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Prompts are the search queries DevTune submits to AI platforms during each test run. They are the primary unit of tracking in search tracking. Every metric, insight, and competitive comparison is derived from how AI platforms respond to your prompts.

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What are Prompts?

A prompt is a question or query that a real user might type into an AI assistant:
  • “What is the best API testing tool for microservices?”
  • “How do I implement rate limiting in Node.js?”
  • “Compare authentication libraries for React applications”
  • “I need a data validation library for Python that supports type hints”
DevTune sends each prompt to every enabled AI search platform and analyzes the responses for your citation sources and brand terms.

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Why Prompts Matter

Prompts define the scope of your AI search tracking. The prompts you track determine:
  • Which conversations you monitor for brand presence
  • What competitive landscape you measure
  • Where content gaps and opportunities are identified
  • How your Share of Voice is calculated
Choosing the right prompts is one of the most impactful decisions in your search tracking configuration.

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Managing Prompts

Navigate to AI Search Tracking > Prompts in your project sidebar to view and manage all prompts.

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Viewing Prompts

The Prompts page shows:
  • All configured prompts
  • Presence rate for each prompt
  • Platform breakdown per prompt
  • Topic assignment
  • Trend direction

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Adding Prompts

  1. Click Add Prompt
  2. Enter the full prompt text
  3. Optionally assign to a topic
  4. Save

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Prompt Generation

DevTune can generate prompt suggestions based on your product context, category, and existing prompts. The AI-powered prompt generator creates relevant queries that real users might ask. Look for the prompt generation feature when adding new prompts.

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Editing and Removing Prompts

Click any prompt to edit its text or topic assignment. Remove a prompt by clicking the delete action. Historical results for removed prompts are preserved.

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Prompt Limits by Plan

Your subscription plan determines how many prompts you can track:
PlanPrompt Limit
FreeLimited
Starter ($49/mo)Included allocation
Plus ($99/mo)Higher allocation
Pro ($199/mo)Highest allocation
EnterpriseCustom
Check your account billing page for specific limits on your current plan. When you reach your prompt limit, you must remove existing prompts or upgrade to add more.

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Blue Ocean and Red Ocean Analysis

DevTune categorizes prompts based on the competitive landscape of their AI responses.

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Red Ocean Prompts

Red Ocean prompts are highly competitive queries where multiple brands appear in AI responses. These are the prompts where you and your competitors are actively fighting for visibility. Characteristics:
  • Multiple competitor brands mentioned in responses
  • High total citation count across brands
  • Presence improvement requires displacing competitors
Strategy: Focus on content quality, authority building, and differentiated positioning to gain share in Red Ocean prompts.

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Blue Ocean Prompts

Blue Ocean prompts are queries with low or no competition in AI responses. These represent opportunities where you can establish presence without competing against established players. Characteristics:
  • Few or no competitor brands mentioned
  • Low total citation count
  • Presence can be established with targeted content
Strategy: Create focused content for Blue Ocean prompts to establish early presence before competitors discover these opportunities.

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Opportunity Matrix

The Opportunity Matrix visualizes prompts on two dimensions:
  • Competition level (Red Ocean to Blue Ocean)
  • Your current presence (low to high)
This creates four quadrants:
  • Defend - High presence, high competition (maintain your position)
  • Capitalize - High presence, low competition (your strong unique territory)
  • Compete - Low presence, high competition (hard-fought improvement areas)
  • Capture - Low presence, low competition (quick wins for new presence)
The Capture quadrant typically offers the best return on content investment.

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Volume Estimation

DevTune provides estimated search volume for prompts, indicating how frequently real users are likely to ask similar queries. Volume estimation helps prioritize which prompts to focus on:
  • High-volume prompts have more potential impact on discoverability
  • Low-volume prompts may still be valuable for niche audience capture

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Prompt Strategy

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Discovery Prompts

Queries from users exploring a category:
  • “What is the best [category] tool?”
  • “Top [category] libraries for [language]”
  • “Recommended [category] solutions”
Purpose: Capture users at the beginning of their evaluation process.

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Evaluation Prompts

Queries from users comparing options:
  • “[Your product] vs [competitor]”
  • “Compare [category] options”
  • “Which [category] tool is best for [use case]?”
Purpose: Appear during active decision-making.

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Integration Prompts

Queries from users implementing a solution:
  • “How to set up [category] in [framework]”
  • “[Category] quickstart guide”
  • “[Category] tutorial for beginners”
Purpose: Capture users ready to adopt a tool.

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Migration Prompts

Queries from users switching tools:
  • “Migrate from [competitor] to [alternative]”
  • “[Competitor] alternatives”
  • “Replacing [competitor] in [use case]”
Purpose: Capture users leaving a competitor.

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Troubleshooting Prompts

Queries from users solving problems:
  • “How to fix [common issue] in [category]”
  • “[Error message] solution”
  • “[Category] performance optimization”
Purpose: Appear as a helpful resource during problem-solving.

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Prompt Best Practices

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Write Like Real Users

Prompts should match how real users query AI platforms:
  • Natural language questions
  • Appropriate detail and context
  • Realistic scenarios

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Cover Your Key Topics

Ensure you have prompts covering:
  • Each major feature or capability of your product
  • Each audience segment you target
  • Each competitive comparison scenario

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Include Context-Rich Prompts

Some prompts should include context, as many real AI queries do: 
I'm building a SaaS application with React and Node.js.
I need to add user authentication with OAuth and magic
link support. What library would you recommend?
Context-rich prompts often produce more detailed AI responses with more citations.

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Balance Breadth and Depth

Mix broad discovery prompts with specific, detailed prompts:
  • Broad prompts show general category presence
  • Specific prompts show domain expertise recognition

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Organize with Topics

Assign prompts to topics for aggregate analysis. Topics let you see which themes perform best and where content gaps exist at a thematic level.

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Next Steps