# Analyze your inbound RTB traffic — in the dashboard, via API, or by asking an AI assistant

## Why this matters

We've seen the questions. We've seen the struggle. 1M requests and 152 calls. What is happening with these RTB requests?

Real-time bidding is inherently hard to reason about: dozens of buyers responding in
milliseconds, for duplicate requests, from many publishers, revenue/payout math all interacting on every single inbound call. When a campaign's RTB
numbers look off, you need to slice that log fast — by campaign, by publisher, by status. The [RTB Dashboards 2.0](https://learn.retreaver.com/news/announcing-rtb-dashboard-20) provides all this but sometimes you just need to put the data in an external tool and start asking it questions. Questions that most of the time are already answered on the Retrewaver Dashboard, but hey - we are not going to stop you and we would even try to help you get this data to an external tool and analyse it there. If you find something helpful and interesting that you otherwise don't see on the Retreaver Dashboard, please, let us know.

![Screenshot 2026 08 31 at 14.40.27](/media/86/86aa168a6e4f603e96519b5f6499a41376b65e4cb9beeaaf9fd1ad44000cee6c.png)
This release makes the inbound RTB log queryable the same way our other high-volume logs already are, across three surfaces, so you can go from "something looks wrong" to "here's why" a lot
faster.

We're also opening this data up to external tools and LLMs, via API and MCP, on purpose.
RTB tuning and configuration has historically proven, to sometimes needed someone who already knew where to look; connecting the
log to an AI assistant (or your own analytics tooling) means anyone on your team can point a
model at it and ask "why did this campaign's bid rate drop" or "which publishers are doing funny things" — and get an answer without having to be the one who knows the schema.

## What's new

- **Drill-down tables for inbound RTB.** The `/rtb_inbounds` log now has the same
  pivot/rollup drill-down experience as Calls and Fired Pixels: group by campaign, publisher,
  target, status, duplicate/original, and more, and get rollup metrics (bid vs. no-bid,
  revenue/payout sums, ping-shield estimates, average and winning bid) per group in one pass
  instead of scrolling the raw log.
- **CSV export.** An Export button is now available on the inbound RTB log and drill-down
  tables, matching the export you already use on Fired Pixels. It generates the complete
  filtered result set as a downloadable file, no row limit and no manual paging.
  You can find the CSV Export button on the Log section of the dashboard
  ![Screenshot 2026 08 31 at 17.21.15](/media/be/bea6f50e73d824d8b8824ccb7c01dfcb5200c310d4733e75bf5687738b4215f4.png)
  > In the exported CSV, the caller number is replaced with a short one-way token instead of
  > the real number (the same caller always gets the same token, but the token can't be
  > reversed back into a number). This is intentional, to keep bulk exports from becoming a
  > way to mine caller phone numbers out of the system. If you have a legitimate use case that
  > needs the real caller number in an export, get in touch with support and we can talk
  > through it.
- **API and MCP access.** Both the raw log and the drill-down/rollup view are now available
  as a JSON API and as MCP tools, so you (or an AI assistant on your behalf) can query and
  analyze inbound RTB programmatically, not just through the dashboard.
- This is the first of two releases in this series — **Payout Bid Modification Tables** get
  the same treatment (drill-down + export + API/MCP) in an upcoming release.

## How to use it

**Browser.** Visit `retreaver.com/v2/rtb_inbounds_dashboard` ([link](https://retreaver.com/v2/rtb_inbounds_dashboard)). Apply your
filters, then click Export to generate a CSV — this works the same way as the existing Calls export.

**API.** For a bounded, ad-hoc look at recent rows, use the index endpoint:

```bash
curl "https://api.retreaver.com/v5/rtb_inbounds?api_key=$API_KEY&campaign_id[]=123&created_at=last_2d"
```

> ⚠️ **Don't use `/api/v5/rtb_inbounds` (or `/v2`–`/v4`) to pull bulk data.** This endpoint is
> capped at 100 rows per page by design — it's meant for spot-checks and small windows, not
> for walking the whole log page by page. If you need the complete result set for a date
> range, use the export endpoint instead:

```bash
# Start the export
curl -X POST \
  -d "api_key=$API_KEY" -d "export[format]=csv" -d "export[params][campaign_id][]=123" \
  -d "export[params][created_at]=last_2d" \
  "https://api.retreaver.com/api/v5/exports/rtb_inbounds"

# Poll until it's done, then download
curl "https://api.retreaver.com/api/v5/exports/rtb_inbounds/{id}?api_key=$API_KEY"
```

`created_at` (used the same way on the index endpoint above) only accepts relative window
tokens like `last_2d`/`last_1w`/`today`. For an explicit date/range instead of a rolling
window, drop `created_at` and pass `created_at_start` / `created_at_end` (or
`report[params][created_at_start]` / `_end]` for the export) as ISO 8601 timestamps instead,
e.g. `created_at_start=2026-08-01T00:00:00Z`.

The export writes the entire filtered result set to a file for you to download, no matter
how large — you're not limited to 100 rows at a time, and you're not making dozens of
requests to collect it.

**MCP.** Three tools are now available to any MCP-connected assistant:

- `rtb_inbounds.read` — list/filter the raw log
- `rtb_inbound_drill_down_tables.read` — the same grouped rollup view as the dashboard
- `exports.rtb_inbounds.manage` — create and poll a full CSV export

Ask your assistant something like "what's our duplicate rate on inbound RTB for campaign X
this week" and it can pull the answer directly — including reaching for the export tool
automatically instead of paging through results when you need the complete set.

Here is an example conversation
```

```

## Permissions

All three surfaces (dashboard, API, MCP) require **superuser access** and the
**real-time bidding** feature to be enabled on your account. Without both, you'll get a
`403 Forbidden` (API/MCP) or won't see the pages in the dashboard. If you believe you should
have access, reach out to your account manager.