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

# Key concepts

> The objects CreatorAudit tracks — accounts, creators, videos — and how analytics are modeled

CreatorAudit models a small set of objects. Understanding how they relate makes both the API and the dashboard easy to navigate — the same concepts appear in each.

## Organization

An **organization** is your workspace. Every account, creator, video, API key, and metric belongs to exactly one organization, and an [API key](/api-reference/authentication) is scoped to a single organization — every response only includes the data that organization owns. You can invite teammates to an organization from the dashboard.

## Account

An **account** is a tracked Instagram or TikTok profile, identified by its `platform` (`instagram` or `tiktok`) and `username`. Once you track an account, CreatorAudit refreshes its profile metrics (followers, total views, engagement) and discovers the videos in its feed.

* API: the accounts endpoints (`/v2/accounts`) in the [API reference](/api-reference/introduction).
* Dashboard: the **Accounts** table and [account detail](/dashboard/accounts) pages.

## Creator

A **creator** is a grouping of one or more accounts that you define — for example, one person's Instagram and TikTok profiles. A creator's metrics roll up from its linked accounts, and pausing a creator pauses all of them. Creators are how you analyze a person or brand across platforms.

* API: the Creators endpoints (`/v2/creators`), including the `/v2/creators/top` leaderboard.
* Dashboard: [Organize creators](/dashboard/creators).

## Video

A **video** is a tracked post. There are two kinds:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Account videos" icon="rss">
    Discovered automatically from a tracked account's feed. You don't add them — they
    appear as the account is refreshed.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Individual videos" icon="link">
    Added by you, by URL or ID, even if you don't track the posting account. Useful for
    watching a specific post.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

Both kinds carry the same engagement metrics and time series. See [Track videos](/dashboard/videos) and the Videos endpoints (`/v2/videos`, `/v2/account-videos`).

## Analytics

**Analytics** are the metrics computed from tracked accounts and videos:

| Metric                  | Meaning                                                 |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| Followers               | Account audience size (accounts only).                  |
| Views / plays           | Times a video was seen / played.                        |
| Likes, comments, shares | Engagement actions on a video.                          |
| Engagement rate         | `(likes + comments + shares) / views`, as a percentage. |

You read analytics at four scopes — **account**, **video**, **creator**, and **organization** — and over a window:

* **Windows**: 7, 30, or 90 days, or a custom date range.
* **Snapshots vs. time series**: a single windowed total, or a daily series you can chart.
* **Period-over-period**: the current window compared with the previous one.

In the API these are the analytics endpoints (`/v2/.../analytics` and `/v2/.../analytics/timeseries`) in the [API reference](/api-reference/introduction), and the organization [Overview](/dashboard/analytics) (`/v2/overview`). See [Read analytics](/dashboard/analytics) for the dashboard view.

CreatorAudit refreshes data on a schedule rather than in real time — see [Data freshness](/data-freshness) for what that means for newly tracked accounts and time series.

## How they fit together

<Note>
  An **organization** tracks **accounts**; you group accounts into **creators**; each
  account surfaces **account videos**, and you can also track **individual videos**.
  **Analytics** are computed for accounts, videos, creators, and the organization as a
  whole.
</Note>

Ready to use them? Start with the [API quickstart](/quickstart) or the [dashboard overview](/dashboard/overview).