A wall of takes. Here is how to use it.

1 · what a take is

One line, on exactly one thing. A song — and then one of its five parts — or a subject: git, mondays, tacos, any name. Written by a person, with their name on it. A joke by a power user, for a power user: a line that proves you know the thing from the inside, that relates to it in the first person and stops before the whole idea is given away, that reads like a tweet, and that nobody is asked to explain.

Every take gets a permanent address (/t/ plus eight characters), its own page, and a card to share. It can carry a moment — what you were doing, in your own words — and always carries the date and the season it was filed in. What it never is: a line an AI wrote. Hermit, the house’s AI, writes lines on request, labelled as an AI’s; none of them is ever filed as a take, from any door.

2 · reading the wall

the wall

Every take, as cards. The first strip sorts it — for you, hot, new, top — and narrows it to all, subjects or songs. On a song’s card, ▶ 30s plays the thirty seconds the writer heard in Spotify’s own player, which docks at the bottom; ▲ is i see it too; the Spotify mark opens the record there. ⌕ searches the wall in place; vibes filters by mood. The back then strip at the top shows a year ago today, this time last season, the wall’s first line. Every ten cards a leaf turns — same order for everyone, all day, re-dealt at midnight UTC.

immerse

One take fills the screen and its song plays while you read. Swipe up for the next; double-tap for ▲; tap once for the take’s page.

a take’s page

Open any card: the line, the record it is on (playing), the writer, the moment, the votes, the comments, keep, share (the link, or the card as a picture), print, and the tip chips. Previous and next walk the wall from there. A take on a subject shows the subject instead of the record, and the door to every take on it.

a record · a subject

/s/<spotify id> is one record with every take on it, the house’s read when nobody has written yet. /on/<subject> is every take on a subject (/on/tacos), with say yours at the top.

search

Words, songs, artists, writers — and the chips narrow by season, year and mood. A word with nothing on it offers to let you write the first line.

today’s crown

At midnight UTC the wall crowns one take; it sits there all day with the last seven crowns under it. The letter on that page mails you the crown, one a day. The same take is posted each day on Bluesky and X.

remember · kept

Signed in: remember walks your own takes one at a time, the song ready, a box for the moment; kept is the shelf of takes you pressed keep under.

the diary · the verse · upclass

The diary keeps what listeners wrote per artist. The verse draws every voice as a star by its signal. Upclass is the bond that forms when two writers have each said i see it too to the other.

3 · filing a take — nine doors

Every door goes through the same gate and ends at the same place: one line, checked the same way, filed under your name, standing at an address on the wall. Pick the door you are nearest.

1. 01

   the + button

   the wall, on any screen

   needs a sign-in at the last step (google, one tap); the line is held while you sign in

   1. press + (the middle of the bottom bar on a phone; the + on the wall at a desk). a sheet opens.
   2. choose what it is on: a subject (git, mondays, tacos — any name, up to 40 characters), or a song (search by artist or title, or paste a spotify link).
   3. write the line. one line, 280 characters at most — the counter says how much tweet room is left.
   4. for a song, the part it is about (the sound, the lyrics, the title, the canvas, the art) is guessed from your words; change it if it guessed wrong.
   5. if you like, the moment: what you were doing, in your own words, up to 160 characters. the date and the season are added by themselves.
   6. press file. if you are not signed in, sign in — the line is kept and filed as soon as you are. it lands at the top of the wall with your name on it.

   hold the + down for the full submit page instead of the sheet.

2. 02

   the front page

   photoprompting.org, the first time you come

   needs a sign-in at the last step

   1. the composer is on the front page itself: what it is on, then the line.
   2. press the button under it. it signs you in at the last step, then files it, with your name on it.
3. 03

   the submit page

   /?tab=submit, or hold the + down

   needs a sign-in

   1. find the song: type an artist, a title, or both; or paste a spotify link.
   2. pick the part of the song the line is about — the five stamps are explained above.
   3. write the line, add the moment if you have one, file it.

   this page is for songs; a take on a subject goes through the + sheet or the front page.

4. 04

   from a record or a subject

   any take’s page, any record’s page, any subject’s page

   needs a sign-in

   1. under a take: ✎ say yours · write a line on this song. the composer opens on that record.
   2. on a subject’s page (/on/tacos): say yours · on tacos.
   3. a link can open the composer directly: /?compose_subject=git for a subject, /?compose_song=<spotify id> for a song. search offers the first when a word has nothing on it yet.
5. 05

   raycast, on a mac

   the photoprompting extension for raycast

   needs a mac with raycast; sign in once with google (the browser hands back to raycast by itself)

   1. quick take: ⌘ space, type quick take, then your line, then what it is on (it remembers the last subject), then the moment if any. it files without opening a window and copies the take’s link.
   2. submit a take: a window with a subject or a song — what is playing in spotify, plexamp or roon is picked up — and the moment.
   3. also there: browse takes (search the wall, vote inline), my takes, social feed, and ask hermit (copy its line; it is never filed).

   the extension is the house’s own and is not in the raycast store yet — write in for it.

6. 06

   discord

   the photoprompting bot, in any server that invited it

   needs a server with the bot; /link ties your discord to your account so your lines earn signal

   1. invite the bot from /bot. from then on, paste a spotify link in a channel and it answers with the line and the 30 seconds.
   2. /take link: <spotify link> line: <your line> part: <the sound · the lyrics · the title · the canvas · the art> — files it on the wall under your name (280 characters, like everywhere). the moment is an optional fourth field.
   3. /link gives you a code; open it signed in on the site and press link. every line you file from discord, before and after, is then yours on the wall — it earns signal, and signal earns credits.

   the bot’s page →

7. 07

   an assistant

   claude, chatgpt, cursor, claude code, muse — anything that speaks mcp

   needs connect https://photoprompting.org/api/mcp once; it opens our sign-in screen, and you let it in

   1. connect it (the steps for each client are on /connect). you name what the wall should call you.
   2. then say it in words: “read the wall on this song”, “what did people write on tacos”, “file a take on <song> saying <your line>”. the tools are find_song, read_song, takes_on_song, song_card, speak_take, read_playlist and file_take.
   3. file_take files under your name, through the same gate as the site. an assistant’s own words are never filed as your take: you write the line, it carries it.

   connect an assistant →

8. 08

   the api

   POST /api/v1/takes, with a key

   needs an api key (a free developer key from /api-access; bigger ones on /pricing)

   1. POST https://photoprompting.org/api/v1/takes with the header x-api-key and a json body: { "url": "<spotify link>" } or { "spotifyId": "<id>" } or { "subject": "git" }, plus "text". optional: "element" (sound · lyrics · title · canvas · art), "author", "moment".
   2. the answer carries the take’s id and its address. a line already on the wall answers 409.
   3. PUT /api/v1/takes/{id}/moment adds the moment later — only the writer, with their own session token.

   the docs →

9. 09

   the mac app

   photoprompting.app, from the wall’s doors strip

   needs an apple-silicon mac

   1. download it from the doors strip on the wall (▣ mac app). it is the wall in its own window — real menus, a dock icon, the same + button, the same sign-in.
   2. it always shows what the site shows; nothing is kept on the machine but your sign-in.

   download the mac app (apple silicon) →

Reading does not need any of this: the read door (GET /api/hermit/read?url=<spotify link>) answers a person’s line first and the house’s only when nobody has written, to curl, Apple Shortcuts, a spreadsheet, anything — see the docs.

4 · after you file

it has an address

photoprompting.org/t/xxxxxxxx — share it, and the link carries the line, the record and your moment. share also hands you the card: the line typeset on the house’s index card with the record and your name, as a picture for anywhere. print makes a page of it.

▲ i see it too

Anyone can press it, once per take. Signed in, each one counts toward your signal — the wall’s reputation, never for sale — and five make the line its song’s laureate. Comments are free and need a sign-in; keep puts a take on your shelf; a tip ($3 or $10) goes to the writer.

the moment

Add it when you file, or later on remember: what you were doing. It shows under the line everywhere — the wall, the page, the card, search, the letter.

the crown, the letter, the wire

One take a day is crowned and goes out: on /today, by mail to everyone who signed the letter, and as a post on Bluesky and X with its link. Some days the house also sends a take, with its writer’s name, to the artist of the song it is on.

the voice

Every Monday the wall’s takes are distilled into hermit’s voice. Write a line this week and you are in next week’s.

signal → credits

Signal unlocks credit bundles at milestones (/credits); a credit is one fresh read of the voice past the day’s allowance. Credits are access, never money.

5 · signing in

Reading needs nothing. Filing, keeping, commenting and asking hermit need an account: sign in with Google, one tap, new or returning — the same button does both — or an email and a password. The name your account carries is the name on your takes. A line you wrote before signing in is held and filed the moment you are in; a sign-in started from any page comes back to it.

One account, every door: the site, the mac app and the assistants use the same sign-in; Raycast signs in once through your browser; Discord is tied to it with /link in the bot. The me tab on the wall is your own takes and your streak. What the site keeps and why is on the privacy page.

6 · hermit, the house’s ai

Hermit is an AI (Anthropic’s Claude) writing in the voice the wall distils each Monday from every take. It is never a person and says so; every line it writes is labelled an AI’s, and none is ever filed as a take.

ask hermit

Name a subject and it writes one line on it. Signed in, 10 a month on the free plan; without an account, 3 a day, on the site, on a subject the wall already has 3 takes on. Copy the line, or write your own — yours is the one that can go on the wall. The bigger plans are on /pricing; in Raycast it is ask hermit and quick hermit; over the API, POST /api/v1/hermit.

its reads

On a record nobody has written on yet, the house reads it: one line, kept a day, free to everyone after the first time. Wherever people have written, their lines come first — the wall, the read door, the assistants.

the doors

Paste any Spotify link and watch every door answer at once: the read, the card, the record, the day. Nothing there spends until you touch the page.

7 · artists, developers, the rest

for artists

Leave your record with the desk: one line about it is written first and sent to you privately; you pay only to publish it on the wall, and the card lands where you asked. The diary keeps everything listeners filed on your songs.

for developers

Every door with its exact call; a hundred recipes that use them; the connector for assistants; keys on /pricing. The read door, the cards, the playlist, the embed and oEmbed need no key at all.

every room

The full index of the house, including the classifieds (the few ads the wall rents out, each one disclosed) and the pages about the making of it.

8 · the rules, in one table

The numbers on this page are the code’s own; when a rule changes, this page changes with it. Something unclear, or a door that does not do what it says here: write in.