Glossary
The words used across these docs, defined in a sentence or two, with a link to the page that covers each one in depth.
A
- Agent
- An AI worker that calls a model, reasons, and uses a scoped set of tools within a credit budget it cannot exceed. It can run inside a workflow as an Agent node or on its own. See Agents.
- Application
- A workflow that has an entry interface, used as a web app by the people you share it with. See Interfaces & apps.
B
- Budget
- The maximum number of credits an agent may spend. A sub-agent's budget is reserved from its parent's, so the whole tree is capped by the top budget. See Agents.
C
- Chat channel
- An external messaging app linked to your account, where agents can reach you outside LiveContext. See Chat channels.
- Cloud
- The managed LiveContext service, with plans, credits, and multiple organizations. Compare with Community Edition.
- Cloud link
- An optional connection from a self-hosted instance to a cloud account. It unlocks the shared marketplace, cloud-hosted models, and model catalog updates. See Self-hosting.
- Community Edition (CE)
- The self-hosted edition you run on your own infrastructure. It runs the same workflow engine as the cloud. See Self-hosting.
- Credential
- A saved secret (an OAuth connection, an API key, a password) that lets a node act on a third-party service on your behalf. Credentials never travel with a marketplace publication. See Integrations.
- Credit
- The unit LiveContext uses to meter work that costs money, such as model calls and media generation. See Plans & billing.
D
- Decision
- A control node that takes exactly one branch: the first condition that matches (
if,elseif_N) orelse. See Node reference.
E
- Edge
- A connection from one node to another. It sets the order of execution only; it does not carry data. See Workflows.
- Epoch
- One firing of a trigger inside a run. Each fire opens a new epoch, and the results of every epoch stay browsable. See Runs & execution.
- Expression
- A template such as
{{mcp:fetch_user.output.email}}that reads a value produced earlier in the run. See Expressions & variables.
F
- FileRef
- The object that stands for a stored file in node outputs (name, path, type, size). Pass it whole to a node that takes a file. See Files & storage.
- Fork
- Running several branches in parallel. It happens with a Fork node or whenever a node has more than one outgoing edge. See Workflows.
I
- Integration
- A third-party service (an API) you can call from a workflow or an agent once you have connected a credential for it. See Integrations.
- Interface
- A web page (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) that shows workflow data and collects input. In a workflow it can hold back the steps after it until the user continues. See Interfaces & apps.
- Iteration
- One pass through a loop body, counted from 0 within the epoch. In Logs, a row's ID reads
epoch.spawn.iteration.item, so20.0.2is loop iteration 2 of epoch 20. See Runs & execution.
L
- Label
- The name you give a node. It is normalized into the node key (lowercase, accents removed, every other character turned into
_), so My API Call becomesmy_api_call. - Loop
- A control node that repeats its body until its exit condition is met. The last step of the body connects back into the loop's
iterateinput. See Node reference.
M
- Marketplace
- The catalog where people publish complete automations (workflow, agents, interfaces, tables, files) and others fork them. See Marketplace.
- MCP
- Model Context Protocol, the open standard AI clients use to call tools. LiveContext exposes its tools to external MCP clients. See MCP server.
- Merge
- Waiting for every incoming branch before continuing. It happens with a Merge node or whenever a node has more than one incoming edge. Edges from triggers are not a merge: a node fed by several triggers runs once on each trigger run, without waiting for the other triggers. See Workflows.
N
- Node
- One step of a workflow, identified by a key of the form
prefix:label. The prefix (trigger:,mcp:,agent:,core:,table:,interface:,note:) tells you its kind. See Node reference.
O
- Organization
- A workspace with members and roles. Every account has a personal one, and a team shares one; resources created in it belong to that workspace. See Organizations & roles.
P
- Pin
- Marking one version of a workflow as the one its production triggers (webhooks, schedules, public chat and form links, table events, chained workflows) run. See Triggers.
- Port
- A named output of a branching node, written
core:label:port, for examplecore:check:if. Each port leads to one successor. See Workflows.
R
- Run
- One execution of a workflow. It records the status and output of every step and stays browsable. See Runs & execution.
S
- Signal
- A point where a node waits, with the steps after it, until something happens: a timer, an approval, a webhook, a user action on an interface, a background agent run, or a Browser Agent takeover. See Runs & execution.
- Skill
- A reusable set of instructions an agent loads when a task calls for it. See Skills.
- Spawn
- A re-execution of nodes within the same epoch, produced by re-running a step. Re-running raises the spawn, never the epoch; a loop pass is counted by the iteration instead. See Runs & execution.
- Split
- A node that fans a list out into one parallel branch per item. Inside the branch,
{{item}}is the current item. See Node reference. - Step-by-step mode
- An execution mode that pauses after each node so you can advance one step at a time, useful for debugging. The default is automatic mode. See Runs & execution.
- Studio
- The place where you generate images, video, and audio from a prompt. See Studio.
- Switch
- A control node that compares a value with a list of cases and runs the first match (
case_N) ordefault. See Node reference.
T
- Table
- A built-in spreadsheet with a flexible schema that workflows and agents read and write. See Tables & data.
- Trigger
- The node that starts a run: a webhook, a schedule, a chat message, a form, a manual click, a table change, another workflow, or an error. See Triggers.
V
- Version
- A saved state of a workflow, agent, skill, interface, table or project, recorded each time it changes, that you can view and restore as far back as your plan opens. A workflow's runs execute a specific version, and you pin the one that serves production. See Version history and Workflows.
W
- Workflow
- An automation: a graph of nodes joined by edges, started by one or more triggers. See Workflows.