Quickstart

What you need

• Google Chrome with the social platforms you want to research already signed in.
• The socai desktop app or CLI.
• A concrete research question: market, audience, creator, customer language, or trend.

1. Install socai

For the lowest-friction start, download the desktop app:

• macOS
• Windows

CLI users can follow the complete installation guide.

2. Connect your Chrome session

Open socai and follow the connection instructions. The first connection may ask you to enable Chrome remote debugging and confirm Chrome’s permission prompt.

The default existing profile mode reuses your everyday Chrome session and its existing platform logins. See Connect Chrome for managed and remote modes.

3. Ask a research question

In the desktop app or terminal interface, start with a bounded question and state the evidence you expect:

Compare how people discuss sugar-free tea on RedNote, Douyin, and TikTok.
Identify recurring purchase criteria and cite specific posts, comments, and replies.

socai will choose the relevant platform operations, open real results, collect evidence, and write an answer with source links.

4. Run a CLI task

Every new CLI task begins with the original user question, followed by platform commands. Register once per task; changing keywords or platforms within the same task does not require another registration:

socai task begin "Research the gear purchases first-time campers regret."
socai xhs search "beginner camping gear mistakes" \
  --num-notes 10 \
  --num-comments 8 \
  --pretty

socai instagram search "camping gear regrets" --num 20 --pretty

The next user task starts with another task begin. The daemon automatically groups intervening commands. See the CLI workflow for long-question input and task boundaries.

Run socai <platform> --help to inspect the current command surface.

5. Review the evidence

Open the returned source URLs before using a high-impact claim. The desktop app keeps task history and artifacts; CLI runs can also preserve exact tool and model records in the configured runs directory.

Next, learn how to shape an agent workflow or inspect the evidence model.