
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Three siblings, Andy, Alexa, and John, bake 36 cookies. John and Alexa eat some number of cookies that are both positive factors of the number of cookies eaten by their brother Andy. If the siblings finish all 36 cookies, then what is the maximum number of cookies that the brother, Andy, could have eaten?

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
user