Detail levels & follow-up

Detail levels

polis_test (and polis_estimate) take a detail parameter:

• snapshot — the lean read: first glance (three-word emotional snap), 5-second decision (stay / scroll / click / save), what they noticed first, the one thing that gave them pause, a verbatim quote in their voice, and intent 0-10. Cheapest.
• standard (default) — everything in snapshot, plus a 2-4 sentence think-aloud, what resonated, what confused, ranked objections, the open questions they'd want answered, a trust score 0-10, sentiment (positive / neutral / negative / mixed), the exact phrase that stuck with them, and the single change that would most move them.
• deep — everything in standard, plus their emotional arc through the piece, whether they'd actually pay (+ why), who they'd share it with, what competitor they'd compare it to or switch from/to, and the one line of personal context that's coloring the reaction.

Higher detail = more tokens per persona (roughly 1x / 1.5x / 2.5x). Same $/token; the exact cost is in polis_estimate. The synthesis report (segments, top friction, rewrite) and the _usage block are the same shape at every detail level; the additional per-persona fields show up on each sample reaction in the report.

Follow-up: ask the audience

After a run is complete, polis_ask lets you interrogate the synthetic audience further. Targets:

• persona — one specific persona (cheapest).
• archetype — a representative of an archetype.
• segment — a sample from a synthesis segment.
• panel — everyone (runs in the background; poll polis_thread).

Personas answer in their original voice, grounded in their first reaction. Pass thread_id to continue a multi-turn conversation. Each turn is estimated and charged up front and refunds automatically if it fails. The dashboard run page has the same ask UI.

All docs

• What Polis is: The concept, inputs, and what you get back.
• Agent quickstart: Connect, get a key, run a test, read the report.
• How to run a test: The workflow, a worked example, and how to read the report.
• Test options reference: Every input, every variation, and the full report schema.
• MCP tools: Every tool, its inputs, and cost.
• Detail levels & follow-up (you are here): Richer per-persona output, and asking personas follow-ups.
• Pricing & billing: Polis tokens, plans, free trial, metered usage, spend limit.
• Connect via OAuth (Claude, ChatGPT): Optional OAuth 2.1 for connectors that don't take a raw API key.
• Discovery & well-known endpoints: How agents and clients discover Polis.

Polis docs index · Full machine-readable index (llms.txt) · Everything inlined (llms-full.txt)