` returns the full report. On the command line: `askround report --brief`.
+`askround_run` returns one brief per question in the set, and `detail: true` the set's
+full report.
+
+What each response costs the agent, measured on the recorded rounds in `tests/fixtures`
+(two providers, three runs, extraction on; one token per four characters of JSON, so
+an approximation, the same way for every tool):
+
+| Response | Tokens | Budget |
+| --- | ---: | ---: |
+| `askround_ask` (brief) | 304 | 400 |
+| `askround_ask` with `detail: true` | 1,360 | 1,800 |
+| `askround_answer` | 868 | 1,100 |
+| `askround_answer` with `around` | 175 | 250 |
+| `askround_research` | 163 | 250 |
+| `askround_run` (one question per purpose) | 760 | 1,000 |
+| `askround_report` | 1,136 | 1,500 |
+| `askround_diff` | 112 | 200 |
+| `askround_doctor` | 257 | 350 |
+
+The budgets live in `budgets/mcp-tokens.json` and `tests/test_tokens.py` fails a response
+over its budget, so a field added to a response is a reviewed change. `pytest -s -k
+figures` prints the table again.
+
+A round takes minutes. With `background: true`, `askround_ask` and `askround_run` check
+and estimate it, start it in a process of its own and return a job id at once; the
+agent keeps working and reads it with `askround_job`: running (with how many answers
+are in), done (with its brief), refused, failed, or interrupted. Each answer is written
+the moment it lands, so an interrupted job keeps every answer it finished. The jobs
+live in `jobs/` beside the rounds; `--estimate-only` on the command line runs the same
+checks and prints the estimate without asking anything.
+
+## Refused before it is paid for
+
+Every check that needs no call runs before the first one, and a refusal lists every
+problem at once, each with a code and the change that passes it:
+
+```
+askround: refused before anything was sent: 2 problem(s)
+  [question.leading] the question names the product it tests (Modelado): 'Is Modelado good?'
+      fix: Reword it as a person who does not know the product would ask; or ...
+  [cost.over-cap] the estimate $0.2972 is above the cap $0.0010
+      fix: Ask fewer providers or fewer runs, drop --extract, or raise the cap ...
+```
+
+`askround explain <code>` says what a code means; `askround explain` lists them. For an
+agent, the MCP schemas carry the same limits (a question's length, the providers that
+have a key), so a call that would be refused fails at the schema.
+
+## The output contract
+
+Every command takes `--json` (`export` takes `--format json`). Each JSON object names
+its schema, `"schema": "askround/round@1"`, and the schemas are published in
+[`schema/`](schema/) as JSON Schema. In a round, every fact says where it came from: the
+answer's id (`openai#2`, `openai@BR#2`) and the character range of its passage in that
+answer's text (`"range": [412, 437]`, end excluded), so a script or an agent can cite it.
+
+| Exit code | Means |
+| --- | --- |
+| 0 | every answer came back |
+| 3 | a partial round: it finished, some answers failed (they are listed) |
+| 1 | no answer came back |
+| 2 | refused before anything was sent (personal data, a leading question, over the cost cap, no key) or a usage error |
+
+## Development
+
+```
+pip install -e .[dev]
+python -m pytest                     # no key and no network: a test that calls out fails
+python -m ruff check .
+python -m ruff format --check .
+ASKROUND_LIVE=1 python -m pytest -m live   # each adapter with a key, against its real API
+```
+
+The adapters are tested against real responses recorded from a live round
+(`tests/fixtures/`, ids scrubbed), so a provider changing its shape shows up as a
+failing recording rather than a silent miss.