Rhetoric Audit — Use Case Documentation

Preconditions

• Public website is available.

Main Success Flow

1. 1Visitor lands on the homepage.
2. 2Visitor reviews core capabilities such as bias spectrum mapping, propaganda index, and strategic silence.
3. 3Visitor reviews intended audiences such as researchers, journalists, policy analysts, and critical readers.
4. 4Visitor reviews the How It Works flow.
5. 5Visitor chooses to install the extension or create an account.

Alternate Flows

• Visitor leaves without creating an account.
• Visitor proceeds directly to Chrome extension installation.

Postconditions

• Visitor has enough product understanding to continue to onboarding or evaluation.

Preconditions

• User has internet access.
• Authentication service is available.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User opens the sign-up or login form.
2. 2User authenticates using email/password or Google OAuth.
3. 3System creates or validates the session.
4. 4System redirects the user to the dashboard or sign-up success flow.

Alternate Flows

• Password mismatch prevents sign-up.
• Invalid credentials block login.
• OAuth callback fails and the user is returned to an error state.

Postconditions

• User has an authenticated session and can access protected routes.

Preconditions

• User is using Chrome or a compatible browser.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User opens the Chrome Web Store listing.
2. 2User installs the extension.
3. 3User browses to an article.
4. 4User launches the extension from the browser toolbar.

Alternate Flows

• User does not complete installation.
• Browser does not support the extension.

Postconditions

• Extension is available for article analysis.

Preconditions

• User is authenticated.
• User has at least 1 credit.
• LLM analysis service is available.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User provides an article URL or raw article text.
2. 2System validates the request.
3. 3System checks the user's available credits.
4. 4System performs FME analysis.
5. 5System generates the structured result set.
6. 6System stores the analysis.
7. 7System deducts 1 credit.
8. 8System displays the result to the user.
9. 9System may email a scan-complete summary if that preference is enabled.

Primary Outputs

Alternate Flows

• User is unauthenticated and is redirected to login.
• User has insufficient credits and is prompted to top up.
• Analysis fails due to upstream model or service error.
• Request is malformed and validation fails.

Postconditions

• Scan result exists in the user's history if processing succeeds.

Preconditions

• User is authenticated.
• At least one scan may exist for meaningful analytics.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User opens the dashboard.
2. 2System displays summary KPIs such as total scans, average evidence score, average source credibility, credits remaining, manipulation risk, transparency, and fallacy rate.
3. 3User reviews recent scan activity and risk charts.
4. 4User navigates to analytics.
5. 5System displays scan activity, ideology distribution, manipulation risk distribution, and time-based trends.

Alternate Flows

• User has no scans and sees empty-state messaging.

Postconditions

• User understands personal analysis patterns and account usage status.

Preconditions

• User is authenticated.
• Scan history data exists or the system can return an empty list.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User opens the Scan History view.
2. 2System lists prior scans with article title, ideology, manipulation risk, fallacy, evidence, depth, and date.
3. 3User searches by text or filters by ideology and date range.
4. 4System refreshes the result set.
5. 5User reviews a previous record and may open the original article URL.

Alternate Flows

• No scans match the filters.
• Pagination is required because the result set is large.

Postconditions

• User can locate and review historic analyses efficiently.

Preconditions

• An analysis result exists.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User initiates sharing from an existing analysis.
2. 2System constructs a shareable summary view using selected result fields.
3. 3Recipient opens the shared analysis page.
4. 4Recipient sees the title and summary metrics such as manipulation risk, fallacy rate, evidence, and narrative archetype.

Alternate Flows

• Shared link is incomplete and renders a partial view.

Postconditions

• A limited analysis summary can be viewed outside the private dashboard.

Preconditions

• User is authenticated.
• User has at least 2 credits.
• Edge function and LLM services are available.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User opens the Intelligence Brief module.
2. 2User enters one or more search terms.
3. 3User selects sources such as X, Reddit, News, YouTube, Web, and Financial.
4. 4User submits the request.
5. 5System validates the payload and enforces rate limits.
6. 6System checks available credits.
7. 7System calls the edge function to gather normalized signals from selected sources.
8. 8System sends the signal set to the LLM analysis pipeline.
9. 9System validates and stores the resulting intelligence brief.
10. 10System deducts 2 credits and logs the transaction.
11. 11System presents the results dashboard and history access.

Primary Outputs

Alternate Flows

• User lacks credits and receives an insufficient-credit response.
• Per-user rate limit is exceeded.
• Some sources fail, but partial results are still accepted when allowed.
• No usable signal set is returned and the brief cannot be generated.

Postconditions

• Intelligence Brief is stored and retrievable from history if the run succeeds.

Preconditions

• User is authenticated.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User opens the Intelligence Brief history tab.
2. 2System lists previous brief records.
3. 3User selects a brief.
4. 4System loads the saved brief results into the results view.

Alternate Flows

• No previous briefs exist.

Postconditions

• User can continue analysis or presentation work using saved brief outputs.

Preconditions

• User is authenticated.
• Stripe checkout service is available.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User opens the Billing page.
2. 2System displays available credit packs.
3. 3User selects a pack.
4. 4System creates a Stripe Checkout session.
5. 5User completes payment in Stripe.
6. 6System records the billing event and applies credits to the account.
7. 7User returns to the application with an updated balance.

Alternate Flows

• User cancels checkout.
• Stripe session creation fails.
• Payment succeeds but post-payment credit application is delayed and requires reconciliation.

Postconditions

• User has additional credits if payment succeeds.

Preconditions

• User is authenticated.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User opens the Settings page.
2. 2User updates display name.
3. 3User enables or disables low-credit notifications.
4. 4User enables or disables scan-complete notifications.
5. 5User saves changes.
6. 6System updates the profile record.

Alternate Flows

• Save operation fails and the user is shown an error.

Postconditions

• Profile and notification preferences are updated.

Preconditions

• User is authenticated.
• User confirms intent by entering the required confirmation text.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User opens the delete account confirmation modal.
2. 2System explains the consequences.
3. 3User types DELETE to confirm.
4. 4System calls the delete-account endpoint.
5. 5Backend reassigns retained analysis and invoice records according to current operational implementation.
6. 6Backend removes the user profile.
7. 7Backend deletes the authentication record.
8. 8User is signed out and redirected away from the protected area.

Alternate Flows

• User closes the modal without confirming.
• Confirmation text is incorrect.
• Backend deletion partially succeeds and requires support follow-up.

Postconditions

• User account no longer exists for login purposes.

Preconditions

• User has opted in to the relevant notification type.
• Email service is configured and available.

Main Success Flow

1. 1User performs activity that changes account or scan status.
2. 2System evaluates notification rules.
3. 3If the low-credit threshold or scan-complete condition is met, the system generates an email.
4. 4Email is sent to the user's registered address.

Alternate Flows

• Email provider is unavailable.
• Notification preference is disabled.
• Email configuration is missing.

Postconditions

• User receives informational email when conditions are met and delivery succeeds.