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

# Glossary

> Every term used across the ai-cmo.dev docs, alphabetized.

Terms are grouped alphabetically; each entry links to the page that covers it in depth.

## A

**AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).** The practice of structuring content so that search engines extract and display it as a featured snippet or direct answer. Distinct from GEO in that AEO targets traditional search engine answer boxes, not LLM-generated answers. See [GEO vs SEO vs AEO](/learn/geo-vs-seo-vs-aeo).

**Answer engine.** A system that generates a natural-language answer to a user's question, rather than returning a list of links. Examples include ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. Answer engines may be grounded (retrieve and cite) or ungrounded (answer from parametric memory). See [How answer engines work](/learn/how-answer-engines-work).

## C

**Citation.** A reference in an answer engine response that attributes a claim to a source. Citations may be inline numbers, URLs, or footnote-style links. A brand that is mentioned without a citation has no traceable source for the claim. See [LLM engines](/learn/llm-engines).

**Credit.** The unit of metering on the platform, denominated in micro-USD (µUSD). 1,000,000 µUSD = \$1.00. Operations reserve credits up front and settle actual cost after. New workspaces receive a free grant of 1,000,000 µUSD. See [Credits and billing](/credits-billing).

## G

**GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).** The practice of improving how a brand appears in AI-generated answers from LLM-based engines. Measured through mention rate, share of voice, position, sentiment, and citation rate. See [What is GEO](/learn/what-is-geo).

**GEO Score.** A versioned 0–100 composite score (`geo-score-v1`) with five weighted components: visibility (0.25), relative share of voice (0.35), position (0.15), sentiment (0.10), and modeled reach (0.15). Missing components are reported and weights renormalized. See [GEO Score](/geo-score).

**Grounded engine.** An answer engine that retrieves external information (from an index, web search, or database) before generating an answer. Grounded engines can cite sources. See [How answer engines work](/learn/how-answer-engines-work).

## H

**Hallucination.** A confident but incorrect statement generated by an LLM. Hallucination is more common in ungrounded engines that rely on parametric memory. A brand that launched after the engine's training cutoff may be described with invented facts.

## I

**ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).** A description of the customer segments a brand targets. Used by the prompt generator to produce relevant questions.

**Impression share.** The proportion of search impressions a brand receives for a given set of queries. From GSC data. Not directly a GEO metric, but seeds prompt importance scoring.

**Intent.** The category of a prompt question. The platform uses six intents: `discovery`, `problem_solution`, `use_case`, `comparison`, `expert`, and `brand_research`. Each intent tests a different visibility dimension. See [Prompt sets](/learn/prompt-sets).

## M

**MCP (Model Context Protocol).** The protocol ai-cmo.dev uses to expose tools to AI assistants. The package `ai-cmo-mcp` runs locally (stdio only, no HTTP/SSE endpoint) and proxies to the REST API. Provides ten tools for reading scores, runs, reports, and recommendations. See [MCP server](/mcp/overview).

**Micro-USD (µUSD).** The denominational unit for credits. 1 µUSD = 0.000001 USD. All credit balances, reservations, and settlements are integer micro-USD amounts.

## P

**Preset.** A named measurement configuration that defines which engines to run, how many prompts, and the budget ceiling. Available presets: `smoke`, `lite`, `standard`, `deep`, and `exa`. See [Runs](/runs).

**Prompt set.** The curated list of questions sent to answer engines during a measurement run. Each prompt has an intent, topic, language, importance, and lifecycle state. See [Prompt sets](/learn/prompt-sets).

## R

**RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation).** An architecture where an LLM retrieves relevant passages from an external index before generating an answer. Most grounded answer engines use some form of RAG.

**Recommendation.** Tracked work produced by the platform, with a lifecycle: `proposed` → `todo` → `in_review` → `done` → `archived`. Each recommendation carries evidence references, generated copy, and state history. See [Recommendations](/recommendations).

**Research artifact.** A schema-validated, immutable output from a research run. Carries source references, timestamps, digests, and the operation that produced it.

**Retrieval.** The process of finding relevant documents or passages from an index or search engine to condition an LLM's answer. The quality of retrieval determines whether a brand's content can be cited. See [How answer engines work](/learn/how-answer-engines-work).

**Run.** A single measurement execution. Records the preset, date, provider responses, extracted mentions, metrics, and cost. Pipeline outcomes: `complete`, `partial`, `failed`. See [Runs](/runs).

## S

**SEO (Search Engine Optimization).** The practice of improving a page's position in a ranked list of search results. Measured by impressions, clicks, and position from GSC, plus authority and technical signals. See [GEO vs SEO vs AEO](/learn/geo-vs-seo-vs-aeo).

**Share of voice (SoV).** The brand's mentions divided by the sum of all tracked brand and competitor mentions. The highest-weighted component (0.35) in the GEO score. See [Visibility metrics](/learn/visibility-metrics).

**Signal.** An observed input such as a GSC row, GA4 metric, authority measure, provider response, or crawler result. Signals retain their provider-local date and source identity.

## U

**Ungrounded engine.** An answer engine that generates responses from parametric memory only, without retrieving external information. Cannot cite sources. More prone to hallucination for recent or niche topics.

## V

**Visibility.** The share of eligible responses that mention the brand. The foundational GEO metric, weighted by each measured engine's usage proxy. Weight 0.25 in the GEO score. See [Visibility metrics](/learn/visibility-metrics).

## W

**Workspace.** The isolation boundary for a brand. Owns domains, competitors, prompts, runs, reports, recommendations, members, credentials, billing, chat threads, and page evaluations. A machine API key is bound to exactly one workspace. See [Core concepts](/concepts).