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

# Introduction

> Scout is a hosted web intelligence API that returns evidence-grade records, not just scraped text.

Scout scrapes, crawls, maps, and extracts structured data from the public web, then hands it back as **typed JSON with evidence attached**, the source URL, a content hash, a verified flag, and (for product records) per-field citations. It's built to answer the question "can I trust this record?" as directly as it answers "what does this page say?"

Every hosted call is metered in credits and authenticated with a Bearer API key. There is no unlimited tier, plans are priced against a fixed, published credit allowance so usage is predictable.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Get your API key" icon="key" href="https://scout.chowmes.com/beta">
    Register with your email. Scout emails a one-time `scout_live_..` key you use as a Bearer token.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Try the playground" icon="flask" href="https://scout.chowmes.com/#playground">
    Run a capped, live demo (scrape and map) directly on the homepage before writing any code.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What makes a Scout record "evidence-grade"

Every response includes:

* **Source**, the exact URL fetched, when it was fetched, and which fetch provider ran (`ScoutMetadata` on scrape/crawl; `_source` on product records).
* **Content hash**, `content_hash` on scrape responses, so repeats of a run can be diffed.
* **Citations**, product records (`AlgoliaProductRecord`) carry a `citations` array and a `completeness_score`, so a field like price or brand can be traced back to where it came from.
* **Blocked-page transparency**, crawl and product runs report `blocked_pages` rather than silently dropping pages that failed or were sparse.

## Where to go next

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="rocket" href="/quickstart">
    Sign up, get a key, make your first call.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Credits" icon="coins" href="/credits">
    What a credit costs and what it buys.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Endpoints" icon="webhook" href="/endpoints/scrape">
    Request and response shapes for every capability.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>