Toothcomb: Open-Source Real-Time Speech Fact-Checker Built with Claude Opus and Sonnet APIs

Toothcomb is an open-source tool for analyzing and fact-checking speech in real time. It accepts a speech transcript, an MP3 file (which it transcribes), or live audio from your microphone. The analysis runs in three stages using Claude Opus and Sonnet APIs.

How It Works

• Stage 1 — Chunking & Analysis: The text is broken into small parts (a few sentences each). Each part is sent to the Claude Opus API with detailed instructions to extract claims, promises, predictions, logical fallacies, and deceptive/manipulative language.
• Stage 2 — Fact-Checking: For claims requiring verification, Claude uses its existing knowledge or performs web searches via the API's web search tool in conjunction with the Sonnet API.
• Stage 3 — Final Review: The entire speech is reviewed holistically to catch contradictions, unfulfilled promises, or patterns invisible at the chunk level.

Technical Details

The architecture and high-level design were created by the author; most actual code was written by Claude Code/Opus 4.6. The author notes micromanaging Claude to a degree where any human developer would have resigned, but the collaboration felt genuine and the resulting code quality matched hand-written code, completed in much less time.

Who It's For

Developers building tools for media analysis, political debate fact-checking, or real-time conversational auditing who want a production-ready pipeline using Claude APIs.