FAQ

Short answers to the questions we hear most. For the longer, symptom-by-symptom version, see the Troubleshooting guide.

Collection and engines

How often does MentionFlow collect?

On a schedule, not on demand. Trial collects 3 times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (UTC). Every paid plan collects daily. A new project waits for the next scheduled cycle. See Plans and quotas.

Can I add Claude or Grok as an engine?

Yes. Grok is available on every plan; Claude is a Growth-and-above swap. Both are weekly and collect on Mondays (UTC). Claude stays weekly because it costs far more per answer. Neither can be moved to daily collection.

On Trial and Starter your pickable engines are ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot, and Grok. Growth and above can swap in any supported engine, adding DeepSeek, Mistral, and Claude. Every plan runs four active engines at a time. The workspace default set is picked on Engines, and any project can customize its own four on Collection. See Plans and quotas.

Why do DeepSeek and Mistral have no citations?

They are knowledge-only engines. They answer from model memory with no live web search, so there is nothing to cite. Their empty citations are honest, not a bug. The other engines are search-grounded and carry citations. See Core concepts.

Why do my headline numbers differ from a single engine's?

Headline metrics blend only the search-grounded engines, the ones that run live web searches, never the knowledge-only DeepSeek or Mistral. Filter to a single engine and you see that engine on its own, with a different denominator. Per-engine views and prompt-detail pages use their own scopes too. Every deliberate difference is named on the data-honesty page.

Can I track the same question from another country?

Yes. Set a per-prompt location on any plan. Only location-capable engines honor it: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, and Copilot. Claude, DeepSeek, Grok, and Mistral answer through APIs with no location control, so they keep the project's region. MentionFlow records each one under the region it truly ran in.

Metrics and data

Why is a metric an em-dash (—) instead of a number?

An em-dash means "not enough to say yet". A 0 means a measured zero. Sentiment stays an em-dash until a scored mention exists (and unscored is not neutral), citation share until a run carried citations, clicks until your tracking snippet fires. This is the core data-honesty rule.

Why does a change say "new" instead of a percentage?

There is no prior window to compare against, or the previous value was zero. MentionFlow shows "new" rather than invent a percentage. Once a real prior window exists, the delta appears.

Why do some answers show as failed or queued?

Runs are queued, completed, or failed, and only completed runs feed metrics. Incomplete runs sit in a separate strip in the Answers feed and never count. A failed run is held out rather than miscounted as "brand absent". A few failures per cycle are normal and fix themselves next cycle.

How far back does my data go?

The dashboard loads a rolling span of about 56 days by default. Pick a longer preset (90 or 180 days) or a custom range up to 200 days and it automatically reads further back, so the longer window covers the full stored history.

The one thing that ages out is an individual receipt. The answer page for a run older than about 56 days may no longer open. It returns a 404, even though the metrics still count it.

Prompts and quota

Why does a paused prompt still count against my quota?

By design. Active and paused prompts both hold a slot. Only archiving frees one. If pausing freed slots, you could pause 50, add 50, and resume to run 100 on a 50-prompt plan. Archived prompts keep their history and are re-importable. See Plans and quotas.

My CSV import was rejected — why?

The prompts importer is all-or-nothing against your pooled quota, up to 500 rows / 2 MB. If the whole batch won't fit, nothing is written. Duplicates are matched on normalized text against active and paused prompts. Free slots by archiving, then re-import. Imports need editor rights and are blocked in demo. See CSV imports.

Reports and sharing

Why does a scheduled report say "Generated" instead of "Sent"?

Because it was built but the email was deliberately held. Outbound delivery turns on only once your workspace's sending domain is verified with the email provider. Until then every run still generates the report, shows you the link, and posts to a configured Slack webhook. Runs are marked Generated, Delivered, or Failed, never a fake "sent". See Reports.

Can a client viewer change anything?

No. Client viewer is read-only, enforced on the server. Hiding a button is never the only fence. It is how you share a live dashboard without granting edit rights. See Workspace and members.

Why is email verification blocking my API key or schedule?

For accounts created on or after 2026-07-11, the three actions that send workspace data out of MentionFlow need a verified email: creating an API key, enabling a scheduled report, and setting a notification webhook. Everything else works unverified. Actions that only reduce egress, like pausing and revoking, are never gated. Older accounts are grandfathered. See Password and email verification.

API and access

How do I authenticate the API?

Send your workspace key as a bearer token on every request: Authorization: Bearer mf_.... There is no X-API-Key header and no query-string key. A full scope reads the v1 API and MCP. An ingest scope can only post crawler events. See Authentication.

What's the API rate limit?

120 requests per minute per key. It is a token bucket, and the REST reads and the MCP endpoint share one bucket per key. A refusal returns 429 with Retry-After and X-RateLimit-* headers. Reads are cached with a one-hour TTL, so polling faster than hourly returns the same window. See Limits.

Which plan do I need for agent analytics, Claude, or the portfolio?

Agent (crawler) analytics is a Growth-plan feature. Claude is available as a weekly engine on Growth and above. The Portfolio rollup appears once a workspace has two or more brands. See Plans and quotas.

Demo and availability

Is the demo data mine?

No. It is a fixed sample dataset, badged "Demo data" on every page. MentionFlow shows it when there is no database configured, the database is unreachable, or no brand is visible to your session, such as a signed-out visitor or a brand-new workspace. Sign in to a workspace that owns a brand to see your real data. See What is MentionFlow.

Is there a video library?

Not yet as a standalone library. For guided walkthroughs of each screen, the in-app Learn academy is the closest thing today. A video library is on the roadmap.

Didn't find it?

The Troubleshooting guide has the longer, symptom-by-symptom version. Most "why does it say that?" moments come back to one principle: MentionFlow shows an honest gap before a fabricated number.