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

# Scans and answers

> How a visibility scan runs, how to follow its progress, and what Jam records about each AI answer.

## Scans

A scan (a visibility run) asks every tracked prompt on every platform your plan covers. Scans run on your plan's cadence and use no credits.

To scan now, use the dashboard or `create_visibility_run` (`POST /v1/visibility-runs`). It answers `202` with a `runId` and `expectedMinutes`, or `409` while a scan is already running: wait for that one instead of starting another.

A run fills in as Jam queues its questions, so `answers.total` grows during the first minutes. Read progress against `expectedTotal`, the prompt and platform pairs the run will ask, which is known up front; `queuing` stays `true` until every question is queued. Follow a run with `get_visibility_run`, and list past runs with `list_visibility_runs`.

A platform that could not be reached shows its failed answers with a plain cause in `platforms[].errors`. When a platform failed most of the latest scan, the project's `healthReasons` names it.

## Answers

For every prompt and platform, each scan stores:

* the full answer text,
* whether your brand was mentioned and whether it was recommended, and its position,
* the brands mentioned, in order,
* the URLs cited.

`list_answers` (`GET /v1/answers`) lists them newest first; `list_prompt_answers` is one prompt's history. Answers are the evidence for everything else: research reads them, and each action on the Plan links to the answers behind it.

## Analytics

The dashboard's numbers come from the answers in a window of 7, 30 or 90 days (`rangeDays`).

| `list_analytics_metrics` family | One row per |
| - | - |
| `visibility`, `competitors` | Day and brand: the visibility score over the window. |
| `citations` | Tracked brand (yours and competitors): its citation share, mentions and rank. |
| `sources` | Cited domain: how many cited URLs and answers it appears in, with your own site marked `isOwned: true`. |
| `platforms` | AI platform: its scores, answer count and latest-scan failures. |
| `topics` | Topic and brand: visibility within the topic. |

`citations` answers "which brands get cited"; `sources` answers "which sites the AI assistants cite". The first analytics read of a project can take several seconds while Jam builds its numbers; later reads are fast until a new scan lands.


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