> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://thecontentforge.gitbook.io/thecontentforge-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://thecontentforge.gitbook.io/thecontentforge-docs/feature-guides/competitor-intelligence.md).

# Competitor Intelligence

Competitor Intelligence is the v2 dashboard for tracking how the accounts you care about are performing - and turning what you see into experiments and posts.

It replaces the older Competitor Analysis page. The legacy `/competitor-analysis` route still exists but is hidden from the sidebar; new work happens in **Intelligence > Content Optimization > Competitor Intelligence**.

### What you'll see

The dashboard renders top-to-bottom once you have at least one source:

* **Hero** - cache status, last-generated timestamp, active source count, and the total **retained-post count** ("N posts in 90-day window"). Buttons: **Run Intelligence Scan** and **Manage Sources**.
* **Narrative Momentum Chart** - a daily line chart of the top recurring themes across all your tracked sources. Up to 8 themes are shown, ranked by peak activity, each in a distinct colour. Themes with zero posts in the selected window are dropped so the chart stays readable. Range buttons: **7d / 30d / 90d**. Tooltips show the post count, and where engagement data isn't available the momentum figure is an estimate and is labelled as such.
* **Top Formats** + **Winning Hooks** - side-by-side panels of the formats and hooks pulling the most weight across your sources.
* **What To Test** - experiment suggestions with a Priority badge. Each card has a **Create Experiment** button that hands off to the [Experiments](/thecontentforge-docs/feature-guides/experiments.md) builder with Variant B prefilled.
* **What To Avoid** + **Market Gaps** - side-by-side panels for patterns to skip and unclaimed territory. Market Gaps also has a **Create Experiment** button per card.
* **Competitor Posts Feed** - the recent slice of posts from all your sources, annotated with format, hook, and theme tags plus an engagement-per-follower metric. Hover tooltip explains that posts are retained for 90 days and the feed shows the most recent slice.

### Adding sources

Open **Manage Sources** to add or edit competitors.

| Field        | Accepts                                                                                                                            |
| ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Name         | Free-text label                                                                                                                    |
| Type         | X profile or RSS feed                                                                                                              |
| URL / Handle | `@username`, `twitter.com/username`, or `x.com/handle` (auto-normalised to `x.com/handle`); RSS feed URLs accept any `https://...` |
| Notes        | Optional context for your team                                                                                                     |

Each active source counts against your plan's active-sources cap. Sources disabled via the toggle don't consume the cap.

### Per-source drilldown

Clicking a source from Manage Sources opens its detail page.

* **Header** - name, type badge, active / disabled status, external link, last-refreshed timestamp, **Refresh Data** button, enable / disable toggle
* **Summary** - AI-generated overview of how this source positions itself
* **Top Hooks · Top Formats · Top Narratives** - three lists (up to 8 items each) summarising what's working for this specific source
* **Strengths · Weaknesses · Counter Angles** - three columns. Strengths are the patterns to learn from; Weaknesses (weak or repetitive) are where they are exploitable; Counter Angles are positions you could take.
* **"Act on this competitor"** - two buttons: **Create Experiment** (opens the Experiments builder with this competitor's pattern prefilled) and **Send to Content Studio** (drops the context into [Content Forge](/thecontentforge-docs/feature-guides/content-studio.md)).
* **Recent Posts** - last 200 posts from this source with format / hook / theme annotations and engagement-per-follower scoring.

### Soft-delete and retention

Deleting a source is now **soft**. The source is marked deleted and deactivated, then moves into a **Recently deleted** section inside the Manage Sources drawer with a days-until-purge chip on each row.

* **3-day grace period.** During this window, **Restore** brings the source back. If you're at your plan's active-source cap, restore brings it back as inactive so the row and its post history are preserved.
* **Automatic purge.** A scheduled cleanup checks for sources older than 3 days in the deleted state and permanently removes them. When a deleted source is purged, its stored post history is removed at the same time.
* **Active analyses ignore deleted sources** - even during the grace window, soft-deleted sources are excluded from the dashboard, the analyse pipeline, and post fetches.

Post retention is separate from source soft-delete. Posts from active sources are retained for **90 days** in a rolling window - older posts are pruned automatically, but re-fetches update existing posts rather than replacing them, so your history is preserved.

### Workflow

1. Add the X profiles or RSS feeds you care about under **Manage Sources**
2. Hit **Run Intelligence Scan** to build the first dashboard
3. Browse the **What To Test** and **Market Gaps** panels for the strongest opportunities
4. Click **Create Experiment** on any suggestion to start a structured test in [Experiments](/thecontentforge-docs/feature-guides/experiments.md)
5. Open a source's drilldown to see what's specific to that competitor - Strengths to learn from, Weaknesses to exploit, Counter Angles to claim

### Tips

* Don't copy verbatim - adapt the *pattern*, keep your [Brand Voice](/thecontentforge-docs/feature-guides/brand-voice.md)
* Re-run **Intelligence Scan** weekly to keep momentum and ranking fresh
* Pair Competitor Intelligence with [Patterns](/thecontentforge-docs/feature-guides/patterns.md) - your data tells you what works for you; this tells you what's working for them
* If a source's posts disappear from the feed, check the Hero post-count chip and the 90-day retention window before assuming a fetch broke


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