Abhord Quickstart Guide (March 2026 Refresh)
This practical guide helps new Abhord users go from zero to value—configuring your workspace, running a cross‑LLM survey, interpreting metrics, monitoring competitors, and turning insights into action. Notes labeled What’s new highlight updates since the prior edition.
1) Initial setup and configuration
- Create your workspace
- Invite your core team (Owner, Analyst, Contributor). Use SSO if available.
- Set default project naming, time zone, and data retention policy.
- What’s new: Quick-start presets now apply safe defaults for sampling, privacy redaction, and cost caps.
- Connect model providers
- Add API keys or connectors for the LLMs you plan to survey (e.g., leading general models and any domain models you care about).
- Configure rate limits and per‑provider budgets to avoid throttling mid‑run.
- What’s new: Unified connectors let you rotate across multiple model versions without rebuilding surveys; per‑model retry logic reduces partial runs.
- Define entities (brands, products, competitors)
- Create your brand and product entities, plus competitor entries.
- Add synonyms, acronyms, legacy names, and common misspellings; group variants into canonical entities.
- What’s new: Entity dictionaries now support exclusion rules (e.g., “Apple (fruit)” vs “Apple (company)”) to cut false positives.
- Set languages and regions
- Choose priority locales; enable auto‑translation if you plan to test non‑English queries.
- Tip: Start in your primary market, then expand once you’ve validated workflow and costs.
2) Run your first survey across LLMs
- Choose a template
- Brand Health (General): “Who are the top X for [category]?”, “What is [Brand] known for?”
- Transactional: “Best [product type] for [use case]?”, “Which [brand] integrates with [tool]?”
- Misinformation Check: “Is it true that [claim] about [Brand]?”
- What’s new: Prompt Library 2.0 includes tested, bias‑reduced phrasings and multi‑turn probes for deeper recall.
- Draft your seed queries (5–15 to start)
- Mirror real customer questions. Examples:
- “Best project management tools for startups”
- “Does Contoso CRM integrate with Gmail?”
- “Top alternatives to Fabrikam Analytics”
- Tip: Include a few comparison prompts (“X vs Y”), as they stress test share of voice.
- Select models and sampling
- Pick the LLMs you want to evaluate (latest stable versions recommended).
- Set sample size