1What FoxPlug reads from Microsoft Clarity
These are the exact things it reads, and nothing else.
| What | The details it takes |
|---|---|
| Sessions and users | totalSessionCount, totalBotSessionCount, distinctUserCount and pagesPerSessionPercentage from the Traffic metric |
| Engagement time | totalTime and activeTime from the Engagement Time metric; active time divided by sessions becomes a mean seconds per session, flagged as a mean |
| Scroll depth | averageScrollDepth from the Scroll Depth metric |
| Rage clicks | sessions with the metric and the percentage of sessions |
| Dead clicks | sessions with the metric and the percentage of sessions |
| Quickbacks | sessions with the metric and the percentage of sessions |
| Excessive scroll, script errors, error clicks | sessions and percentage for each |
| Frustrated clicks by page | for the friction card, a second read with the URL dimension: metric name (RageClickCount, DeadClickCount, QuickbackClick), page path and sessionsCount; Clarity gives the page, never the element |
2Moments it finds, and what each becomes
A moment is one thing that happened in Microsoft Clarity worth a second look. Each one is scored, then it becomes a post, a changelog entry, a thing to fix or an idea to email, or it is skipped.
Rage-click or quickback rate is high while real sessions arrive
The moment is titled like this: No milestone is written. The brain is told: 'UX FRICTION (Microsoft Clarity, real): 420 sessions, 390 users, 1.2 pages/session. Rage-clicks 6% of sessions, dead-clicks 9%, quickbacks 4%.'
Clarity reports 420 sessions in the last 3 days with rage clicks on 6 percent of them. The brain is instructed to call that a satisfaction disconnect and aim the action at the friction, not at getting more traffic. The numbers here are an example.
Frustrated clicks pile up on one page
The moment is titled like this: Friction row: kind (rage, dead or quickback), page path, sessions
Clarity gives 14 sessions of dead clicks on /pricing. If the read is from the last 8 days and a deploy or commit was made from 3 days before to 1 day after the problem first appeared, it becomes a fix line pointing at that change. Page and numbers are an example.
Visitors reach a page, scroll under 35 percent and rarely open a second page
The moment is titled like this: Traffic board question: 'People are arriving and leaving without reading. Is the landing page saying the wrong thing, or the right thing to the wrong people?'
Average scroll depth 28 percent and 1.2 pages per visit trips the card, which offers a button that reads your own landing page once. Needs scroll under 35 and pages per session under 1.5.
At least 40 percent of measured sessions were bots
The moment is titled like this: Traffic board question: '45% of the visits measured were automated, not people...'
Clarity reports 200 human and 160 bot sessions (44 percent bots); the card offers to show the human-only numbers from figures already pulled.
3How the brain uses it
The rules below are the ones that apply to Microsoft Clarity. The same rules, with worked examples, are on the brain page.
- Nothing is read until the owner presses Build the brief (Today) or Refresh on the traffic board; a failed pull leaves the last real numbers on screen. How the brain decides
- Reads are read-only: FoxPlug never changes anything in the analytics tool. How the brain decides
- Clarity friction (rage and dead clicks) is used only when the read is from the last 8 days and matched to a deploy or commit; it becomes a fix line. How the brain decides
- A connected but empty pull is stated as no traffic yet, so no friction is inferred. How the brain decides
4Set up Microsoft Clarity in a few steps
Access: Data Export API token created by a project admin. What to give it: a Clarity Data Export API token, created by a project ADMIN (Settings, Data Export, Generate new API token).
- Open clarity.microsoft.com with this website's project open; you must be an admin on it.
- Select Settings, then the Data Export tab.
- Click Generate new API token.
- Name it (4 to 32 characters: letters, numbers, hyphen, underscore, full stop; no spaces).
- Copy the token and paste it into FoxPlug's Data Export API token box (not the project ID).
5Limits worth knowing
Where it stops, so nothing surprises you.
- Clarity returns only the last 3 days (numOfDays=3), so this is a rolling recent read, not a history
- Clarity allows about 10 export requests per project per day; one call per pull
- No pageview total and no bounce rate: both are left empty rather than derived
- No daily list, so the rising or falling arrivals question never appears for Clarity
- If the daily limit is hit while connecting, it still connects and pulls later
- Pull only when the owner presses; nothing is fetched in the background
6What it never reads
Read only means read only, and the list below is what the code leaves alone.
- Session recordings, heatmap images or individual visitor records (the pull asks only for aggregate metrics)
- Anything outside the one Clarity project the token belongs to
7How Microsoft Clarity differs from the tools next to it
Clarity is the only tool in this group that reports behaviour (rage clicks, dead clicks, quickbacks, scroll depth, bot sessions) instead of visit totals. It gives no pageview total, no bounce rate and no daily series, and covers only the last 3 days, where Plausible, Fathom, Umami, Matomo, GA4 and the rest cover 30. Its friction rows also feed the friction card alongside PostHog.
8Questions
Does FoxPlug read my Clarity session recordings?
No. The pull calls the Data Export API's live-insights service, which returns counts and percentages such as sessions, rage clicks, dead clicks and scroll depth. Nothing in the code requests recordings.
Why does FoxPlug only see 3 days of Clarity?
Clarity's export returns the last 1 to 3 days only, and allows about 10 requests per project per day. FoxPlug asks for 3 days. Older days cannot be backfilled.
Which token do I paste?
The Data Export API token from Settings, Data Export, made by a project admin. It is not your Clarity project ID.
FoxPlug reads this tool only when you press Check for what's new, and only to read. Plans and limits are on the pricing page. Questions: support.