Glossary: Workflows, Skills, Agents, and Systems

This site uses a practical vocabulary for the work: workflows, skills, agents, systems, projects, references, proof, and the connective tissue between them.

This glossary gives those words a shared meaning on the site. It is not a private operations manual. It is a reader-facing translation layer for terms that show up in articles, project pages, workflow pages, skill pages, and the agent organization map.

This glossary is for quick orientation while reading the site: scan for the term you saw, read the short meaning here, then follow the link when you want the fuller surface.

This page gives plain meanings for public terms you may see around the site. Internal process terms are left out.

Core Site Terms

Workflow

A workflow is a structured process that guides agents through recurring work.

It is more than a checklist. A good workflow explains when to use it, what decisions matter, what proof is needed, and how the next run should improve.

Start with Workflows when you want the fuller process behind recurring agent work.

Skill

A skill is a reusable entry point for a method you use more than once.

It is smaller than a full workflow and more practical than a principle. A skill helps you start the right kind of work without rebuilding the method from scratch: review a page, tighten a draft, inspect a preview, preserve a lesson, or choose the next useful check.

Start with Skills when you want a reusable way into a task.

Agent

An agent is a scoped working role in the operating model.

Here, the word can mean an AI-assisted worker, a role overlay, or a named part of the agent organization. The important part is scope: an agent should have a job, a boundary, and a place in the larger system.

Use Agent Organization when you want to see how the work gets routed.

System

A system is a set of connected parts that changes what is possible.

A system might include people, agents, scripts, workflows, templates, pages, reviews, and feedback loops. The point is not complexity. The point is that the pieces make each other more useful than they would be alone.

Project

A project is a larger body of work with a visible shape.

Projects show what is being built, why it matters, what changed along the way, and how the pieces connect. A project page is usually the map, not every step of the work.

Use Projects when you want the bigger effort behind a set of pages, tools, or decisions.

Article

An article is a reader-facing piece about an idea, decision, lesson, or pattern from the work.

Articles have room for story, argument, examples, and point of view. They should not require private backstory to be useful.

Use Blog when you want the ideas and lessons in essay form.

Reference

A reference is a stable explanation worth finding again.

References are useful when a concept is too small for an article and too explanatory for a project page. They help other pages stay focused because the definition can live in one place.

Knowledge Base

The knowledge base is the lookup layer of the site.

It holds definitions, useful distinctions, short checks, and repeatable explanations. A KB page should make another page easier to understand or make a recurring question easier to answer.

Use Knowledge Base when you want the short answer or the shared definition.

Workbench Terms

Public Workbench

The public workbench is the part of the work that is useful enough to show.

It does not expose the private basement. It translates the useful parts: what changed, what matters, what can be reused, what should be avoided, and where a reader can go next.

Work Map

A work map shows how the pieces connect.

On this site, the map includes articles, projects, workflows, skills, references, agents, systems, and supporting notes. The map should help a reader choose a path without needing the whole history.

Operating Model

An operating model is the way work gets routed and carried.

Here, that includes human direction, active agents, departments, role overlays, workflows, skills, scripts, automations, planned systems, and retired experiments. The public version explains the shape without exposing private coordination details.

Template

A template is a reusable starting shape.

It can be a page structure, content pattern, prompt shape, review form, or implementation scaffold. A good template removes repeated setup without forcing every piece of work to sound or behave the same.

Script

A script is a small executable helper.

Scripts are useful when a repeated check, build step, sync, or conversion should not depend on memory. On the public site, scripts usually matter because they show where repeated manual effort became a safer or faster path.

Automation

Automation is delegated repeated work.

Good automation removes the part that should not require fresh judgment every time. Bad automation hides decisions, makes mistakes faster, or creates work people no longer understand. The useful question is not “can this be automated?” It is “which part should be automated, and what should still require judgment?”

Proof

Proof is evidence that a claim was actually checked.

A route returning 200 proves a different thing than a reader understanding a page. A screenshot proves a different thing than a passing build. Proof language matters because “done” is too vague unless the claim and the check match.

Source Truth

Source truth is the place a claim should come from.

It might be a project file, a workflow, a published page, a source note, or a person’s direction. The key is authority: use the source that owns the claim, not the nearest copy of it.

Review

A review is a judgment pass against a real standard.

Some reviews check whether a page builds. Some check whether a reader can understand it. Some check tone, proof, risk, or usefulness. A review should name what it is checking, because not every pass proves the same thing.

Small Gate

A small gate is a deliberate pause before a bigger mistake.

It can be a direction check before writing, a preview check before publishing, or a quality check before calling something ready. A good gate keeps the work honest without becoming ceremony for its own sake.

Review Surface Terms

Preview

Preview is the working review surface.

Use it for drafts, layout changes, screenshots, and pages that still need judgment. Preview can change while the work is being shaped.

Local Production

Local production is the comparison surface.

It shows what a production-shaped build would show without publishing the public site.

Live Site

The live site is public.

A page being visible in preview or local production does not mean it has been approved for public deployment. Public release is a separate decision.

For the short version, see Preview, Local Production, and Live Site.