About AI results
Results can vary between runs. Is this normal?
Yes. Run the same photo twice and the results will usually be similar but not identical: dimension estimates, species IDs, value ranges, period attributions, and condition grades may each shift slightly. This is how large language models work, not a malfunction. FirstCutAI is tuned for thoughtful, analytical responses rather than rigid repetition, so each run is a fresh, independent assessment, not a cached lookup.
What does the variation tell me?
Think of each run as one appraiser’s opinion on a given day. The more distinctive, well-lit, and clearly framed a piece is, the more consistent the results. Where the app agrees with itself across runs, treat the result with higher confidence. Where results shift a lot, treat both as hypotheses worth a better photo or a Research run. Consistency across independent runs is a built-in honesty signal.
Getting started
How do I sign in?
The first time you run any analysis you sign in with your Apple ID. This links your token balance to your account so it works across your devices. Your Apple ID is never shared or used for marketing.
How do I set my email for PDFs?
Open Settings (gear icon, top right) and enter your email, or tap “Join Email List & Set Email for Results” on the home screen. That address is where Email PDF sends your reports. Leave it blank if you prefer Share PDF instead.
What are the three modes?
A segmented control at the top of the home screen switches between Make (Woodworker: cut lists and plans), Thrift (Buy, Sell, Replace: identify and value), and Style (Designer: match furniture and homes). Each mode has its own tools and its own background color.
Does it work on a Mac?
The Mac app is in beta on Apple Silicon Macs. You pick photos from your library instead of using the camera, and AR measuring is not available, but everything else works. PDFs open in Preview.
Taking good photos
How should I frame the shot?
Capture the whole piece, ideally from a three-quarter angle so the front, side, and top are visible at once. That gives the AI the most to work with and produces more accurate part counts and dimensions.
Does lighting matter?
Yes. Shoot in even, natural light and avoid deep shadows that hide joinery, door lines, or drawer fronts. Side window light reveals the most texture; overhead flash flattens detail.
How do I get the best wood identification?
Photograph the end grain. The pore structure on a fresh cross-cut end is far more diagnostic than face-grain color, which changes with age, finish, and light. Capturing both end grain and face grain in one session raises the confidence of the ID significantly.
How do I photograph a tree?
A single trunk photo rarely gives a confident ID. When you can, capture the bark up close, any leaves or seeds, the overall form from a distance, and a fresh cross-cut from a fallen branch. Combining angles dramatically improves accuracy.
Make (Woodworker)
What does “Research This Furniture?” do?
Photograph any piece and get its style, historical period, likely origin, joinery, construction details, notable features, and recommended books and plan sources. A Wood Match species profile is added automatically (grain, hardness, workability, finishing), and a bridge button carries the same photo into “Make This Piece?”
What does “Make This Piece?” produce?
A complete cut list with finished dimensions for every part, wood species and grain notes, a board-feet total for solid wood with waste factored in, square footage for sheet goods, rough-stock thickness in quarter notation (4/4, 6/4), a hardware list with suppliers, regional lumber pricing, scaled part drawings, and a finishing schedule matched to the finish in your photo. Every cut list also unlocks the five free shop tools plus the AI tools Resize This Piece and Build Plan.
What is “Run All Reports”?
Runs Research, Cut List, and Plans in one pass and adds the Wood Match profile, merged into a single PDF with a cover and index. It uses roughly 10,000 to 20,000 tokens versus 3,000 to 8,000 for a single report, and saves you running each step separately.
What is “What Wood Is This?”
Found below the “Below not in Run All” divider. Switch the picker to Tree to identify a living tree by species, age, height, and wood profile. Switch to Rough Lumber to analyze a rough-sawn or milled board for species ID, NHLA grade estimate, board-feet, regional price per board foot, visible defects, drying and storage guidance, and best uses.
What does Set Dimensions do?
After selecting a photo, tap “Set Dimensions (Optional)” to enter the actual width, height, and depth. Your measurements override the app’s visual estimate throughout the cut list and drawings. Skip it and the app estimates from the photo, a useful starting point that manual measurements always improve on.
What is Measure with Camera?
On the Set Dimensions screen, tap “Measure with Camera” to measure in augmented reality instead of typing. Aim at one edge and tap Mark Point, then the opposite edge, for width, then depth, then height. Pro iPhones and iPads with LiDAR snap to scanned surfaces; other devices use plane detection. Values drop into the fields rounded to the nearest quarter inch.
What does Set Wood Type do?
Tap “Set Wood Type (Optional)” to name the species before running (for example White Oak, Hard Maple, Black Walnut). It is passed as a strong hint used throughout the cut list, pricing, and plans. Skip it and the app identifies the species from the photo.
Why aren’t screws and nails in the hardware list?
The hardware list focuses on what you actually need to buy: hinges, slides, pulls, shelf pins, and similar specialty items. Screws, nails, and dowels are left off on purpose because they vary so much by builder that listing them adds noise rather than value.
Free shop tools
What are the five free shop tools?
Below every cut list is a grid of five tools: Cut Diagram, Shopping List, Shop Mode, Wood Movement, and Finishing Schedule. All five are computed on your device from the analysis you already paid for, so they never use tokens, on live results or on saved projects.
Cut Diagram
Packs every part onto real boards at a width and length you choose, reserves a saw kerf, converts oversized panels to edge-glue-up strips, and shows a board count, board feet, and estimated cost per group. It also prints in the PDF.
Shopping List
Turns the cut diagram into a buy list: priced lumber lines by region, sheet goods, and hardware with suppliers. Tap to check items off at the yard (check-offs are saved per project) and export a plain-text copy.
Shop Mode
A big-type cutting checklist grouped by stock, sized for the bench. Tap a part each time you cut one, the screen stays awake, and progress is saved per project so you can leave and pick up where you stopped.
Wood Movement
Lists every solid panel five inches or wider with its predicted seasonal cross-grain movement, using published dimensional-change coefficients, color-graded with matched advice. Pick your climate and grain orientation; a calculator checks any width and species you enter.
Finishing Schedule
Recreates the finish in your photo: an assessment of the existing finish, surface prep with sanding grits, the coats to apply in order with common products and dry times, and a care note. It opens in a bench-legible screen and prints in the PDF.
AI design tools
What does Resize This Piece do?
Enter target dimensions (leave any unchanged) and the AI re-engineers the whole design: parts that span a changed axis scale, stock thicknesses stay put, joinery and part counts are preserved, board feet are recomputed, and a summary flags anything that hurts proportion or usability. It reuses your earlier analysis without re-uploading the photo, so it costs about a fifth of a fresh analysis.
What does Build Plan do?
Pick a skill level and get a full construction plan: a specified joint for every structural connection with dimensions from your actual parts (plus a simpler alternative for each traditional joint), an ordered build sequence, staged glue-up guidance, movement-safe top attachment, an honest tool list, and a finishing schedule. Beginner favors pocket screws and dowels; Advanced specifies mortise-and-tenon and dovetails.
Thrift (Buy, Sell, Replace)
What does “Research This Furniture?” do here?
The Thrift version is tuned for on-the-spot appraisal: market value, condition, collector demand, rarity, and where similar pieces trade. It does not include joinery or construction guidance; use Make mode for those.
What does “Identify & Value?” give me?
A field appraisal: identification, period, age, wood species, condition grade, and a three-tier valuation in the Antiques Roadshow model: what you would net selling it, what a dealer would charge, and what it would cost to replace. It also gives a buy, negotiate, or walk-away recommendation.
Can I enter the asking price?
Yes. Tap “Set Asking Price (Optional)” and enter what the seller wants. You get a specific verdict, Bargain, Fair, Slightly High, Too High, or Walk Away, with reasoning and a suggested counter-offer.
Can I measure a piece before appraising?
Yes. Enter dimensions by hand or use Measure with Camera in the appraisal flow. The true size sharpens both the identification and the three-tier valuation, the same AR tool woodworkers use.
What is the Restoration Advisor?
From any appraisal, get a conservator-style verdict: Leave As-Is, Clean Only, Conserve, Restore, or Refinish, with the reasoning, the effect on all three value tiers, a projected sell range after the work, an “Is It Worth It?” cost check, a patina-safe care schedule, and, when repair makes sense, a phase-grouped repair sequence with supplies. The cardinal rule of antiques is that original surfaces and patina often ARE the value, so before you sand, scan. It reuses your appraisal, so it costs a fraction of a fresh analysis.
What is “Run All Reports” in Thrift?
Runs Research and Identify & Value together and combines them into one PDF. Good when you want the full picture on a piece you are seriously considering.
Inspection Notes and Guided Inspection
What are Inspection Notes?
Before running Identify & Value, tap Inspection Notes to record what you observed in person that a photo cannot show. Your answers are treated as established facts that override the app’s photo inferences, producing a more accurate valuation. They appear in the report and PDF.
What is Guided Inspection?
A station-by-station walkthrough at the top of the Inspection Notes sheet: six stations, one screen each, telling you what to physically check and how to read it. Ghost outlines around hardware mean it was replaced, fine crazing means an original finish, slightly irregular dovetails mean hand-cut, and powdery fresh sawdust can mean active woodworm. The screen stays awake and skipping any station is safe.
How do I read the hardware and refinish clues?
Original hardware (bail pulls, cast hinges, hand-cut escutcheons) suggests the piece is unaltered; replaced hardware usually lowers value. Old screws sit off-center, modern screws are perfectly centered. For refinishing, original surface, even worn, is almost always preferred; a refinish can cut auction value by 20 to 50 percent on period pieces. Look under tops and inside cases for drips, brush marks, or unnaturally uniform color.
Style (Designer)
What does “Furniture for This House?” do?
Photograph a building’s exterior for a full architectural style analysis (period, regional variant, defining features, history) plus the furniture styles that complement it, recommended wood species for floors, trim, and furniture, and color, proportion, and material guidance.
What does “House Style for This Furniture?” do?
Photograph a piece and get the architectural styles and interiors where it belongs, with reference photos and room-context guidance.
What does “Furniture for This Wood?” do?
Name a species, photograph a sample, or both, and get a full profile: grain and texture, color from fresh-cut to aged, Janka hardness, workability, finishing notes, durability, the styles that favored it, price tier, sustainability, and substitute species with trade-offs.
My Projects
Does the app save my work?
Yes. Every completed analysis saves automatically to My Projects with its photo, full results, and your inputs. There is no save button. Open it from the folder button top-left or the My Projects row on the home screen.
How are projects organized?
Runs on the same photo group into one row with a count badge and a tool icon each, so an appraisal, its restoration advisory, and a cut list live together. Star favorites to pin them, long-press or tap the three-dot button for shortcuts to Shop Mode, Shopping List, or Restoration Advisory, and use Select mode to delete several at once.
Where are my projects stored?
On that device only. They do not sync between devices and are removed if you delete the app. Reopening a project regenerates its PDF for free, so export the PDF for anything you want to keep permanently or move elsewhere.
Understanding your results
Can I read the full report on screen?
Yes. Every results screen leads with summary cards, and “View Full Cut List” and “View Full Research Report” open the complete report on screen, including tappable resource links, along with the Finishing Schedule. The scaled part drawings are the one thing that remains PDF-only. The orange banner opens the whole printable PDF.
Why the tilde in the logo?
The tilde means “approximately.” Every result is an educated estimate from one photograph, a smart starting point, not an engineered specification or a certified appraisal. That is the name: FirstCutAI helps you make your first-cut decisions before you commit.
Should I verify results before acting?
Yes. Use a cut list as a planning framework and verify every dimension against the actual piece before ordering lumber or cutting. Use valuations as a starting reference and always inspect a piece in person before buying, and consult a professional appraiser for anything of significant value.
What do the wood-ID confidence ratings mean?
Tree and Rough Lumber IDs are rated Very High, High, Medium, Low, or Very Low. For Rough Lumber, full results (species, grade, pricing) appear only at Very High or High confidence; below that the app withholds the ID and shows photo tips instead, so you are never handed pricing built on a shaky identification. Even Very High is an AI estimate, not a lab result.
My results look wrong. What can I do?
Try a clearer photo with the full piece in frame and good light, and add a wood-type hint or manual dimensions before re-running. Output quality tracks photo quality directly.
Will the app use manual dimensions that look wrong?
If your entry is physically impossible for the furniture in the photo (for example 3 by 3 by 3 inches for a bookcase), the app ignores it and falls back to its own visual estimate, and the PDF shows that estimate. This keeps the summary card and cut list consistent.
Getting your PDF
How do I get the PDF?
Three ways on every results screen: the orange “Tap to open the full PDF report” banner opens a preview, “Email PDF” sends it to your saved address, and “Share PDF” opens the iOS share sheet to save to Files, AirDrop, print, or forward.
Email PDF is not working.
Email PDF uses Apple Mail and your saved email. If Mail is not configured or no email is saved, the app tells you which is missing. Share PDF always works and lets you use Gmail, Outlook, Files, or AirDrop with no setup.
Can I get PDFs from old projects?
Yes. Opening a saved project gives the same three PDF options; the report regenerates on the spot at no token cost, so you can export weeks later.
Tokens and pricing
What are tokens?
Tokens are the currency for each AI analysis. Both the photo and prompt you send and the response you receive consume tokens (about four characters of English per token). A single analysis typically uses 3,000 to 8,000 tokens; Run All uses roughly 10,000 to 20,000.
What is free, and what costs tokens?
New accounts get 30,000 free tokens on sign-in. Anything that talks to the AI uses tokens: the analyses in all three modes and the follow-ups Resize This Piece, Build Plan, and Restoration Advisor (these reuse your earlier analysis, so they run cheaper, about 3,000 to 7,000). Free forever: all five shop tools, the Guided Inspection walkthrough, browsing and reopening My Projects, and regenerating PDFs.
How much are more tokens?
From Settings, Purchase Tokens: the Starter Pack is $4.99 for 60,000 tokens (about 4 Run Alls), the Value Pack is $14.99 for 180,000 tokens (about 10), and the Annual Subscription is $9.99 per year for 180,000 tokens per subscription year. Purchased tokens never expire. Tokens are credited immediately after purchase.
How do I check my balance?
Open Settings and tap “My Usage” while signed in to see your remaining balance, total used, total deposited, and analysis count. The balance updates after each analysis.
What happens when my balance is low?
Before an analysis that would run you low, the app shows a warning with Continue Anyway, Buy Tokens, or Cancel (the threshold varies by tool). If you run out mid-run, the current step stops but any steps that finished are still shown and saved.
I redeemed a code or bought tokens but the balance did not change.
Open the app, confirm you are signed in (Settings), and check My Usage. The app re-checks entitlements on every launch and credits any missed period, and crediting is idempotent so nothing double-counts. If it is still missing after a relaunch while signed in, contact support with your redemption date.
Privacy
Are my photos private?
Yes. Photos are sent to Anthropic’s API only to generate your report. Anthropic’s API terms prohibit using customer inputs and outputs for model training, and your images are not retained or repurposed. The app has no ads, no tracking, and no analytics SDKs.
Still need help? Email firstcut@214id.com · FirstCutAI on the App Store