Snapshots

Snapshots capture assessment progress so visitors can save, share, and resume their work. When someone completes an assessment on your site, they can share a link with colleagues or return later to pick up where they left off.

Why snapshots matter

Snapshots enable three key scenarios:

Scenario	Description	Business value
Save and resume	Visitor starts assessment, leaves, returns later	Higher completion rates
Share with team	Visitor sends link to colleague or decision-maker	Expands reach within accounts
Handoff to Deep Fathom	Assessment correlation reaches the controlled sales continuation	Seamless, privacy-safe lead conversion

How snapshots work

When a visitor interacts with the configurator, the hosted app keeps its working state locally and can persist a full snapshot to a partner-selected service.

Service-based snapshots

Assessment state is stored on a backend service, referenced by ID:

https://yoursite.com/assessment?df_snapshot=snap_abc123

Pros: Clean URLs, full data preserved, supports large assessments Cons: Requires snapshot service endpoint

Configuring snapshots

URL snapshots (default)

URL snapshots work automatically. No configuration needed.

To allow company names in URL snapshots (disabled by default for privacy):

<div
  data-deep-fathom-onramp
  data-partner-id="your-partner-id"
  data-allow-url-pii="true"
></div>

caution

Only enable data-allow-url-pii for internal or demo contexts. Shareable URLs with company names may expose sensitive information.

Service-based snapshots

Point to your snapshot service endpoint:

<div
  data-deep-fathom-onramp
  data-partner-id="your-partner-id"
  data-snapshot-endpoint="https://api.deepfathom.ai/snapshots"
></div>

When configured, the SDK will:

1. Save: POST snapshot data to the endpoint when visitors share or complete
2. Load: GET snapshot data when visitors return via a snapshot URL

Snapshot service API

If you're implementing your own snapshot service, here's the expected contract:

Save a snapshot

POST /snapshots
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "sessionId": "abc123",
  "state": { ... },
  "summary": { ... },
  "attribution": { ... },
  "timestamp": "2025-01-23T14:30:00Z"
}

Response:

{
  "snapshotId": "snap_abc123"
}

Or:

{
  "id": "snap_abc123"
}

Load a snapshot

GET /snapshots/snap_abc123

Response:

{
  "snapshot": {
    "sessionId": "abc123",
    "state": { ... },
    "summary": { ... },
    "attribution": { ... },
    "timestamp": "2025-01-23T14:30:00Z"
  }
}

Or the snapshot object directly:

{
  "sessionId": "abc123",
  "state": { ... },
  ...
}

Controlled sales continuation

Onramp never accepts a partner-configured handoff URL. After the permanent POST /api/deal ingress accepts an idempotent deal, Wheelhouse returns the controlled Platform Commercial continuation:

https://go.deepfathom.ai/contact-sales
  ?service=platform_commercial
  &acquisition_ref=aq_0123456789abcdefghijklmn

The continuation has only the selected service and an opaque acquisition reference matching ^aq_[A-Za-z0-9_-]{24,96}$. Lead PII, assessment answers, partner/referral attribution, session IDs, and snapshot pointers remain in the accepted request body or partner-owned event payloads; none are added to the URL. continueUrl is included in onComplete and onDealRegistered, and Onramp renders the same server-selected link visibly if a popup is blocked.

Loading priority

When a visitor arrives at a page with the configurator, snapshots are loaded in this order:

1. Query parameter (?df_snapshot=...) — Highest priority
2. Local storage — Previous session on same device
3. Fresh start — No snapshot found

This means shared links (with query params) always take precedence over local state.

Privacy considerations

Default behavior

• Share and continuation URLs: Never include lead PII or assessment answers.
• Service snapshots: Full data is preserved (your service controls access).
• Existing allowUrlPii configuration is accepted for deployed embeds but cannot opt into URL-carried PII or assessment answers.

Data included in snapshots

Data type	Share/continuation URL	Service snapshot
Assessment responses	Never	Yes
Company name and contact info	Never	Yes
Attribution and session ID	Never	Yes
Snapshot pointer	Opaque df_snapshot only	Yes

Troubleshooting

Snapshots not saving

1. Check endpoint URL — Verify data-snapshot-endpoint is correct and accessible
2. Check CORS — Your snapshot service must allow requests from the configurator origin
3. Check response format — Service must return { snapshotId: "..." } or { id: "..." }

Snapshots not loading

1. Check URL format — Parameter should be ?df_snapshot=ID; URL hash state is not emitted by the hosted partner flow.
2. Check service availability — GET request must return the snapshot data
3. Check data freshness — Very old snapshots may reference outdated assessment structure

No state in a share URL

• This is intentional: share URLs do not carry assessment answers.
• Enable a snapshot service to share an opaque df_snapshot pointer.

Next steps

• Events reference — Capture snapshot events in your application
• Embedding guide — Configure snapshot endpoints