> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.alesta.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Manage competitors

> Review Alesta's competitor candidates and apply additions or removals as one controlled set change.

Use competitor editing to align Alesta's market context with the companies your team actually considers relevant. Changes can trigger new research and updates to dependent documents.

## Review before editing

Open each candidate from the Company panel. Inspect its domain, discovery source, description, potential advantages, and differences versus your company.

Keep a candidate when the overlap is explainable in product, audience, use case, positioning, or buying decision. Remove candidates that only share a broad industry term or superficial search phrase.

## Apply a batch change

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open edit mode">
    Select the edit control beside **Competitors**. If a lock appears, the
    current plan does not include competitor changes.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Stage removals">
    Select the remove mark on candidates you want to drop. A marked row is not
    removed until you save.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Stage additions">
    Enter the domain for each company you want Alesta to research. Use the
    company hostname, not a long page URL.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check the resulting set">
    Review the draft count and any limit message. The server validates the final
    set after both additions and removals.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save once">
    Select **Save** to apply the batch. Use **Discard** if you want to abandon
    all staged changes.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Batching related changes creates one competitor-set revision and one downstream document reconciliation pass.

## Follow the action

While the set is locked, the product can show:

* **Researching...** for an incoming competitor;
* **Removing...** for an outgoing competitor;
* **Rewriting analysis...** for the whole set;
* **Updating...** on affected documents.

Do not start another competitor action while the set-level action is active. The server prevents competing writes even after a page refresh.

## Remove one competitor from its detail view

Open the competitor and select the removal control in the header. Review the target, confirm the decision, and wait for **Removing...** to finish.

This path is useful for one clear removal. Use batch editing when you are replacing several candidates or want one coordinated update.

## Review the result

After the action finishes:

1. Confirm the Company panel shows the intended set.
2. Open each new competitor and wait for research to complete.
3. Check differences and advantages for unsupported claims.
4. Reopen Product information and Marketing strategy.
5. Confirm any document marked **Updating...** reaches a ready state.

## If a domain cannot be added

Check that the value is a public hostname, is not already in the final set, and does not exceed the server's current result limit. If validation still fails, keep the draft unchanged and see [Locked and unavailable actions](/troubleshooting/locked-and-unavailable-actions).

## References

* [Competitors](/workspace/competitors)
* [Documents](/workspace/documents)
* [Workspace actions](/workspace/workspace-actions)
* [Locked and unavailable actions](/troubleshooting/locked-and-unavailable-actions)