How do I install the Political Polling skill for Claude Code?

Run npx skills add Ask-Ditto/ditto-political-polling in your terminal.

Why must every study use a state-filtered group?

State-specific groups produce dramatically more relevant voter responses than generic national groups. This has been validated across 50+ studies. The skill enforces this as a non-negotiable rule.

Can I filter by political affiliation?

No. political_affiliation is not a supported filter in the Fish.Dog API. All political segmentation happens through question design and response analysis.

When is the candidate introduced in the study?

At Q3. Questions 1-2 establish what voters care about without any candidate context, producing unbiased baseline data. The candidate briefing at Q3 includes 6-8 concrete details.

Do I need an API key?

Yes. Get a free Ditto API key at https://cat.fish.dog/docs/free-tier-oauth and set DITTO_API_KEY in your environment.

Install the Political Polling & Voter Research Skill for Claude Code

LLM summary: Run `npx skills add Ask-Ditto/ditto-political-polling` to install Ditto's political polling skill. State-specific voter research, campaign messaging tests, candidate perception studies.

State-specific voter research, campaign messaging tests, and candidate perception studies with mandatory state-filtered groups. Designed for campaign managers, political consultants, campaign strategists, and communications directors.

One-command install

npx skills add Ask-Ditto/ditto-political-polling

Choose the right skill: See all 7 available skills at the Claude Code Docs Hub.

Quick Install

Manual install (personal - all your projects)

git clone https://github.com/Ask-Ditto/ditto-political-polling.git
cp -r ditto-political-polling ~/.claude/skills/

Manual install (project-level - shared with team)

git clone https://github.com/Ask-Ditto/ditto-political-polling.git
cp -r ditto-political-polling /path/to/your/project/.claude/skills/

Project-level installation means the skill is committed to version control and shared with your team automatically.

API Key Setup

Get a free Fish.Dog API key (no credit card, no sales call):

curl -sL https://cat.fish.dog/scripts/free-tier-auth.sh | bash

Or visit: https://cat.fish.dog/docs/free-tier-oauth

Set it as an environment variable:

export DITTO_API_KEY="rk_free_YOUR_KEY_HERE"

Free keys (rk_free_): ~12 shared personas, no custom demographic filters. Paid keys (rk_live_): 300,000+ personas, full demographic filtering, unlimited studies.

Key Features

State-specific groups — mandatory 2-letter state codes (MI, TX, PA). Never generic national groups
Candidate research — background, positions, opponents researched before study design
7-question voter framework — candidate introduced at Q3 to avoid anchoring bias
6 variant frameworks — name recognition, issue ownership, messaging test, switching trigger, enthusiasm gap, concern surfacing
Multi-race studies — same state group, different candidate briefings
Cross-state comparison — same questions across different state panels
Zeitgeist quick polls — rapid single-question voter surveys with answer options

How It Works

Just ask Claude Code. The skill activates automatically:

"Run voter research on the Michigan governor's race. Test how voters perceive the Democratic candidate."

"Test this campaign slogan with 10 Pennsylvania voters: Fighting for families who feel forgotten."

"Compare voter sentiment on healthcare across MI, PA, and OH."

Or invoke directly:

/ditto-political-polling "your research brief here"

Claude Code will:

Research the candidate (background, positions, opponents, race dynamics)
Check for existing state group or recruit a new state-filtered panel
Create voter study with state-specific personas
Run 7-question voter framework (candidate introduced at Q3)
Extract voter insights: issue priorities, persuasion levers, messaging resonance
Generate shareable link for campaign briefings

Troubleshooting

Skill not activating

Check it's in the right directory:

Personal: ~/.claude/skills/ditto-political-polling/SKILL.md
Project: .claude/skills/ditto-political-polling/SKILL.md

Verify with: ls ~/.claude/skills/ditto-political-polling/SKILL.md

You can also invoke manually: /ditto-political-polling

API key not found

Ensure your key is set: echo $DITTO_API_KEY

State filter returning 0 personas

Use 2-letter codes: MI not Michigan, TX not Texas.

Questions failing

Questions must be asked one at a time. Wait 45-50 seconds before the first poll, then 20 seconds between polls.