The controls reference

Every press,
accounted for.

The field guide teaches strategy; this page is the map. Every control in the app, what it does, and whether it spends. The rule is simple and never hidden: if a press makes the engine do generative work, it spends in proportion to that work — small checks cost little, full reads are the bulk. If it doesn't, it's free.

SpendsFreeDepends
Before anything

Journeys live in memory. Switching doors, opening Account or Help, or closing the tab discards the current reading — Copy or Share anything you want to keep. The Flint wordmark opens the marketing site in a new tab for exactly this reason, and if you try to close the tab mid-press, the app warns you first (a few mobile browsers skip this warning).

The doors

Four ways in, all free to switch between — but switching clears the journey in progress.

Spark from scratch

Start cold; Flint deals the collision.

Free
Build on an asset

Start from a resource you're committed to.

Free
Start from a pain

Start from a bleed worth solving.

Free
Sharpen a business idea

Start from an idea you already hold.

Free

Striking

Spark and Asset doors. A strike deals a pairing — Resource × Move — and the trio of altitudes under it.

Strike

Deals a resource, a move you wouldn't pair with it, and three altitudes to read at.

Spends
Name a resource → strike

Asset door. Your resource is checked first; if it passes, the engine deals against it. A rejected input stops at the check.

Spends
change (Resource)

Opening the picker is free; committing a different resource re-deals the trio.

Depends
change (Move)

Browsing and picking a move from the catalog is free until you read. Typing your own move gets a small check.

Depends

The trio

Every dealt instance arrives at three altitudes — Broad, Focused, Specific. The field guide explains when to read each.

pick this →

Selects the altitude to read. Selection is free; the read is the spend.

Free
↻ regenerate

Re-deals that level and the levels nested inside it, holding the pairing and wider levels fixed.

Spends
⤓ drill

The level becomes the new Broad, with sharper angles dealt beneath it.

Spends
+ your own words

Typing is free; your phrasing gets a small check when committed.

Depends

The reading panel

Where a selected instance becomes a graded business.

Acting on it by — swap

Browsing verbs is free. Typing your own verb gets a small check.

Depends
Straight / Inventive

Sets how the next read runs — the plain business or the surprising one. The toggle itself costs nothing.

Free
Read

The interpreter writes the business; the walled-off grader judges it cold. This is the core spend.

Spends

The graded card

A verdict is a beginning. Everything below the grade is a hunt control.

re-grade → (market)

Your market name is checked, then the same idea is re-judged against it. Edge is local.

Spends
Read the other register

Re-reads the same coordinates in the other register — the first rescue for a tame straight read.

Spends
Plain words

First open translates the reading — a small spend. It's cached on the card, so reopening is free. Never re-reads or re-grades.

Depends
Edit the reading

Typing is free; applying re-grades exactly what you wrote, and the card is marked edited.

Depends
👎 👍 ❤️

Feedback only — it never changes a grade, and it never spends.

Free
Copy / Share

Takes the reading with you. Journeys live in memory — use these before you move on.

Free

Evolve — the twist

One twist at a time, re-judged by the walled-off grader. Spark and Asset ideas can fuse or restructure; a pain-anchored idea restructures only — its pain is held, so there's nothing to fuse.

Open the twist panel

Browsing resource buckets and move families is free until something is applied.

Free
Fuse a second resource

Picking a bucket deals instances to fuse (a spend); its ↻ and ⤓ work like the main trio. Fusing one re-reads and re-grades the new collision.

Spends
Apply a business-model move

Same ingredients, different architecture — who pays, who owns, when money moves — re-read and re-graded.

Spends
Read the twist as

The twist has its own Straight / Inventive toggle. Setting it is free.

Free
✕ remove twist

Removing the twist you just applied is an instant, free revert. Removing an earlier twist re-reads with what remains.

Depends

The pain door

You hold the pain; Flint throws resources against it.

Check the pain

Your pain is gated for stranded fit — rooted in who, where, or what — before anything is dealt. A rejected pain stops at the gate.

Spends
The thrown resource

Dealt against the held pain at the same three altitudes, with the same ↻ / ⤓ / + controls. Swapping the bucket re-deals.

Spends
Edit the pain

The edited pain is re-gated and the resource re-thrown against it.

Spends

The sharpener

The fourth door grades your idea cold, decomposes it, then offers three hunt moves — the field guide explains which to reach for when.

Analyze

The cold grade plus the decomposition into load-bearing dimensions.

Spends
Another reading

A fresh, more surprising angle on the same idea — holds the anchor, excludes what you've already seen.

Spends
Reconfigure

Two presses in practice: dealing alternative moves against the held dimension spends, and reading the one you pick spends again.

Spends
Sharpen

The chooser opens free — pick the dimension to add; the added dimension's re-read and re-grade is the spend.

Depends
Edit the idea

Your rewritten idea is re-analyzed from cold.

Spends

Housekeeping

Nothing here spends.

↺ Start over

Clears the current journey for that door.

Free
Balance / Buy credits

Your balance is always on screen; Buy credits opens the purchase page.

Free
Account · Help · Sign out

Free — but Account and Help leave the app page, which discards an in-memory journey. Copy first.

Free

Now you know every lever.

The demo on the homepage plays a full hunt free. Your own hunt starts at a dollar.

Start for $1