# Settings Dashboard

The Settings dashboard provides access to all configuration options for your property. It's organized into tabs for different setting categories.

## What You'll Learn

In this guide, you'll learn:

- How to access and use your API key
- How to configure report settings
- How to choose who gets emails about a property
- How to link someone straight to a settings tab
- How to switch a property between active and prospect
- How to set billing limits
- What experimental features are available

## General Tab

The General tab holds property-level identity settings: the logo, brand aliases, and prospect mode.

### Prospect Mode

Prospect mode marks a property as exploratory or sales-prospecting tracking rather than an active client.

**When prospect mode is on:**
- The property is excluded from weekly maintenance, monthly brand consistency checks, and other scheduled background work
- It appears under the **Prospects** tab on the Properties dashboard instead of **Clients**
- No scheduled data collection runs against it, so it does not consume credits in the background

**Reports can still be run manually** while prospect mode is on, and all existing data is kept.

Turning prospect mode off converts the property back to an active client: it rejoins scheduled runs and is picked up by the next weekly maintenance and monthly consistency check.

**How to change it:**
1. Open **Settings → General** for the property
2. Toggle **Track this property as a prospect**
3. Click **Save**

Properties added through the Prospects tab or bulk prospect import start with prospect mode on. Use this toggle when a prospect converts into a client, or when you want to park an active client without deleting its history.

See [Prospecting](/docs/dashboards/prospecting) for more about the prospect workflow.

## API Tab

### Your API Key

Your Spyglasses API key is required to connect the tracking plugin to your property. The key is displayed with a copy button for easy access.

**You'll need this key to:**
- Install the Spyglasses plugin on your website
- Configure middleware for Next.js, Nuxt, etc.
- Set up server-side tracking

See [AI Traffic Analytics](/docs/dashboards/ai-traffic-analytics) for more about what the plugin enables.

### Platform Documentation Links

The API tab includes links to platform-specific documentation:
- [Next.js](/docs/platforms/nextjs)
- [WordPress](/docs/platforms/wordpress)
- [Cloudflare Workers](/docs/platforms/cloudflare-workers)
- [And more...](/docs/platforms)

Choose your platform for detailed installation instructions.

### Regenerating Your API Key

If your API key is compromised:
1. Click "Regenerate Key"
2. Confirm the action
3. Update your site integration with the new key

**Warning**: Regenerating invalidates the old key immediately. Your site integration will stop working until updated.

## Reports Tab

### Report Scheduling

Instead of running reports manually, you can schedule them to run automatically:

| Frequency | Description |
|-----------|-------------|
| **Weekly** | Reports run on a specific day of the week |
| **Monthly** | Reports run on a specific day of the month |
| **Quarterly** | Reports run on a specific day of the month in January, April, July, and October |
| **Off** | Manual reports only |

When you select a frequency, you can choose exactly when reports run:

- **Weekly**: Pick a day of the week (e.g., every Monday)
- **Monthly / Quarterly**: Pick a day of the month (1st–28th)

Reports are generated at 6 AM UTC on the scheduled day.

Choose a frequency based on:
- How often your content changes
- Your recrawl frequency
- Credit budget
- How actively you're optimizing

### Report Recipients

Who receives scheduled report emails is set on the **Notifications** tab, along with every other email about this property. The schedule card shows how many people it's sent to, with a link straight to the right card.

**Agency tip**: If you're on an agency plan, scheduled report emails are automatically white-labeled with your agency branding: your logo and company name appear instead of Spyglasses. This makes scheduled reports a great way to deliver recurring insights to your clients.

### Default Location

Set a default location for all reports run for this property:
- **City**: Specific city name
- **Region/State**: State, province, or region
- **Country**: Country code

**Why set location?** Location-aware queries return different results. For local businesses, this ensures AI platforms return locally relevant recommendations.

Example: A restaurant in Austin, TX should set location to "Austin, Texas, US" so queries like "best restaurants near me" return relevant competitors.

### When Location Matters

- **Local businesses**: Essential—set your service area
- **Regional services**: Important—set your primary market
- **National/global businesses**: Optional—may set for specific market focus
- **SaaS/digital products**: Usually not needed

## Notifications Tab

The Notifications tab lists every email Spyglasses sends about this property and who gets each one.

| Email | What it sends | When |
|-------|---------------|------|
| **Wrong-domain alerts** | A short investigation when AI searches a site that looks like yours but isn't, then a note when it looks resolved | Once per wrong domain, plus one note if it comes back |
| **Negative message alerts** | The answers where a claim you track as negative showed up | When it happens |
| **Scheduled report emails** | A link to each new scheduled AI Visibility report | On your report schedule |
| **Weekly summary** | AI visits and referrals over the past week | Weekly |
| **Milestone emails** | A note when the property passes an AI visit milestone | A few times a year at most |

### Who Gets Each Email

Each card has the same controls, and changes save as soon as you make them.

- **Everyone in your organization** is on by default. New members are included automatically when they join.
- Turn it off to pick specific members instead.
- **Also send to** adds addresses outside your organization, such as client contacts. Type the address and click **Add**.

Each person still decides for themselves. Anyone can turn off a type of email from their own [email preferences](/docs/dashboards/settings#email-preferences) or from the link at the bottom of any email. When someone has turned a type off, the card shows it next to their name, and an admin can't turn it back on for them.

### Email Preferences

Your own email preferences live in your account settings under **Notifications**. They apply to every property you're on:

- **Per-property warnings**: wrong-domain alerts and negative message alerts
- **Reports and summaries**: scheduled report emails, the weekly summary, and milestone emails, each with its own switch
- **From Spyglasses**: the newsletter and getting-started tips

Every email says why you're getting it and has a one-click link to turn off that type of email. The link opens a page, no sign-in needed, where you can choose which types you keep. Owners and admins always get account and billing emails, such as credit warnings, because they affect the whole account.

## Billing Tab

### AI Visit Monthly Cap

Set a maximum limit on tracked AI visits per month. This ensures you don't receive an unexpected bill for AI traffic overage.

**How it works:**
1. Set a cap (e.g., 10,000 visits)
2. When limit is reached, tracking continues but overage charges stop
3. Resets at the start of each billing period

**Why use a cap:**
- Budget predictability
- Protection against unexpected traffic spikes
- Control over costs during testing

### Organization Billing Link

Billing is handled at the organization level, not per property. The link takes you to organization billing where you can:
- View current plan
- Update payment method
- See usage across all properties
- Upgrade or downgrade

## Experimental Tab

This tab contains features that are not yet ready for full release. These may include:
- Beta features in testing
- Advanced options for power users
- Features gathering feedback

**If you want to use experimental features:**
Contact us at support@spyglasses.io so we can help you get started and provide guidance.

**Note**: Experimental features may change or be removed without notice.

## Danger Zone

The Danger Zone contains destructive actions that cannot be undone.

### Delete Property

Permanently deletes this property and all associated data:
- All AI Visibility Reports
- All analytics data
- All discovery queries
- All competitor data
- All historical metrics

**Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.**

**Use delete only if:**
- You created the property by mistake
- You're canceling your account
- You want to completely remove all data

**Before deleting**, consider:
- Exporting any reports you need
- Confirming this is the right property
- Understanding all data will be lost

### How to Delete

1. Click "Delete Property"
2. Type the property name to confirm
3. Click "Delete Permanently"

## Tab Navigation

Settings are organized into tabs for easy access:

1. **General**: Logo, brand aliases, and prospect mode
2. **API Key**: Keys and integration documentation
3. **Reports**: Scheduling and location settings
4. **Notifications**: Who gets each email about this property
5. **Client portal**: Portal access for your clients (agency plans)
6. **Billing**: Usage caps and organization billing
7. **Experimental**: Beta features (if available)
8. **Danger Zone**: Destructive actions

### Linking to a Tab

The address bar always shows the tab you're on, so you can copy it and send it to a teammate. You can also add a card to the link. For example, `settings?tab=notifications#wrong-domain-alerts` opens the Notifications tab and scrolls to the wrong-domain card. Each card on the Notifications tab has a **Copy link** button that copies this for you.

Tab names you can use: `general`, `api-key`, `reports`, `notifications`, `client-portal`, `billing`, `experimental`, and `danger`. A tab that doesn't exist, or isn't part of your plan, opens General.

## Best Practices

### Secure Your API Key

- Don't commit API keys to public repositories
- Use environment variables
- Rotate keys if potentially compromised

### Set Location Early

If you're a local business, set location before running your first report. This ensures your initial data is relevant.

### Configure Caps Before High Traffic

Set billing caps before launching marketing campaigns or expecting traffic spikes. This prevents surprise charges.

### Review Settings Periodically

As your needs change, revisit settings:
- Update location if you expand to new markets
- Adjust report frequency based on optimization activity
- Review billing caps as your traffic grows
- Check who gets each email on the Notifications tab when team members or client contacts change

## Related

- [Getting Started](/docs/getting-started/overview) - Initial property setup
- [AI Visibility Reports](/docs/dashboards/ai-visibility-reports) - Using scheduled reports
- [AI Traffic Analytics](/docs/dashboards/ai-traffic-analytics) - What the plugin tracks
- [Platform Docs](/docs/platforms) - Installation guides