Cheap Seats

A read-only copy of Cheap Seats measuring itself, updated hourly. Run your own.

Quick wins

The fix lists from the latest run of every prompt set, core sets first, then fastest expected ranking gain: prompts a fix could flip per working day, each weighted by what it has left to win (one minus its recommended rate over the last two weeks; named, for an info prompt). Mark a fix with the commit or pull request you submitted for it; open leaves out the ones you have. A later fix for the same page stays open, with what was tried before.

Statusall 5open 3accepted 2

Priorityall 8urgent 2high 5medium 1

Siteall 5elsewhere 5

Gapall 5documentation 4third-party 1

Setall 15Finding out whether AI assistants recommend us 2Getting recommended instead of a competitor 4Choosing an AI visibility tool 3Cheap Seats head to heads 1Open-source and self-hosted AI visibility 5

Publish popcorn.zone/docs/cli-and-ci with a scheduled CI workflow example accepted high documentation effort S flips 3 Open-source and self-hosted AI visibility

Where: popcorn.zone/docs/cli-and-ci
Must say: Show the Popcorn CLI running a prompt set and exiting with the share-of-voice and recommended-rate results. Include a scheduled CI example that runs the set weekly; confirm the exact commands and the exit-code behaviour with engineering before publishing. State that the TOML prompt sets live in git and that changes go through pull requests, which LLM Pulse's hosted CLI does not offer.
Done when: Rerun prompts 9 and 14 on search. Popcorn is recommended, not merely mentioned, in at least one answer, and this page is cited.
Displaces: https://llmpulse.ai/features/cli
Why: P9: 'says only that the Popcorn repo "also appears on that topic page", giving no reasons to use it'

Prompt for Claude Code
# Publish popcorn.zone/docs/cli-and-ci with a scheduled CI workflow example

When buyers ask an AI assistant the questions below, it doesn't recommend us, or recommends us for the wrong reasons. This is a documentation gap: the answer needed a page we don't have, or ours says the wrong thing.

## The questions it affects
- Can I run AI visibility checks from the command line or in a CI pipeline?
- Can I test the same buyer questions against several AI models and compare the answers?
- How can I automatically ask ChatGPT and Claude the same set of questions every week and track how their answers about my category change?

## What the assistant said
P9: 'says only that the Popcorn repo "also appears on that topic page", giving no reasons to use it'

## Who wins the question today
https://llmpulse.ai/features/cli. Read it and make sure our version answers everything it does, better.

## Your task
Write or update the page at popcorn.zone/docs/cli-and-ci so it closes this gap. Find where pages like this live in the repo, match their structure, front matter and tone, and make the change there. If the page exists, edit it rather than starting over.

## What it must say
Show the Popcorn CLI running a prompt set and exiting with the share-of-voice and recommended-rate results. Include a scheduled CI example that runs the set weekly; confirm the exact commands and the exit-code behaviour with engineering before publishing. State that the TOML prompt sets live in git and that changes go through pull requests, which LLM Pulse's hosted CLI does not offer.

## Done when
Rerun prompts 9 and 14 on search. Popcorn is recommended, not merely mentioned, in at least one answer, and this page is cited.

## Rules
- Don't invent numbers, benchmarks, prices, capabilities or customer names. Where a fact is needed and you can't find it in the repo or on our site, leave a clearly marked TODO saying exactly what to measure or who to ask.
- Answer the questions above directly and early on the page, in the words buyers use. AI assistants quote pages that state the answer plainly.
- Keep it scoped to this one fix. When you're done, summarise what you changed and list any TODOs.

accepted https://github.com/cheapseatsdev/cheapseats-site/pull/36 · Merged and live at cheapseats.dev/docs/cli-and-ci: cheapseats run with a real report and its exit codes, where to run it, several models side by side, the built-in weekly schedule, check and plan in the config repo's CI, and a scheduled GitHub Actions workflow starting a run over POST /api/runs and failing if it doesn't finish. mcp 2026-10-23 02:39:27
pending: the set hasn't run since

proposed https://github.com/cheapseatsdev/cheapseats-site/pull/36 · New page docs/cli-and-ci on cheapseats.dev: cheapseats run with a real report and its exit codes (0 done, 1 budget/cancelled/partial/failed or error, 2 usage, confirmed in main.go), where to run it, several models side by side, the built-in weekly schedule, check and plan in the config repo's CI (template check.yml), and a scheduled GitHub Actions workflow starting a run over POST /api/runs and failing if it doesn't finish. Linked from the CLI reference. mcp 2026-10-23 02:38:41
pending: the set hasn't run since

From this run

Get Popcorn listed on openalternative.co AI visibility tracking category high third-party effort S flips 3 Open-source and self-hosted AI visibility

Where: https://openalternative.co/categories/ai-visibility-tracking
Must say: Submit a Popcorn listing to this directory, which shaped the P1 answer. The listing should state: MIT licensed, a single Docker container, search and recall tracks, and a ranked fix list. Link the listing to the new comparison and self-hosting pages rather than only the repo.
Done when: The Popcorn listing is live on openalternative.co, and a rerun of prompt 1 on search shows Popcorn at a position better than 17.
Displaces: https://openalternative.co/categories/ai-visibility-tracking/using/drizzleorm
Why: P1: shaped by openalternative.co/categories/ai-visibility-tracking; Popcorn was at position 17

Prompt for Claude Code
# Get Popcorn listed on openalternative.co AI visibility tracking category

When buyers ask an AI assistant the questions below, it doesn't recommend us, or recommends us for the wrong reasons. This is a third-party gap: the roundups and comparisons the model reads leave us out.

## The questions it affects
- Are there open-source tools for measuring AI search visibility?
- Is there an open-source alternative to Profound or Peec AI?
- We want to track AI answer visibility without sending our data to another SaaS vendor. What are our options?

## What the assistant said
P1: shaped by openalternative.co/categories/ai-visibility-tracking; Popcorn was at position 17

## Who wins the question today
https://openalternative.co/categories/ai-visibility-tracking/using/drizzleorm. Read it and make sure our version answers everything it does, better.

## Your task
We need to be included on https://openalternative.co/categories/ai-visibility-tracking. Read that page first, work out the right way in (editor contact, submission form, PR, comments), and draft exactly what to send: a short, factual pitch covering the points below, in the page's own format.

## What it must say
Submit a Popcorn listing to this directory, which shaped the P1 answer. The listing should state: MIT licensed, a single Docker container, search and recall tracks, and a ranked fix list. Link the listing to the new comparison and self-hosting pages rather than only the repo.

## Done when
The Popcorn listing is live on openalternative.co, and a rerun of prompt 1 on search shows Popcorn at a position better than 17.

## Rules
- Don't invent numbers, benchmarks, prices, capabilities or customer names. Where a fact is needed and you can't find it in the repo or on our site, leave a clearly marked TODO saying exactly what to measure or who to ask.
- Answer the questions above directly and early on the page, in the words buyers use. AI assistants quote pages that state the answer plainly.
- Keep it scoped to this one fix. When you're done, summarise what you changed and list any TODOs.

From this run

Publish popcorn.zone/blog/open-source-alternative-to-profound-and-peec-ai with feature table high documentation effort M flips 5 Open-source and self-hosted AI visibility

Where: popcorn.zone/blog/open-source-alternative-to-profound-and-peec-ai
Must say: Publish this comparison under the exact query wording 'open-source alternative to Profound and Peec AI'. It must say Popcorn is MIT licensed, runs as one Docker container with SQLite, keeps prompt sets as TOML in your own git repo, and asks every question on both a search track and a recall track. Include a feature table against Elmo, Limelit, OneGlanse and Promptfoo, and only list competitor features that have been checked against their READMEs. This is needed because the pending GitHub-topics change gives assistants a repo name to list but no reasons to rank Popcorn.
Done when: Rerun prompts 1, 2 and 11 on search. At least two search answers cite a popcorn.zone page and grade Popcorn as recommended.
Displaces: https://www.elmohq.com/ai-visibility-tools/alternatives/profound
Why: P1: 'Popcorn is not evaluated against these criteria; it appears only as a repo listed under the topic'

Prompt for Claude Code
# Publish popcorn.zone/blog/open-source-alternative-to-profound-and-peec-ai with feature table

When buyers ask an AI assistant the questions below, it doesn't recommend us, or recommends us for the wrong reasons. This is a documentation gap: the answer needed a page we don't have, or ours says the wrong thing.

## The questions it affects
- Are there open-source tools for measuring AI search visibility?
- Is there an open-source alternative to Profound or Peec AI?
- We want to track AI answer visibility without sending our data to another SaaS vendor. What are our options?
- What's a good open-source way for a developer-tools startup to check whether AI assistants recommend it over alternatives?
- What's the cheapest way to track our brand in AI answers ourselves instead of paying for a SaaS subscription?

## What the assistant said
P1: 'Popcorn is not evaluated against these criteria; it appears only as a repo listed under the topic'

## Who wins the question today
https://www.elmohq.com/ai-visibility-tools/alternatives/profound. Read it and make sure our version answers everything it does, better.

## Your task
Write or update the page at popcorn.zone/blog/open-source-alternative-to-profound-and-peec-ai so it closes this gap. Find where pages like this live in the repo, match their structure, front matter and tone, and make the change there. If the page exists, edit it rather than starting over.

## What it must say
Publish this comparison under the exact query wording 'open-source alternative to Profound and Peec AI'. It must say Popcorn is MIT licensed, runs as one Docker container with SQLite, keeps prompt sets as TOML in your own git repo, and asks every question on both a search track and a recall track. Include a feature table against Elmo, Limelit, OneGlanse and Promptfoo, and only list competitor features that have been checked against their READMEs. This is needed because the pending GitHub-topics change gives assistants a repo name to list but no reasons to rank Popcorn.

## Done when
Rerun prompts 1, 2 and 11 on search. At least two search answers cite a popcorn.zone page and grade Popcorn as recommended.

## Rules
- Don't invent numbers, benchmarks, prices, capabilities or customer names. Where a fact is needed and you can't find it in the repo or on our site, leave a clearly marked TODO saying exactly what to measure or who to ask.
- Answer the questions above directly and early on the page, in the words buyers use. AI assistants quote pages that state the answer plainly.
- Keep it scoped to this one fix. When you're done, summarise what you changed and list any TODOs.

From this run

Publish popcorn.zone/docs/models-keys-and-budget: own API keys, CLI subscriptions, daily cap accepted high documentation effort M flips 4 Open-source and self-hosted AI visibility

Where: popcorn.zone/docs/models-keys-and-budget
Must say: Explain that Popcorn calls Claude and OpenAI through your own API keys, or through local Claude Code and Codex CLIs on your own subscriptions. Explain that a daily budget caps API spend. Include a worked cost example for N prompts × 2 tracks × M models per day, but measure real token and web-search costs from a Popcorn run before publishing any figures.
Done when: Rerun prompts 7 and 8 on search. At least one answer cites this page and names Popcorn as supporting your own OpenAI and Anthropic keys with a spend cap.
Displaces: https://www.producthunt.com/products/lettertrace
Why: P7: top picks were Lettertrace and an Apify actor; Popcorn was absent on all four answers

Prompt for Claude Code
# Publish popcorn.zone/docs/models-keys-and-budget: own API keys, CLI subscriptions, daily cap

When buyers ask an AI assistant the questions below, it doesn't recommend us, or recommends us for the wrong reasons. This is a documentation gap: the answer needed a page we don't have, or ours says the wrong thing.

## The questions it affects
- Should we build our own AI visibility tracker on the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs, or buy a tool?
- Which AI visibility tools let us use our own OpenAI and Anthropic API keys?
- How much does it cost in API fees to run our own AI visibility checks every day, and how do we cap it?
- What's the cheapest way to track our brand in AI answers ourselves instead of paying for a SaaS subscription?

## What the assistant said
P7: top picks were Lettertrace and an Apify actor; Popcorn was absent on all four answers

## Who wins the question today
https://www.producthunt.com/products/lettertrace. Read it and make sure our version answers everything it does, better.

## Your task
Write or update the page at popcorn.zone/docs/models-keys-and-budget so it closes this gap. Find where pages like this live in the repo, match their structure, front matter and tone, and make the change there. If the page exists, edit it rather than starting over.

## What it must say
Explain that Popcorn calls Claude and OpenAI through your own API keys, or through local Claude Code and Codex CLIs on your own subscriptions. Explain that a daily budget caps API spend. Include a worked cost example for N prompts × 2 tracks × M models per day, but measure real token and web-search costs from a Popcorn run before publishing any figures.

## Done when
Rerun prompts 7 and 8 on search. At least one answer cites this page and names Popcorn as supporting your own OpenAI and Anthropic keys with a spend cap.

## Rules
- Don't invent numbers, benchmarks, prices, capabilities or customer names. Where a fact is needed and you can't find it in the repo or on our site, leave a clearly marked TODO saying exactly what to measure or who to ask.
- Answer the questions above directly and early on the page, in the words buyers use. AI assistants quote pages that state the answer plainly.
- Keep it scoped to this one fix. When you're done, summarise what you changed and list any TODOs.

accepted https://github.com/cheapseatsdev/cheapseats-site/pull/35 · Merged. Extended docs/cost-and-budget (alias /docs/models-keys-and-budget): a section on your own ANTHROPIC_API_KEY/OPENAI_API_KEY or the claude-code/codex subscription CLIs, the daily cap, and an estimate-your-own formula (prompts × tracks × answerers × samples) from measured per-answer costs. mcp 2026-10-23 02:30:35
pending: the set hasn't run since

proposed https://github.com/cheapseatsdev/cheapseats-site/pull/35 · Extended docs/cost-and-budget (alias /docs/models-keys-and-budget): a section on your own ANTHROPIC_API_KEY/OPENAI_API_KEY or the claude-code/codex subscription CLIs, the daily cap, and an estimate-your-own formula (prompts × tracks × answerers × samples) from measured per-answer costs. mcp 2026-10-23 02:29:02
pending: the set hasn't run since

From this run

Publish popcorn.zone/docs/guides/dev-tools-ai-recommendations how-to guide high documentation effort M flips 4 Open-source and self-hosted AI visibility

Where: popcorn.zone/docs/guides/dev-tools-ai-recommendations
Must say: Write a how-to for engineering-led teams: write the buyer questions developers actually ask as TOML, run them on the search and recall tracks against Claude and OpenAI, and read the share of voice and objections. Include a coding-assistant section for library and API questions. Use Popcorn's own prompt set as the worked example.
Done when: Rerun prompts 12, 15 and 16 on search. At least one answer cites this guide.
Displaces: https://usesapient.com/blog/how-to-track-ai-recommendations-for-your-api
Why: P15: sources were usesapient.com and lightsage.com 'how-to-track-ai-recommendations-for-your-api'

Prompt for Claude Code
# Publish popcorn.zone/docs/guides/dev-tools-ai-recommendations how-to guide

When buyers ask an AI assistant the questions below, it doesn't recommend us, or recommends us for the wrong reasons. This is a documentation gap: the answer needed a page we don't have, or ours says the wrong thing.

## The questions it affects
- What's a good open-source way for a developer-tools startup to check whether AI assistants recommend it over alternatives?
- How can a developer-tools company find out whether ChatGPT and Claude recommend it when developers ask which tool to use?
- How do we find out whether coding assistants recommend our library or API when developers ask how to do something?
- How do engineering-led companies measure whether LLMs recommend their product, without a marketing tool?

## What the assistant said
P15: sources were usesapient.com and lightsage.com 'how-to-track-ai-recommendations-for-your-api'

## Who wins the question today
https://usesapient.com/blog/how-to-track-ai-recommendations-for-your-api. Read it and make sure our version answers everything it does, better.

## Your task
Write or update the page at popcorn.zone/docs/guides/dev-tools-ai-recommendations so it closes this gap. Find where pages like this live in the repo, match their structure, front matter and tone, and make the change there. If the page exists, edit it rather than starting over.

## What it must say
Write a how-to for engineering-led teams: write the buyer questions developers actually ask as TOML, run them on the search and recall tracks against Claude and OpenAI, and read the share of voice and objections. Include a coding-assistant section for library and API questions. Use Popcorn's own prompt set as the worked example.

## Done when
Rerun prompts 12, 15 and 16 on search. At least one answer cites this guide.

## Rules
- Don't invent numbers, benchmarks, prices, capabilities or customer names. Where a fact is needed and you can't find it in the repo or on our site, leave a clearly marked TODO saying exactly what to measure or who to ask.
- Answer the questions above directly and early on the page, in the words buyers use. AI assistants quote pages that state the answer plainly.
- Keep it scoped to this one fix. When you're done, summarise what you changed and list any TODOs.

From this run