Caterbum – Frequently Asked Questions

What is a commodity code?

We use the 8‑digit UNSPSC (United Nations Standard Products & Services Code) to classify what you’re buying. It helps buyers, suppliers, and finance teams speak the same language.

How does the lookup tool work?

Your plain‑language prompt is sent to an AI model fine‑tuned on the UNSPSC catalog. The model returns the best‑fit commodity code, the matching North Carolina object code, and—if you choose—definitions, reasoning, and semantic scores.

What’s the difference between Basic, Basic+, Reasoning, and AI Transparency?

Basic gives you just the codes; Basic+ adds official UNSPSC definitions; Reasoning shows how the model arrived at its choice; AI Transparency includes similarity scores, nearest neighbors, and a t‑SNE map.

Do you store my prompts or purchasing data?

We log prompts anonymously for model‑improvement only—no vendor names, prices, or user identifiers are stored. See our full Privacy Notice for details

How is Caterbum different from other UNSPSC finders?

Traditional tools rely on keyword match. We apply semantic search + fine‑tuned LLMs, explain our reasoning, and expose embeddings so you can build your own analytics.