Prompts

A Prompt is a question that SurfacedBy asks AI platforms on your behalf, the way a potential customer would ask it. Every metric in the product is built from the answers to your tracked prompts.

How your first prompts are chosen

During setup, SurfacedBy reads your site to understand what you do, who you serve, and the category you compete in. It then proposes a prompt set that covers the questions buyers in your category ask, including comparison and alternatives questions. Most proposed questions leave out your brand name, so an answer that mentions you reflects the platform's own choice. A few can name your brand or a competitor when that is how people search; you can drop any of them during review.

You review the proposed set in the setup wizard before your first check. You can keep or drop proposals, add your own prompts, and set the country for each one.

Countries and languages

Each prompt is tracked for one country, or as Global. To track the same question in another market, add it again with a different country; each copy counts as its own prompt. SurfacedBy supports 38 countries across North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, and proposed prompts are written in your audience's language.

Country targeting is more precise on some AI platforms than on others. The Country Confidence column in exports shows whether an answer reflects the chosen country exactly or approximately.

Managing prompts

Tracked Prompts is where you manage your set. It has four tabs:

• Active - the prompts on your next Full Check. Each prompt carries a status: Surfaced (mentioned on three or more AI platforms), Partially surfaced (one or two), Not surfaced (none), or Awaiting check (not checked yet).
• Suggested by AI - new prompts SurfacedBy found for your category. Track adds a suggestion to Active; Dismiss removes it.
• Matrix - a grid of your best position on each AI platform, prompt by prompt.
• Inactive - prompts you paused or archived. Paused prompts can be reactivated; archived prompts have to be added again.

From Active you can:

• Add prompts manually or by uploading a CSV.
• Pin up to 10 prompts to your watchlist.
• Pause a prompt to stop checking it while keeping it on hand.
• Archive a prompt you no longer need.

SurfacedBy does not pause or archive your prompts on its own. It keeps finding new ones and offers them under Suggested by AI; you decide what to track. There are two exceptions. On a plan downgrade, if your active prompts exceed the new plan's limit and you have not chosen which to keep within 7 days, the least relevant prompts are archived until the set fits. On an upgrade, proposals from setup that did not fit your old limit are added to Active automatically, most relevant first.

Managing prompts requires the Editor role or higher. See Workspaces and roles.

How prompts are checked

Each check asks your prompts on the AI platforms your workspace has, in each prompt's country. On Starter without prompt packs, every Full Check checks every prompt on every platform. On larger prompt sets (Professional and Agency, or with prompt packs), a Full Check does not check every prompt on every platform each week; prompts you pin and prompts you add yourself come first, and anything not rechecked keeps its latest answer. Daily Checks recheck part of your set between Full Checks. See Measurement scope for the full cadence.

Prompt limits

Your plan sets how many prompts your workspace can track and how many are tested in each Full Check:

The limit is shared by every domain in the workspace. Prompts you add yourself and suggestions you track count toward it, and paused or archived prompts do not. Prompt packs add 50, 100, or 200 prompts to both your tracked limit and every Full Check. See Plan limits.

Prompts in the API

The Data API lists a domain's tracked prompts on Professional and Agency. On Agency, POST https://api.surfacedby.com/api/v1/ext/domains/{domain_id}/prompts adds a prompt and pins it, and DELETE https://api.surfacedby.com/api/v1/ext/domains/{domain_id}/prompts/{prompt_id} archives it. See the API reference.