# hook generator

Enter a topic and get opening lines built from named formulas - and see which formula produced each one. The point isn't the output. It's that after a few runs you stop needing the tool.

## the formulas, in full

There is no model behind this. Each line is one fixed sentence shape with your topic slotted in. The shapes are worth more than the lines, so here they are:

- **contrarian take** - everyone believes X, they're wrong, and here's the cost. Disagreement is the cheapest way to break a scroll pattern, but only if you actually disagree.
- **specific number** - a concrete count anchors the claim and promises a finite read. "three things worked" beats "some things worked" because it sets an expectation you can pay off.
- **before / after** - two states with one change between them. The reader wants the change.
- **mistake confession** - admit what it cost you. Costly honesty buys attention that cleverness cannot.
- **question gap** - ask the thing the reader can't answer, then answer it. The gap has to be real or it reads as bait.
- **list promise** - a bounded list, so the reader knows the shape of what they're getting.
- **stakes** - name what it costs to keep doing it the wrong way.
- **insider view** - position the reader as the one being let in on something.

## generated hooks are drafts, not posts

Every line this tool produces contains invented specifics - a timeframe, a count, a claim. Those are placeholders. Replace them with your real numbers before you post, both because made-up specifics are dishonest and because your actual ones are more interesting than the generic version. A hook works when it is concrete, and no generator can supply your concrete.

## generate, then score

This tool and the hook analyzer (/tools/hook-analyzer) are meant to be used back to back. Generate a shape here, put your real specifics in, then paste it into the analyzer to check the five things that decide whether a hook stops the scroll: length, a concrete number, a curiosity gap, a stance, and no warmup words. If it scores badly, take a different formula and go again. That loop is the whole tool.

Once the hook is right, check the whole post fits with the character counter (/tools/x-character-counter), and read what to post on X (/guides/what-to-post-on-x) for what goes underneath it.

## hooks in your own voice

Formulas get you unstuck. They don't sound like you. Argus learns your voice from your own best-performing posts and drafts openers grounded in what your audience actually saved - in your browser, from your own analytics. It drafts and inserts; you press send.