> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cognerd.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quickstart: Run Your First AI Brand Analysis

> Sign up for CogNerd, connect your brand, and run your first AI visibility analysis across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini in minutes.

This guide walks you through everything you need to get started with CogNerd, from creating your account to viewing your first AI visibility report. The whole process takes about five minutes. Your first brand analysis deducts 30 credits from your account balance and streams results live as CogNerd queries each AI platform.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Create your account">
    Go to [app.cognerd.in/signup](https://app.cognerd.in/signup) and create your account with your email and a password. After you verify your email, you'll land on the CogNerd dashboard.

    <Note>
      New accounts receive a starting credit balance so you can run your first analysis right away. No credit card is required to sign up.
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add your brand">
    From the dashboard, navigate to **Brands** (`/dashboard/brands`) and click **Add brand**. You'll need:

    * **Brand name** — the name as it should appear in AI answers (e.g., "Acme Corp")
    * **Website URL** — your primary domain (e.g., `https://acme.com`)
    * **Competitors** (optional) — add up to 5 competitor names to benchmark against

    Click **Save brand** when you're done. CogNerd uses this information to build your analysis queries.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run your first brand analysis">
    Go to **Brand Monitor** (`/dashboard/analyze`) and select your brand from the dropdown. Click **Run analysis**.

    CogNerd submits queries to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, You.com, and other platforms simultaneously. Results stream in using Server-Sent Events (SSE), so you see each platform's response as it arrives — no page refresh needed.

    <Warning>
      Each brand analysis costs **30 credits**. Make sure you have enough credits before you start. You can check your balance in **Settings** (`/dashboard/settings`).
    </Warning>

    A typical analysis takes **2–3 minutes** to complete, depending on API response times from each AI platform.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review your results">
    When the analysis finishes, you'll see your results in the Brand Monitor dashboard (`/dashboard/visibility`):

    * **AI Visibility Score** — your 0–100 score across all platforms
    * **Platform breakdown** — which platforms mentioned your brand, how prominently, and in what context
    * **Sentiment summary** — whether mentions were positive, neutral, or negative
    * **Source attribution** — which URLs the AI platforms cited when mentioning your brand
    * **Competitor comparison** — where competitors appeared in answers alongside or instead of you

    <Tip>
      Run analyses at regular intervals — weekly or bi-weekly — to track how your score changes as you optimize your AI presence.
    </Tip>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Generate your GEO Assets (recommended)">
    To start improving your AI visibility, generate your GEO Assets from `/dashboard/geo-assets`. Click **Generate assets** and CogNerd creates seven structured files:

    * `llms.txt` — a machine-readable brand summary for AI crawlers
    * `robots.txt` — AI-aware crawl rules
    * `sitemap.xml` — your site structure
    * `site.jsonld`, `organization.jsonld`, `website.jsonld` — schema.org markup
    * `entities.json` — a structured entity graph for your brand

    This action costs **20 credits** and runs as a background job. You'll receive a job ID to check progress.

    <Info>
      Deploy these files to your website's root directory so AI crawlers can discover and parse them. Hosting instructions are in the [GEO Assets guide](/guides/generate-geo-files).
    </Info>
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Use the API instead

If you prefer to integrate CogNerd programmatically, you can trigger analyses and generate assets via the REST API. Here's how to authenticate and run your first analysis:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Get your session token">
    Authenticate with your CogNerd credentials. The login endpoint returns a session token you'll use in subsequent requests.

    <CodeGroup>
      ```bash cURL theme={null}
      curl -X POST https://api.cognerd.in/api/auth/login \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d '{"email": "you@example.com", "password": "your-password"}'
      ```

      ```javascript Node.js theme={null}
      const response = await fetch('https://api.cognerd.in/api/auth/login', {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
        body: JSON.stringify({
          email: 'you@example.com',
          password: 'your-password',
        }),
      });

      const { token } = await response.json();
      ```

      ```python Python theme={null}
      import requests

      response = requests.post('https://api.cognerd.in/api/auth/login', json={
          'email': 'you@example.com',
          'password': 'your-password',
      })

      token = response.json()['token']
      ```
    </CodeGroup>

    Copy the `token` value from the response. You'll pass it as a `Bearer` token in the `Authorization` header on all subsequent requests.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run a brand analysis via API">
    Call the analyze endpoint with your brand details. This endpoint uses Server-Sent Events (SSE) to stream results as each AI platform responds.

    <CodeGroup>
      ```bash cURL theme={null}
      curl -X POST https://api.cognerd.in/api/brand-monitor/analyze \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -H "Accept: text/event-stream" \
        -d '{"brandName": "Acme Corp", "website": "https://acme.com"}'
      ```

      ```javascript Node.js theme={null}
      const response = await fetch('https://api.cognerd.in/api/brand-monitor/analyze', {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
          'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}`,
          'Content-Type': 'application/json',
          'Accept': 'text/event-stream',
        },
        body: JSON.stringify({
          brandName: 'Acme Corp',
          website: 'https://acme.com',
        }),
      });

      // Read the SSE stream
      const reader = response.body.getReader();
      const decoder = new TextDecoder();

      while (true) {
        const { value, done } = await reader.read();
        if (done) break;
        console.log(decoder.decode(value));
      }
      ```

      ```python Python theme={null}
      import requests

      with requests.post(
          'https://api.cognerd.in/api/brand-monitor/analyze',
          headers={
              'Authorization': f'Bearer {token}',
              'Content-Type': 'application/json',
              'Accept': 'text/event-stream',
          },
          json={'brandName': 'Acme Corp', 'website': 'https://acme.com'},
          stream=True,
      ) as response:
          for line in response.iter_lines():
              if line:
                  print(line.decode('utf-8'))
      ```
    </CodeGroup>

    <Warning>
      The analyze endpoint deducts **30 credits** per call. Each SSE event in the stream contains the result from one AI platform.
    </Warning>
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What to do next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Understand your score" icon="chart-bar" href="/concepts">
    Learn what the AI Visibility Score measures and how to interpret platform-level results.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Generate GEO assets" icon="file-code" href="/guides/generate-geo-files">
    Create the structured files AI crawlers need to represent your brand accurately.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Run an AEO report" icon="clipboard-check" href="/guides/run-aeo-report">
    Get a full technical audit of your brand's AI-search readiness.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Create optimized content" icon="pen-nib" href="/guides/create-content">
    Use Content Studio to generate blog posts built for AI citation.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>