# List a contact's referrals

> Everyone this person brought in, with the credit state of each referral and the reason when credit was skipped.

Source: https://getlaunchlist.com/help/docs/api/contacts-referrals

---

Requires the `contacts:read` scope.

Who this contact brought in. Each entry is a **full [contact object](/help/docs/api/contacts-retrieve)**,
not a separate referral record. The referral state lives on the contact's own `referral.state`.

The list takes the usual `limit`, `starting_after` and `ending_before` parameters and is ordered
newest first. See [pagination](/help/docs/api/pagination).

## Referral states

`referral.state` describes **this** contact's own inbound referral, meaning how the person who
brought them in was treated.

| State                  | Meaning                                                                                          |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `credited`             | Counted. The referrer moved up                                                                   |
| `pending_verification` | Referred, but credit has not been attempted yet, usually because the new signup has not verified |
| `skipped:{reason}`     | Referred, and credit was deliberately not given. The reason follows the colon                    |
| `null`                 | Nobody referred this person                                                                      |

Every entry in this list was referred by the contact you asked about, so `null` does not appear
here. It does appear on contacts read through other endpoints.

### Skip reasons

| Reason                     | Meaning                                               |
| -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| `skipped:self_referral`    | They used their own code                              |
| `skipped:per_ip_cap`       | Too many signups credited to one IP address already   |
| `skipped:velocity`         | Credits arrived too fast to come from real sharing    |
| `skipped:missing_referrer` | The code did not resolve to a contact on this project |
| `skipped:already_credited` | That credit had been counted once already             |

Treat this as an open set: match on the `skipped:` prefix rather than the full string, so a reason
added later reads as skipped rather than as unknown.

`pending_verification` is the answer to "my friend joined but my count did not go up", the single
most common referral support question, and it usually resolves itself.

See [how referrals work](/help/docs/referrals/how-it-works) for why credit waits for verification.

> [!NOTE] A skipped credit is not reversed from here
> There is no API call that re-credits a skipped referral, and changing a contact's trust tier does
> not do it either. If a skip looks wrong, quote the contact handle and the `Request-Id` to support
> rather than writing code against a behavior that does not exist.

## Next

- [Position](/help/docs/api/contacts-position)
- [How referrals work](/help/docs/referrals/how-it-works)