Question 1

What is IdeaTwister in one paragraph?

Accepted Answer

IdeaTwister is a locally-run idea mutation engine. You hand it one rough business idea and it generates 50+ scored variations across 15 strategic angles - flipping pricing, narrowing the niche, swapping the audience, unbundling the offer, reworking go-to-market and more. 15 specialized AI agents do the work in parallel inside your existing AI coding tool, and you get a self-contained HTML report at the end.

Question 2

How does a run actually work, end to end?

Accepted Answer

You run a single command (e.g. /ideatwister "AI CRM for indie founders"). The orchestrator spawns 15 agents in parallel: research agents pull live signal from the web, mutation agents twist your idea across 15 angles, scoring agents grade each variation across five commercial dimensions, and a report agent renders everything into an interactive HTML dashboard saved locally on your machine.

Question 3

How is this different from a typical "idea generator"?

Accepted Answer

Most generators output a list of unscored, undifferentiated suggestions written by a single LLM call. Clever, but commercially useless. IdeaTwister runs 15 specialized agents (Customer Segments, Pricing, Adjacent Niches, GTM Channels, Defensibility and more), grounds each one in live web research, and scores every variation across five commercial dimensions. You walk away with a ranked, filterable shortlist instead of a brainstorm dump.

Question 4

Why not just prompt Claude or ChatGPT myself?

Accepted Answer

You could. You would also spend three to five hours crafting prompts, iterating on outputs, structuring results manually, running separate research queries and trying to synthesize the whole mess into something you can act on. IdeaTwister does all of that in one command with 15 coordinated agents, structured scoring and a self-contained HTML report. It is the difference between cooking from scratch and having the recipe, ingredients and mise en place ready.

Question 5

Can I customize the 15 strategic angles or add my own?

Accepted Answer

The 15 strategic angles are fixed as part of the core engine so the scoring stays consistent across runs. You can absolutely use the output as a foundation and run your own follow-up research on the angles you find most promising.

Question 6

Is the purchase a subscription?

Accepted Answer

No. It is a one-time digital product purchase. You pay $39 once and own access forever. No recurring charges, no "trial converts to subscription" trickery.

Question 7

Are there any ongoing costs beyond the $39?

Accepted Answer

The only ongoing cost is your AI provider usage. A typical IdeaTwister run costs roughly $1 to $3 in tokens through your chosen platform (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Copilot, etc.). You bring your own credentials and your provider bills you directly. There are no metered fees, platform fees or hidden charges from us.

Question 8

Is there a free trial?

Accepted Answer

No free trial, but there is a 7-day money-back guarantee. If IdeaTwister is not what you expected, email us within 7 days of purchase for a full refund.

Question 9

What is your refund policy?

Accepted Answer

If IdeaTwister genuinely did not work for you within 7 days, email us with a brief reason - what you expected vs. what happened. If you can attach a support bundle (run ideatwister support-bundle to generate it), it helps us diagnose the issue and speeds up the refund. If the product ran successfully and generated outputs for you, you have received its core value and are not eligible for a refund.

Question 10

Can I use the same license on multiple machines?

Accepted Answer

Yes, as long as those machines belong to you. The license is tied to one person, not one device, so you can install IdeaTwister on your laptop, desktop or any other machine you personally own or control. It works across all 6 supported platforms. The license cannot be shared with teammates, family or anyone else.

Question 11

Can I share my license with my co-founder or team?

Accepted Answer

No. IdeaTwister is a single-user license, so each person on your team needs their own purchase. There is no shared seat or team plan. If you need volume pricing for an organization, email hello@ideatwister.com and we will work something out.

Question 12

Can I use IdeaTwister for client work or inside an agency?

Accepted Answer

No. The standard license covers personal use only. If you want to use IdeaTwister for client work, agency engagements or any service-style use case, email hello@ideatwister.com first so we can figure out the right arrangement for you.

Question 13

Can I use the outputs commercially?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The strategic angles, mutations and reports IdeaTwister generates for you belong to you. Use them in your own products, pitches, fundraising decks or business ventures. The software itself cannot be resold, repackaged or turned into a paid service for others.

Question 14

What happens if you update the engine?

Accepted Answer

Minor and patch updates to the version you bought are included at no extra cost. Major version releases (think v2.0, v3.0) may be priced separately, but the version you purchased stays yours forever and keeps working.

Question 15

Which AI platforms does IdeaTwister support?

Accepted Answer

Six platforms today: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI and OpenCode. The same engine runs on every platform with identical results, so you pick whichever tool you already use. Each platform ships with a setup guide and an installer script.

Question 16

Which platform should I choose?

Accepted Answer

Pick the AI tool you already use. All platforms run the same engine and produce identical results. If you are unsure, Claude Code is the most straightforward, with the easiest install and zero configuration.

Question 17

Can I switch platforms later?

Accepted Answer

Yes. All your runs are saved to ~/.ideatwister/ in your home directory, which is shared across every platform. Install IdeaTwister on a different platform and you will see all your past runs immediately.

Question 18

Do I pay more to use IdeaTwister on multiple platforms?

Accepted Answer

No. One $39 purchase works on all 6 supported platforms. Buy once, use everywhere. One license, unlimited platforms.

Question 19

Do I need a paid Claude (or similar) subscription to run it?

Accepted Answer

Not necessarily. Each of the 6 supported platforms has its own access model - some accept an API key with pay-per-token billing, others require an active subscription. The platform-specific setup guides spell out exactly what you need for the platform you choose.

Question 20

What kind of idea can I submit?

Accepted Answer

Anything from a one-sentence concept to a full paragraph. Business ideas, SaaS concepts, service businesses, physical products, content plays - even "I want to build something in X space but do not know what" works. The rougher the better.

Question 21

What makes a good input idea?

Accepted Answer

Three things help the engine the most. First, name a real audience or context (e.g. "for indie hackers shipping micro-SaaS" beats "for everyone"). Second, hint at the pain or job-to-be-done you think exists. Third, be willing to be wrong - the more committed you are to your exact wording, the less value you get from the mutations. Vague seed ideas (3 to 5 sentences) usually outperform polished, fully-formed pitches because they leave the agents room to mutate hard.

Question 22

How long does a full run take?

Accepted Answer

Typically 30 to 50 minutes depending on your machine and internet speed. You can interrupt the run at any time with Ctrl+C and resume by running the same command again.

Question 23

How much does a single run cost in API tokens?

Accepted Answer

A typical full run costs $1 to $3 in AI tokens, depending on your idea complexity and the research depth. You bring your own API credentials, so you control the spend.

Question 24

What is included in the HTML report?

Accepted Answer

A fully interactive, self-contained HTML dashboard with all 50+ variations. Each variation gets a name, strategic angle, description, a confidence score (0 to 10 across 5 dimensions) and a revenue model outline. The top 5 also get a GTM sketch, $100K math and a 30-day validation plan. Filter by score, search by keyword, share the file with anyone, no login required.

Question 25

Can I export variations to CSV or other formats?

Accepted Answer

The dashboard ships as self-contained HTML with a machine-readable JSON file (report_data.json) inside. You can parse that JSON to export to any format you want. The How It Works guide walks through the schema.

Question 26

What happens if I run IdeaTwister twice on the same idea?

Accepted Answer

Each run gets a unique slug based on the timestamp, and previous runs are preserved. List all past runs with /ideatwister list and open any of them anytime.

Question 27

Is IdeaTwister really locally run?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The orchestrator and all 15 agents run inside your AI coding tool on your machine. Your idea is sent to your chosen AI provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, GitHub) the same way any prompt you write would be, but never to IdeaTwister servers - because there are no IdeaTwister servers.

Question 28

Where is my data stored?

Accepted Answer

All your runs live locally in ~/.ideatwister/runs/ on your machine. This directory is shared across every supported platform, so installing IdeaTwister on a second tool gives you immediate access to the same run history. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

Question 29

Can I run IdeaTwister offline?

Accepted Answer

Most of the pipeline runs locally. The web research phase needs internet to pull live market signals. If you run without internet, that phase is skipped and you still get 50+ variations - just without fresh external research baked in.

Question 30

Can I share the report with someone else?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The HTML dashboard is fully self-contained (~5MB). Send the file to a co-founder, investor or mentor and they can open it in any browser. No login, no account, no dependencies.

Everything you wanted to ask about IdeaTwister

About IdeaTwister & how it works

Pricing, license & refunds

Platform support

Inputs, runs & outputs

Data privacy & local storage

Still on the fence?