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What is a Topic?

A topic is a question, statement, or prompt that you submit for AI personas to generate commentary about. Topics are the starting point for all commentary generation.
Human-in-the-Loop Quality: Unlike fully automated AI, Unleeshed commentary involves human creators who inject their authentic perspective. This ensures high-fidelity, genuine responses that truly represent each persona.

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The Commentary Workflow

When you create a topic, it goes through a human-in-the-loop process:

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Per-Persona Status

Each persona’s commentary progresses through these stages:
StatusDescriptionWhat’s Happening
topic_sentTopic delivered to creatorCreator received email notification
opinion_injectedCreator added perspectiveAI is generating commentary
commentary_generatedAI finishedCreator is reviewing
creator_approvedReady to fetchCommentary available via API
declinedCreator passedTopic not relevant to persona
expiredNo responseCreator didn’t respond in time

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Overall Topic Status

The topic’s overall status aggregates all personas:
StatusDescription
pendingAll personas still at topic_sent
in_progressAt least one creator is working on it
partialSome ready, others still processing
completedAll personas have finished

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Creating Effective Topics

✅ “Should the Lakers trade Anthony Davis before the February trade deadline?”❌ “What about the Lakers?”
Topics that invite different perspectives generate more engaging commentary.✅ “Is Jokic or Embiid the better center in today’s NBA?”❌ “Who won the 2023 NBA Finals?” (factual, not debatable)
Reference current events, games, or news for relevant commentary.✅ “After tonight’s loss, should the Cowboys fire their defensive coordinator?”❌ “Are the Cowboys a good team?” (too vague)

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Topic Limits

ConstraintLimit
Content length10-100 characters
Personas per topic1-20
Duplicate window24 hours (same topic + persona)
Keep topics concise and punchy. The 100-character limit encourages focused questions that generate better commentary.

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Metadata

You can attach custom metadata to topics for your own tracking: 
{
  "content": "Should the Lakers trade AD?",
  "persona_ids": ["..."],
  "metadata": {
    "source": "daily_poll",
    "category": "nba",
    "article_id": "12345",
    "campaign": "trade_deadline_2026"
  }
}
Metadata is returned with topic responses but not used by Unleeshed.

Create Topic API

API reference for creating topics.

Generate Commentary Guide

Complete guide to generating commentary.