How Swale works, from idea to published post
Swale, an AI ghostwriter for founders, works in four steps. It researches your space and ranks what to write about, turns the best ideas into briefs, interviews you for a story from your own work (beta), and drafts the post from that story (beta). You review the draft and publish it yourself.
How does Swale decide what you should write about?
Swale starts from your business and the public places it shows up: your website, plus a YouTube channel or X account if you have one. It reads a bounded sample of public evidence, then ranks every idea against one written, versioned checklist. Swale's checklist scores five things: how fresh the angle is, how well it matches what your audience wants, how much proof backs it, how well it fits your business, and how easily you can make it.
What Swale reads
| Source | What Swale reads | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Your recent uploads, plus competitors' videos and search results | Up to 50 of your uploads, up to 50 candidate videos per search, and up to 10 evidence items kept per topic |
| X | Your public X activity, plus competitor and search evidence, for X-specific briefs | Needs your X account added to Swale |
| Your website | A set of your pages, to work out what your business does, likely competitors and content gaps | A bounded read, not a full crawl |
It's a sample, not a census. Swale doesn't see every post in your space and doesn't measure search volume. The same inputs always score the same way; fresh research can change the ranking.
Does Swale look at LinkedIn?
No. Swale doesn't read or analyze LinkedIn, TikTok or podcast feeds. You can tell Swale you publish there, and LinkedIn is one of the formats it writes, but its research covers YouTube, X and your website.
Do you need a YouTube channel or an audience to start?
No. A channel is optional, and you don't need an audience. Tell Swale about your business, point it at your website, and add a YouTube channel or X account if you have one. Swale emails you when your first result is ready. If there isn't enough public evidence to back a brief, the result says so instead of guessing.
The best ideas become briefs
Each brief covers one idea: the angle, a hook, title options, an outline, a written visual or cover idea, and a confidence score that shows how much evidence sits behind it. Briefs are shaped for YouTube or X. Some research runs end without a brief when the evidence is thin.
What happens in the voice interview? (beta)
Swale asks you, out loud, about a story from your own work, and follows up with spoken questions to get the details a post needs. The interview runs in your browser, takes ten minutes at most and needs a microphone. You can interview for a specific brief or bank a story for later, and go back to a story to add what's missing. Every story stays in your story bank, and you can replay past interviews.
How does Swale make a draft sound like you? (beta)
Every draft starts from a brief with your story attached, so the substance is yours: your example, your details, your answers. Swale doesn't train on your past posts or clone your voice. Ask for a rewrite if it's off, and edit the final version before it goes anywhere.
What can Swale write?
- A long-form article, for your newsletter or blog
- An X thread
- A LinkedIn post
- A short video script with timestamps, for you to record
All four are in beta and need a brief with your story attached. Video is coming next.
Can Swale publish to your newsletter or LinkedIn?
Newsletter (beta). Connect your beehiiv publication, and Swale sends a finished article into beehiiv as a draft post, with the subtitle, byline, tags, and email, SEO and social settings filled in. You review it and hit send in beehiiv. One publication per brand.
LinkedIn and X. Posts and threads come as copy-ready drafts (beta) that you post yourself.
Swale never posts, schedules or sends anything on its own.
How much of your time does Swale need?
Your part is three things: pick an idea from your briefs, tell the story in an interview of up to ten minutes (beta), and review the draft before you post it. The research runs in the background. Paid members also get fresh research on a regular schedule and a daily email of the briefs waiting for them.
See what Swale would write about for your business.
Try Swale free →Start free. Story interviews, drafts and beehiiv publishing come with a paid plan.