> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.zerve.ai/zerve-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.zerve.ai/zerve-docs/getting-started/key-concepts.md).

# Key concepts

The terms used throughout the Zerve docs.

These are the terms used throughout Zerve and these docs.

## Superagents

| Term               | Meaning                                                                                                                         |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Superagent**     | A long-running agent that owns a mission and manages a team of agents working toward it.                                        |
| **Mission**        | The starting prompt a superagent is created from, written in plain language.                                                    |
| **Objective**      | A goal the superagent is working toward. Each objective has a stage, a status and an autonomy level.                            |
| **KPI**            | A measurable success criterion, such as a metric with a target. KPIs can be tied to an objective or stand on their own.         |
| **Autonomy level** | How freely a superagent can make decisions on an objective: Ask me first, Balanced or Full autonomy.                            |
| **Coordinator**    | A member of a superagent's team that manages one branch of the work and delegates to its own team members.                      |
| **Worker**         | A member of a superagent's team that does the hands-on work in its own notebook. Every worker is an Evolve Mode agent.          |
| **Subagent**       | A one-off specialist a superagent runs for a self-contained job, such as research or an independent check.                      |
| **Batch**          | A group of runs a superagent carries out in parallel, such as a tournament between competing approaches.                        |
| **Recommendation** | A decision or input the superagent needs from you. Shown in the app as a decision waiting.                                      |
| **Backlog**        | The superagent's list of open work items.                                                                                       |
| **Artifact**       | A versioned file a superagent's team produces, such as a dataset, model or scored result, that other team members can build on. |
| **Memory**         | What a superagent has learned and decided, kept across conversations.                                                           |
| **Channel**        | A way to reach a superagent from outside Zerve, such as Slack or Telegram.                                                      |

## Agents in the Workspace

| Term            | Meaning                                                                                                                       |
| --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Thread**      | A standalone conversation with an agent.                                                                                      |
| **Agent mode**  | How much the agent does on its own: Ask, Plan, Build or Evolve.                                                               |
| **Evolve Mode** | The most capable agent mode. The agent plans, delegates to specialists in parallel, verifies the results and keeps learnings. |
| **Specialist**  | An agent Evolve Mode delegates to, such as a coding, research or review agent. Also called a subagent.                        |
| **Learnings**   | An agent's persistent notes on a notebook: its objectives, assumptions, approach and research topics.                         |
| **Skill**       | A reusable set of instructions and best practices an agent can follow, written as a SKILL.md file.                            |
| **Sources**     | The research references an agent saves and cites.                                                                             |

## Notebooks and compute

| Term             | Meaning                                                           |
| ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Notebook**     | Where code, data and results live, organized as connected blocks. |
| **Block**        | A single step in a notebook, such as a piece of Python, R or SQL. |
| **Block run**    | A single execution of a block on compute.                         |
| **Compute type** | Where a block runs, such as Lambda, Fargate or a GPU.             |
| **Fleet**        | Zerve's way of running a block many times in parallel.            |
| **Environment**  | The packages and settings a block runs with.                      |

## Assets and administration

| Term             | Meaning                                                                                          |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Asset**        | A reusable item shared across notebooks: a data connection, a constant or secret, or a function. |
| **Organization** | A group of people who share work, assets, settings and a plan.                                   |
| **Credits**      | The unit Zerve uses to measure usage of agents and compute.                                      |


---

# Agent Instructions
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