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When someone asks an AI answer engine a question, it rarely searches for just those exact words. It fans the question out into several related follow-up searches, pulls sources across all of them, and only then writes its answer. Query fan-out tracks that wider set of sub-queries for each prompt, so your visibility reflects how engines really answer, not just the one sentence you typed.
The MentionScout prompt detail page showing the Query fan-out card with coverage metrics and a sub-queries table

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Why fan-out matters

A single tracked prompt is one entry point. The engine behind it usually explores a handful of related questions before answering, so your brand can be present for the prompt itself yet missing from the follow-ups that actually shaped the reply. Fan-out closes that blind spot. For each prompt, MentionScout expands it into related sub-queries, runs them against your selected engines, and measures how often you show up across the whole set. The result is a truer picture of your coverage: not just “did you appear for this prompt” but “did you appear across the questions this prompt really triggers”.

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Turn on fan-out

Fan-out is a card on each prompt’s detail page. Open a prompt from the Prompts list, then find the Query fan-out card.
1

Enable fan-out

Toggle Enable fan-out on. The coverage panel and the sub-queries table appear underneath.
2

Choose how many sub-queries

Set the Sub-queries count. You can track between 3 and 8 related sub-queries per prompt.
3

Generate the set

Sub-queries generate automatically on the prompt’s next run cycle. To create a fresh set right away, click Regenerate.
Each enabled sub-query runs alongside the prompt against every engine the prompt targets, so turning on fan-out adds runs. A prompt with five active sub-queries and three engines fires the prompt plus five follow-up searches per engine each cycle.

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The sub-queries table

The table lists every sub-query MentionScout is tracking for the prompt.
The related question the engine is likely to explore off the back of your prompt.
What kind of follow-up it is, shown as a badge so you can see the spread of intent across the set.
A switch to include or exclude that sub-query. Turn one off to stop running and measuring it without deleting it; turn it back on at any time.
If the table is empty, you will see “No sub-queries yet. They generate on the next run cycle.” Click Regenerate to build the set now instead of waiting.
Clicking Regenerate replaces the current generated set with a new one at your chosen count. Use it after you reword the prompt or change its focus, so the sub-queries stay relevant.

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Reading coverage

With fan-out on, three figures sit at the top of the card, measured over the date range selected for the prompt.

Coverage

The share of sub-query runs where your brand appears. This is the headline number: how present you are across the follow-up questions.

Citation rate

The share of sub-query runs that include at least one citation, so you can see how often these runs lean on linked sources at all.

Sub-query runs

How many sub-query runs completed in the window, so you know how much data the percentages rest on.
Below the figures, two breakdowns show where coverage is strong or thin:
  • Coverage by category shows your appearance rate for each kind of follow-up, with the run count in brackets. A low category is a type of question you are losing.
  • Coverage by LLM shows your appearance rate per engine across the sub-queries, so you can tell whether a gap is one engine or all of them.
Fan-out coverage counts sub-query runs only. The prompt’s own runs and any prompts excluded from visibility are left out, so this number stays focused on the follow-up questions.

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Community threads driven by fan-out

When a sub-query run cites a Reddit, Hacker News, or Bluesky thread as a source, that thread shows up under Community threads driven by fan-out, grouped by the sub-query that surfaced it. It is a direct line from a follow-up question to the public conversation an engine drew on to answer it, and a shortlist of threads worth engaging with.

Sources

See the wider web of pages and threads that AI answers cite as sources.

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How fan-out runs show up

Fan-out runs sit alongside the prompt’s own runs in the Recent runs table, each marked with a Fan-out badge and the exact sub-query text that was sent. Open any of them to read the full answer like any other run. To keep your headline numbers clean, fan-out runs are reported separately: they do not inflate the run count or visibility shown for the prompt on the Prompts list. Those figures stay tied to the prompt itself, while fan-out coverage lives in its own card.

Prompts

Create and manage the prompts that fan-out expands.

Runs

Open the full answer behind any run, including every fan-out sub-query.
Last modified on June 26, 2026