Core concepts
Projects, prompts, engines, runs, answers, sources and findings — the vocabulary used throughout Citeroot.
#Project
A project is one brand and its domain, with competitors, a prompt panel and its history. Agencies typically create one project per client (Summit includes five).
#Prompt and panel
A prompt is a question a buyer might ask. A panel is the set of prompts you track. Prompts are tagged with a stage:
| Stage | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Problem | Does the engine know the problem you solve? |
| Shortlist | Are you named in "best X for Y"? |
| Comparison | How do you appear against named rivals? |
| Constraint | Do requirements (price, integrations, compliance) favour you? |
| Purchase | What is said about you directly? |
#Engine
An engine is an AI answer surface Citeroot collects from: ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google) and Perplexity. Each answer is a real API call with web search on. How many engines a project can use depends on your plan. Google AI Overviews is not supported.
#Run
A run asks every active prompt on every engine of the project once. Runs start when you press Run now, or automatically on a schedule derived from your allowance.
#Answer
The stored result of one prompt on one engine: the full answer text, the model that produced it, the sources it cited (and any it only consulted), the search queries it ran, and what Citeroot measured in it. Answers are kept as collected; Citeroot never rewrites them.
#Allowance
Each plan includes a monthly number of answers, because each one is a paid call to an AI provider. See Runs and allowance.
#Source
A domain or page cited in an answer. Sources are typed by kind — owned, competitor, review site, community, editorial, documentation, marketplace, directory, video or social — using a rules-based classifier you can inspect.
#Finding
A result from Site Audit: a check on a page that passed, needs attention or failed, with the evidence and a suggested fix.
#Brief and insight
A brief is a draft content plan for one gap. An insight is a written investigation of your current results. Both are drafts for a person to review. See Briefs and insights.
Last updated Oct 8, 2026 · Suggest an edit