Glossary

Terms used across Cadence docs and the codebase.

Intended audience: Stakeholders, Business analysts, Solution architects, Developers, Testers

Learning outcomes by role

Stakeholders

Look up terms quickly when reviewing decks or contracts referencing Cadence.

Business analysts

Align vocabulary across requirements and support documentation.

Solution architects

Disambiguate integration jargon when comparing to other platforms.

Developers

Navigate to deep dives from glossary entries.

Testers

Build a shared lexicon for test case titles and defects.

Alphabetical reference for jargon used in this documentation. For behavior detail, follow the links to Concepts and Features. Code paths cited as cadence/... map to src/cadence/... in the repository.

A

AI App

One configured agent runtime for an org: framework, mode, plugins, and pool tier—identified by instance_id. In API paths and older code this is still named orchestrator (for example GET /api/orgs/{org_id}/orchestrators/{instance_id}). See AI Apps.

AI agent

User-facing name for a plugin ZIP attached to an AI App: uploaded to an org or system catalog, referenced via active_plugin_ids, and loaded into the pool at runtime. The implementation artifact is still a plugin in APIs and code (/api/.../plugins, BasePlugin). See AI Agent system.

API key (`cdk_`)

Long-lived automation secret stored hashed in PostgreSQL. Callers send it in X-API-KEY; effective access follows the key’s scopes and the owning user’s org memberships. See API keys.

C

Central point

Platform abstraction for a stable routing entry (alias) to an AI App configuration, with optional public visibility—see Central Points.

E

Error code

Stable PREFIX-NNNN identifier in API and engine error payloads (code in JSON). See Error codes.

H

Hot and demand (pool tier)

Controls how eagerly an AI App stays in the process pool—hot instances load at startup; demand instances use the TTL-backed demand pool. See Hot-reload and AI App pool.

J

JWT and `jti`

Access tokens for interactive users are JWTs. The claim jti (JWT ID) is the Redis key used to load the live session; revoking Redis invalidates the token even if the JWT string still verifies. See JWT sessions.

O

Org (tenant)

An organization—the unit of isolation. Data and AI Apps are scoped by org_id. See Multi-tenancy.

P

Plugin

Technical name for the ZIP package format: a BasePlugin subclass that supplies tools to the agent graph. In product documentation this is often called an AI agent; REST paths and code still use plugin (for example /api/orgs/{org_id}/plugins). See AI Agent system and AI Agent SDK.

R

RBAC

Role-based access control: roles carry permission strings (cadence:…) evaluated per org. See Role-based access control.

S

`sys_admin`

Platform superuser flag on the session; bypasses normal org checks where implemented. See Security and access.

T

TokenSession

Redis-backed view of the caller (interactive or API key): user id, permissions, org memberships, and related fields. See JWT sessions and Security and access.

X

`X-ORG-ID`

HTTP header selecting which organization a request targets when the path does not embed {org_id}. See Multi-tenancy.