ICP qualification
Does Acme fit? Headcount, motion, market, stack. A verdict with sources, not a hunch.
REPLACES A 6-COLUMN CLAY WATERFALL
Private investigations for your pipeline · est. 2026
Send a question.
Get a closed case.
Gumshoe is an agentic research API. Point it at any URL with a question in plain English. It reads the page, weighs the evidence, and files a typed JSON verdict with the exact quotes it relied on. Sites that need clicking get a real browser, on request.
Free plan: 1,000 credits a month. No card. No small talk.
GUMSHOE INVESTIGATIONSCONFIDENTIAL
Case closed
Doc 2 of 8 · internal memo
You own a shovel.
That doesn't make you a detective.
Search APIs hand you links. Scraping APIs hand you HTML. Then the real work starts: reading forty tabs at 2 a.m., deciding what counts, formatting it for your CRM. You didn't buy research. You bought homework.
Gumshoe is the layer above the plumbing. You file a brief in plain English. The agent works the case across search and primary sources, and when a JS-heavy site slams the door it drives a real cloud browser that clicks, filters, and reads like a human. What comes back isn't raw material. It's a verdict.
Keep your search API. It's a fine shovel. Hire the gumshoe for the cases that matter.
Attachment 2-A · the usual suspects
| SUSPECT | M.O. | VERDICT |
|---|---|---|
| Search APIsSerper & associates | Hands you ten blue links and wishes you luck with the reading. | Fine shovel |
| Scraper APIsFirecrawl & co. | Delivers the raw HTML crime scene. Cleanup is your problem. | Good tweezers |
| Spreadsheet empiresClay | Sells you a beautiful table and credits priced like jewelry. You still do the judging. | Nice furniture |
| Deep research chatsClaude, Perplexity & co. | Brilliant on one case, if you paste, wait, copy, and reformat it yourself. Nobody does that ten thousand times a night. | Great sidekick |
| Gumshoethat's us | Works the case end to end. Returns the verdict with citations and photographic evidence. | Hired |
Intake desk · your deposition
You bring the hunch.
We write the brief.
Prompt engineering is not your job. Mumble what you want in one sloppy line to POST /v1/brief, or to draft_brief over MCP. Gumshoe reads it back as a structured brief: who to look at, which signals to check, what the report must contain, plus the schema. You approve it, or tweak a line, then open the cases. Drafting is free, no credits. Bad prompts can't sink good research when the agency writes the prompt.
WHAT YOU SCRIBBLE
“find me companies kinda like the ones that already buy from us and might be ready to switch”
CASE BRIEF · DRAFT FOR APPROVAL
TARGET B2B SaaS, 50-500 employees
LOOK FOR · runs a competing tool
· hiring RevOps or GTM eng
· raised in the last 12 mo
SOURCES careers, news, tech traces
DELIVER fit verdict + confidence
+ top 3 signals, citedApprove & open casesTweak a line
Doc 3 of 8 · the caseload
What people hire us for
Everything you'd wire a Clay table to do, minus the table. One API call each.
Hiring signals
Who is hiring SDRs, engineers, RevOps. Read straight from careers pages, not stale job boards.
REPLACES A CLAYGENT HIRING PROMPT
Funding intel
Raises, rounds, investors, dates. Cited from primary coverage, not rumor mills.
REPLACES A NEWS ENRICHMENT COLUMN
Tech stack recon
Which CRM, which cloud, which tooling. Assembled from public traces and product pages.
REPLACES 2 TO 3 STACK DETECTION TOOLS
Competitor watch
Pricing moved, feature shipped, logo landed. Re-file the same brief on your cadence and diff two verdicts.
CLAY DOES NOT EVEN DO THIS
List sweeps
Re-verify 10,000 accounts every Monday morning. One loop, one webhook, zero tabs.
REPLACES THE WHOLE TABLE
Doc 4 of 8 · standard procedure
How a case gets worked
Step 1 · File the case
Brief the agency
POST /v1/case with a mission in plain English. “Does Acme run Salesforce? Are they hiring SDRs? Did they raise?” Attach your JSON schema if you want the report typed your way.
Step 2 · Fieldwork
We walk the streets
The agent searches, cross-references, reads primary sources. When a site resists (logins, filters, infinite JS), it drives a real browser and takes timestamped screenshots as it goes.
Step 3 · Case closed
The report lands
Structured JSON hits your webhook: verdict, confidence, citations, exhibits. Pipe it into your CRM, your outbound tool, your warehouse. Every claim traceable to its source.
Doc 5 of 8 · dispatch board
File one case.
Or ten thousand.
This is not a deep research chat you babysit one tab at a time. One detective works one lead at a time. Gumshoe is a bureau: file a thousand briefs in a loop, a dozen investigators work every call concurrently, and each report fans back to your webhook the second its case closes.
Sweep your whole TAM before lunch. Qualify every signup from last night. Re-verify 10,000 accounts every Monday. One case is a question. Ten thousand cases is a pipeline.
TONIGHT'S SHIFT · LIVE
- CASE 0114Does Acme still run Salesforce?CLOSED
- CASE 0115Is Initech hiring SDRs this quarter?CLOSED
- CASE 0116Did Globex raise a Series B?CLOSED
- CASE 0117Who owns data engineering at Hooli?WORKING
- CASE 0118Pricing page changes at Umbrella Corp?WORKING
- CASE 0119Which CRM does Vandelay Industries use?QUEUED
9,994 MORE IN THE QUEUE · REPORTS FAN BACK AS THEY CLOSE
Doc 6 of 8 · evidence locker
Send the browser in,
get the photos back.
Standard cases read the page and quote it back to you. When a site needs real clicking, you flag fieldwork and a cloud browser drives it for you. These are actual frames from one of those runs: 13 steps through a JavaScript-heavy directory, shot by shot, timestamped.
WHAT THIS EXACT CASE RETURNED · 53 SECONDS, 13 STEPS
{
"case_id": "case_yc_ai_sales",
"brief": "Top AI sales companies in recent
YC batches, with sites",
"verdict": "5 companies identified",
"findings": [
{ "name": "Palisade",
"note": "AI sales agents for marketplaces",
"url": "palisade.run" },
{ "name": "Quotain",
"note": "AI sales simulations on real deals",
"url": "quotain.com" },
{ "name": "AiSDR",
"note": "AI sales prospecting",
"url": "aisdr.com" }
],
"exhibits": ["ex/a.png", "ex/b.png", "ex/c.png"],
"steps": 13,
"duration_seconds": 53
}Doc 7 of 8 · the paperwork
One endpoint. Typed reports.
No SDK ceremony, no eight-step pipeline builder. A case is one POST. The report is JSON your warehouse already understands.
THE BRIEF · REQUEST
curl -X POST https://gumshoe.run/v1/case \
-H "X-API-Key: gum_your_key" \
-d '{
"url": "https://sierra.ai",
"brief": "Does this company sell
autonomous AI agents?",
"webhook": "https://you.com/hooks"
}'THE REPORT · WEBHOOK PAYLOAD
{
"case_id": "case_0001",
"url": "https://sierra.ai",
"verdict": "yes",
"confidence": 90,
"summary": "AI agents platform: build,
deploy, manage agents.",
"evidence": [
"Build powerful AI agents quickly,
with or without engineering support",
"Deploy a single agent across chat,
SMS, WhatsApp, email, voice",
"Ghostwriter builds a production-ready,
multilingual, multichannel agent"
],
"read_at": "2026-08-29T11:04:22Z"
}Also in the file · bulk work
One call. Not fifty.
Batch: you already have the list.
POST up to 250 companies to cases/batch and they get worked a dozen at a time, one investigator per row, filling in the facts. Loop the call for the next 250.
Sweep: you don't have a list yet.
Give a brief and a target count. We fan out the searches, verify every candidate, dedupe server-side, and deliver unique companies. You never file the same request twice, and you never pay for a duplicate.
THE SWEEP · ONE CALL, 100 UNIQUE ROWS
curl -X POST https://gumshoe.run/v1/sweep \
-H "X-API-Key: gum_your_key" \
-d '{
"brief": "Companies selling AI agents
built on LangChain",
"count": 100,
"webhook": "https://you.com/hooks"
}'
// We fan out, verify, dedupe.
// Up to 100 unique rows per call.
// Duplicates are never billed.
// Credits reserved up front,
// undelivered rows refunded.Also in the file · agent-first
Your agents can hire ours.
Gumshoe ships as an MCP server. Claude, Cursor, or your own agent mounts the agency and gets file_case, get_report, list_cases, file_sweep and draft_brief as native tools. Your agent decides what needs investigating. Ours does the legwork and returns the closed case.
Read the MCP field manualMOUNT THE AGENCY · MCP
{
"mcpServers": {
"gumshoe": {
"url": "https://gumshoe.run/mcp",
"headers": {
"X-API-Key": "gum_your_key"
}
}
}
}Doc 8 of 8 · rate card
Pick your caseload
One credit = one URL investigated. LLM included, math included, surprises not included.
The meter, in plain English
- One credit is one URL.
Company, product page, directory listing: one credit each. - Every claim quoted from the page.
Three quotes or ten: same credit. Depth is included. - Many URLs, many credits.
Batches and sweeps just multiply the rows. You pay per URL investigated, never per fact returned. - Browser fieldwork: 42 credits.
Deep research dossier: 15. Only when the brief calls for it.
SPECIMEN · ONE MONTH ON THE METER
"Does acme.com sell AI agents?" 1 URL read ................ 1 credit "Qualify last night's 250 signups" cases/batch, 250 URLs ... 250 credits "Full dossier on sierra.ai" deep research: 4 pages read, 2 outside searches ....... 15 credits "Read the YC directory, it needs clicking" fieldwork, real browser .. 42 credits TOTAL DEBITED ............. 308 credits
7,500
CREDITS A MONTH · ONE CREDIT, ONE URL
$29/mo
- PER 1,000 URLS
- $3.87
- VS OUR ENTRY RATE
- entry
- BROWSER + DEEP RESEARCH
- included
Move up or down a rung any month. Change takes effect the same day, prorated.
Every rung, at a glance
| PLAN | CREDITS / MO | PRICE / MO | PER 1K | REQ / MIN | YOU SAVE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walk-in | 1,000 | $0 | — | 60 | no card |
| 7.5K | 7,500 | $29 | $3.87 | 120 | entry rate |
| 20K | 20,000 | $74 | $3.70 | 300 | 4% |
| 50KPOPULAR | 50,000 | $175 | $3.50 | 600 | 9% |
| 100K | 100,000 | $329 | $3.29 | 960 | 15% |
| 250K | 250,000 | $779 | $3.12 | 960 | 19% |
| 500K | 500,000 | $1,449 | $2.90 | 960 | 25% |
| Bureau | negotiated | custom | under $2.90 | dedicated | talk to the chief |
Every paid rung includes browser fieldwork, deep research and list sweeps. Move up or down any month, prorated the day you switch. The free tier runs standard cases only. REQ / MIN is the enforced ceiling on cases, and every response tells you where you stand: batch calls carry up to 250 URLs each, so the 50K rung admits 12,500 URLs a minute.
Exhibit D · full disclosure
Side by side, no squinting
Two honest ways to do this today: rent a spreadsheet empire, or glue search and scrape APIs together yourself. Here is exactly what each one costs you, in dollars and in evenings.
| CLAY (CLAYGENT) | DIY: SEARCH + SCRAPE | GUMSHOE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 URLS COST | $150 to $250 in credits | Cheap per call, plus the pipeline you build and babysit | $3.87 at the entry rung, $2.90 at volume, pipeline included |
| WHAT COMES BACK | Enriched cells in a spreadsheet | Raw links and HTML you still have to read and judge | Typed JSON: verdict, confidence, quotes from the page |
| PROOF ATTACHED | Source links | Whatever you remember to log | Exact quotes, plus screenshots on fieldwork runs |
| REAL BROWSER ON JS SITES | No | Only if you build and host it | Yes, opt-in, 42 credits, screenshots attached |
| LIST BUILDING DEDUP | Your problem | Your problem | Server-side, duplicates never billed |
| BUILT FOR | Ops teams who live in tables | Engineers who enjoy the glue code | Systems that act on verdicts |
Ran dry mid-month? · top-ups at the rate your rung already earned
Credits
+2,500
$9.67
at the 7.5K rate · less on every rung above
Credits
+10,000
$38.67
at the 7.5K rate · less on every rung above
Credits
+50,000
$193.33
at the 7.5K rate · less on every rung above
YOU PAY YOUR OWN RATE, THE ONE YOUR RUNG ALREADY EARNED YOU. NO SURCHARGE FOR RUNNING HOT. ONE CLICK FROM YOUR DASHBOARD, CREDITED IN SECONDS. YOUR MONTHLY CREDITS RESET EACH CYCLE, TOP-UP CREDITS NEVER DO: THEY SIT THERE UNTIL YOU SPEND THEM. RUNNING OUT EVERY MONTH? THE NEXT RUNG UP IS CHEAPER PER URL, THAT IS THE WHOLE REASON TO CLIMB.
When does the meter move past 1?
- Fieldwork is a real browser.
A cloud Chromium clicks buttons, fills forms, passes JS walls, and screenshots every step. The screenshots become your exhibits. - It only runs when you flag it.
Set fieldwork: true on a case, or let your agent request it over MCP. Never triggered on its own, never billed silently. - Fieldwork: 42 credits. Deep research: 15.
A browser run is the one thing here that costs real money to operate: a cloud Chromium, up to fifteen steps, a screenshot at each one. 42 credits, flat, however long it takes. A deep research dossier reads several pages, searches outside the site, and costs 15. No per-minute meter in the trunk. - Blocked standard case? Still 1.
If a site stonewalls a standard case, the report says exactly what blocked it. Refiling with fieldwork is your call, never ours.
THE THREE RATES · MEASURED
// 1 credit - read the page
POST /v1/case
{ "url": "https://acme.com",
"brief": "Do they sell agents?" }
DEBIT ...................... 1 credit
// 42 credits - the page needs clicking
POST /v1/case
{ "url": "https://portal.acme.com",
"brief": "List the plans behind
the filter",
"fieldwork": true }
// Real browser, screenshots kept
// as exhibits. Up to 15 steps.
DEBIT .................... 42 credits
// 15 credits - the full dossier
POST /v1/case
{ "url": "https://acme.com",
"brief": "Everything: pricing,
customers, funding,
hiring, positioning",
"depth": "deep" }
// Several pages + outside searches.
DEBIT .................... 15 creditsAppendix · interrogation transcript
Questions, answered under oath
- Q: Why not just use a search or scraping API?
- A: Use both, for plumbing. They return raw material you still have to read, judge, and format. Gumshoe returns the finished conclusion with the receipts attached. Different job, different tool.
- Q: How is this different from Clay?
- A: Clay is a spreadsheet empire with credits priced like jewelry. Gumshoe is one API call, priced like infrastructure. If you live in tables, stay there. If you build systems, this is your layer.
- Q: What's a browser case?
- A: When a target site needs real interaction (search boxes, filters, JS walls), the agent drives an actual cloud browser and keeps the screenshots it takes along the way: they come back in the report as exhibit URLs. 42 credits instead of 1, and only when you set fieldwork: true. That premium is browser time, not margin: a real run is a dozen steps of cloud Chromium and it costs us close to a hundred times what reading a page costs. A run is capped at fifteen steps, so the price never moves. A standard case that gets blocked still costs 1 credit, and its report tells you exactly what blocked it so refiling with fieldwork is your call.
- Q: What if I'm bad at writing prompts?
- A: Then you're normal. Describe the job in one plain sentence and Gumshoe drafts a structured brief back: target, signals, sources, output shape. Approve it or tweak a line before anything runs. The agency writes the prompt so your sloppy one-liner still closes a clean case.
- Q: Couldn't I just ask Claude or ChatGPT to research this?
- A: For one company, sure, and it would do fine. Gumshoe exists for the other 9,999: same JSON schema every run, webhooks, retries, screenshot evidence, and a cost per case in cents. A chat is a conversation you supervise. Gumshoe is infrastructure your code calls.
- Q: Do I bring my own LLM key?
- A: No. The platform model is included in every case. Your bill is one number: cases.
- Q: How many rows can one case return?
- A: One credit buys one URL investigated: a verdict, a confidence score, and the exact quotes the agent relied on. Enriching a list? Up to 250 URLs per cases/batch call, one credit each, loop the call for more. Building a list from scratch? One sweep call with a target count up to 100: we fan out, verify, and dedupe server-side, billed one credit per unique row delivered. Sweeps reserve credits up front and refund every undelivered row.
- Q: What if I run out of cases mid-month?
- A: Buy a top-up from your dashboard, credited in seconds, no plan change and no call. You pay your own rate: a top-up costs exactly what your rung costs per URL, with no surcharge for running hot. Your monthly credits reset at the start of each cycle, so they are use-it-or-lose-it, but top-up credits never expire and are only spent once the monthly ones are gone. Top-ups sit on top of a paid rung: on the free tier, pick a rung first. And if you top up every cycle, look one rung up: more credits for less per URL is the only reason we ask you to climb.
- Q: What are the rate limits?
- A: They climb with your rung. Cases per minute: 60 on the free tier, 120 at 7.5K, 600 at 50K, 960 at 100K and above. Batch calls follow the same ladder and each one carries up to 250 URLs, so the 50K rung is 12,500 URLs a minute of headroom. Every response carries X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset, so you never guess where you stand, and a 429 adds Retry-After in seconds. The full table is in the field manual, generated from the code that enforces it. Past those ceilings we move you to a dedicated cluster: tell us the volume and the latency you need.
- Q: How do I know a webhook really came from you?
- A: Every delivery carries X-Gumshoe-Timestamp and X-Gumshoe-Signature. The signature is an HMAC SHA256 of "timestamp.body", keyed with your API key. Recompute it on your side and compare: if it matches, the report is ours and untouched. We retry three times with growing gaps on a timeout or a 5xx, and we stop immediately on a 4xx because your endpoint has already made its mind up.
- Q: How fast is a case?
- A: A standard case closes in one to two seconds, measured end to end on real company sites. A deep research dossier takes about seven, because it reads several pages and searches outside the site. Browser fieldwork takes a minute or two: surveillance can't be rushed.