External Surveys & Redirect URLs

When your task lives on another platform (a Qualtrics or SurveyMonkey survey, your own product, or a hosted usability test), Terac sends qualified participants to that platform and needs to know how each one finished. Redirect URLs are how the two platforms talk to each other.

This is the most common setup question for teams running their own survey or task tool, so it is worth getting right before you launch.

How It Works

1. A qualified participant clicks through to your survey. Terac appends their submission ID to the task URL.
2. The participant completes (or is screened out of) your survey.
3. At the end, your survey redirects the participant's browser back to Terac's callback URL with the submission ID and a result.
4. Terac records the outcome and moves the submission to Work review, Approved or Rejected, depending on the result and the task's review type.

Step 1: Capture the Submission ID

When Terac forwards a participant to your task URL, it appends these query parameters:

Configure your survey tool to capture teracSubmissionId as a hidden field or embedded data value so you can pass it back at the end. Both teracSubmissionId and submissionId carry the same value, so either one works.

Enter your task link exactly as your survey tool gives it to you. Terac adds the parameters above on the way out, so there is no need to append teracSubmissionId to the link yourself.

Putting the ID in your own parameter

Some tools identify participants through a parameter of their own, and hand you a link with that parameter left blank — for example …&sourceId=terac&sourceParticipantId=. Paste it as-is: a link that ends in an empty parameter gets the submission ID filled into it for each participant.

To place the ID anywhere else — a parameter that is not last, or a segment of the path — write {TERAC_SUBMISSION_ID} where the value belongs:

https://app.example.com/sample/collect?sourceParticipantId={TERAC_SUBMISSION_ID}&sourceId=terac

{TERAC_TASK_ID} works the same way for the task ID. Both work on any link, and the parameters from the table above are still appended alongside your own.

Step 2: Redirect Back on Completion

At the end of your survey, redirect the participant to:

https://terac.com/api/external/callback?teracSubmissionId={{teracSubmissionId}}&result=completed

Replace {{teracSubmissionId}} with the submission ID you captured in Step 1. The same base URL is used for every study, so you only configure it once per survey tool.

Result Values

Set result to match how the participant finished:

If result is omitted, Terac assumes completed.

completed Does Not Mean Approved

A completion redirect tells Terac the work was done, not that it was acceptable. What happens next is set by the task's review type, which is a per-task setting:

Once they have opened your survey, participants also see an I completed the task button on Terac, unless Terac has turned it off for your organization. On a self_report task it approves the submission and pays the participant, with no redirect needed. On the other two it moves the submission to Work review, and on an auto_approve task a completed redirect then approves it.

Reviewing external work before anyone is paid

manual_review is the review type that holds a completed submission for you, and today it is only settable through the API:

{
  "sequence": 1,
  "task_type": "interview",
  "review_type": "manual_review",
  "task_url": "https://…"
}

Send the completed redirect as normal. It moves the submission into Work review, and you approve or reject it yourself, in the dashboard or with POST /submissions/{submissionId}/approve.

An opportunity launched without a screener has to use manual_review on its survey task, unless Terac runs its AI screening interview on it. Everyone who matches its filters reaches your survey, so a redirect alone must never be what pays them. In the dashboard, launching such an opportunity sets its Needs approval tasks to manual_review for you. See Launching Without a Screener.

The callback itself can never approve a manual_review task, whichever way it was created. That part is deliberate: the callback is an unauthenticated browser redirect, and anything a participant's own browser can trigger must not release payment for work you have not seen.

Step 3: Test Your Redirect

Right after you launch, before participants reach your survey, check the redirect yourself. On the opportunity's Task tab, find the task's Redirect URLs and click Run a demo redirect. We open your task link in a new tab with a demo ID added to it, in place of a real submission ID (teracSubmissionId=demo_…). Your redirect sends it back like any other ID, so you don't need to add the demo ID anywhere.

Using the API or MCP? Once the opportunity is live, its response includes links.dashboard.task. Open that link and run the demo there.

Go through your survey and exit the way you want to test. When your tool redirects back, you see either Your redirect works, or what your tool sent and the redirect URL to use instead. Run it again for each exit path.

What Happens Without Redirect URLs

If a participant reaches your survey but Terac never receives a callback, the submission has no completion signal from your tool. It stays In Progress until the participant clicks I completed the task, which moves it to Work review, or approves it on a self_report task.

On an opportunity with redirect URLs enabled, a submission sitting in Work review with no callback evidence is auto-rejected after 6 hours. Setting up the completion redirect is what prevents qualified participants from being auto-rejected and keeps your recruitment moving.

The same 6-hour sweep never approves a manual_review task. One that reached Work review through a completed redirect stays there until you decide, however long you take over it.

Is Redirect URLs Enabled On My Opportunity?

Almost certainly not, unless you asked us to turn it on.

It is a per-opportunity setting that is off by default, and it is not currently self-serve: there is no toggle in the dashboard and no field on the API, so it can only be switched on by Terac. Ask us if you want it.

While it is off, nothing is auto-rejected for a missing callback. A participant who clicks I completed the task without your survey sending them back waits in Work review for you to resolve, and one who never comes back stays In Progress. That is the behaviour to assume unless you have arranged otherwise.

Configuring the completed redirect is worth doing either way. On an auto_approve task it is what approves finished work without you, and on a manual_review task it puts finished participants in front of you without relying on them to click anything.

Setup Checklist

• Your task URL accepts a query parameter and your tool keeps it through to the end of the survey
• Your survey captures teracSubmissionId as hidden / embedded data
• The end-of-survey redirect points to the Terac callback URL with the captured ID
• A completed redirect is configured
• screened_out and quota_full redirects are configured for those exit paths
• A demo redirect shows Your redirect works for each exit path
• You ran a soft launch (a few participants) to confirm completions show up before scaling to your full sample

What's Next?