OSINT AI Prompt Pack: 100 Research Prompts for Investigators

What's Inside

100 carefully written prompts across 10 investigation categories, each with the full prompt text, a usage note, and tips for better results
Every prompt is ready to paste into ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Gemini with minimal editing. Replace the bracketed fields with your actual details.
Role assignment, context framing, and output formatting built into every prompt so the AI gives you structured, usable responses instead of generic summaries
Two file formats: Markdown (for direct use in AI tools and note apps) and a clean PDF for reference
Tools and databases named throughout, so you know exactly where to go for each investigation type

The 10 Categories

1. Open Source Geolocation

Pinning locations from visual clues in photos and video: shadows, architecture, vegetation, license plates, military equipment, and urban infrastructure.

2. Social Media Analysis

Profile analysis, coordinated inauthentic behavior detection, cross-platform identity tracing, deleted content recovery, and influence network mapping.

3. Corporate and Financial Investigation

Beneficial ownership tracing, shell company analysis, sanctions screening, procurement fraud, lobbying research, and cryptocurrency tracing.

4. Conflict Monitoring

Battle line mapping, weapons identification, casualty verification, war crime documentation, supply chain analysis, and war economy research.

5. Satellite Imagery Analysis

Facility activity assessment, construction timelines, equipment counting, crop analysis, environmental damage quantification, and refugee camp population estimation.

6. Network Mapping

Subject profiling, org chart reconstruction, biographic research on foreign nationals, alumni networks, NGO funding analysis, and criminal network structure.

7. Verification and Fact-Checking

Viral claim assessment, document authentication, photo manipulation detection, video verification, statistical claim review, and AI-generated content detection.

8. Maritime and Aviation Tracking

AIS analysis, dark vessel detection, ship-to-ship transfers, port state control records, aircraft tracking, private jet travel analysis, and illegal fishing investigation.

9. Cyber Threat Intelligence

Domain investigation, threat actor attribution, phishing analysis, data breach investigation, malware profiling, influence operation personas, and incident timeline reconstruction.

10. Report Writing and Briefing

Intelligence assessment structure, executive summaries, source confidence ratings, legal review preparation, methodology documentation, and tip-off packages.

Sample Prompt

Here is one prompt from the Geolocation category so you can see the format:

Prompt 1.2  -  Shadow Analysis for Time and Direction

    You are an OSINT analyst. I am trying to determine the approximate time of day and cardinal direction a photo was taken using shadow analysis.

    Photo details:

    - Estimated location or region: [country/city/coordinates if known]

    - Date the photo was allegedly taken: [date or approximate date]

    - Description of shadows visible: [length, direction relative to subjects, hard or soft]

    - Sun position if visible: [high, low, behind clouds, etc.]

    Walk me through the shadow analysis step by step. Use solar position data for the stated location and date to estimate what time of day the photo was taken. Tell me which direction the camera was facing. Flag any inconsistencies between the claimed date/location and what the shadows indicate.

When to use: Verifying whether a photo was taken when and where claimed.
Tip: Feed this in combination with the landmark analysis prompt for full geolocation. If you have the actual image, use Claude or Gemini and paste this prompt with the image attached.

How These Prompts Are Different

Most AI prompt packs are collections of "write me a report about X" requests. This pack is built for operational investigative work. Every prompt is designed around three principles:

Role assignment: Telling the AI it is a sanctions analyst, a maritime forensics specialist, or a crowd density estimator produces more specific, expert-level output than open-ended questions.
Context framing: Each prompt gives the AI the situation before the question. This prevents the AI from defaulting to generic responses.
Structured output: Most prompts specify the format you want back: comparison tables, ranked lists, step-by-step protocols, confidence-rated assessments. This makes the output immediately usable rather than requiring reformatting.

These are working prompts built from real investigative workflows. They name specific tools (VirusTotal, Equasis, MarineTraffic, Global Fishing Watch, OpenCorporates), specific methodologies (MITRE ATT&CK, Benford's Law, Jacobs Method for crowd estimation), and specific databases that actual investigators use.

Who This Is For

OSINT analysts who want to accelerate research by using AI as a structured thinking partner
Journalists investigating corporate fraud, conflict, or political influence
Human rights researchers documenting violations with open-source evidence
Compliance and due diligence professionals screening high-risk relationships
Security researchers tracking threat actors, phishing campaigns, and data breaches
NGO staff monitoring conflict zones, displacement, and humanitarian access
Anyone who uses ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Gemini for research and wants to get better results

What AI Tools Work With This Pack

All prompts work with any major AI assistant. Some notes on which tools are best for which categories:

ChatGPT (GPT-4o): Strong for corporate and financial investigation, report writing, and statistical analysis
Claude (Anthropic): Excellent for long document analysis, legal frameworks, and prompts requiring careful reasoning about evidence
Perplexity: Best for prompts that benefit from real-time web search (current vessel tracking, recent threat actor activity, live conflict data)
Gemini: Good for image-based prompts when you upload photos directly alongside the geolocation prompts

What You Get

Instant download after purchase
prompts.md - full content in Markdown format, ready to use in Obsidian, Notion, or any notes app
PDF version for printable reference
100 prompts, 10 categories, usage notes and tips for every prompt

Get the Prompt Pack - $9.99