---
title: Glossary
description: The words Vythos uses, and exactly what each one means here.
---

<span class="vy-eyebrow">Reference</span>

# Glossary

**Ask** — the page inside Vythos where you ask questions in plain language.
Answers come from your rules and your own memory, never from the wider world.
[More](/using-vythos/ask)

**Category** — one of seven kinds of rule: Terms & commitments, Pricing &
rates, How we work, Brand & voice, Who decides, Strategy, Past decisions. A
rule has exactly one. Access is granted per category.
[More](/concepts/categories)

**Client** — a name you added, that rules can be attached to. A client's rule
overrides your house default for that client's work. [More](/concepts/clients)

**Confirmed value** — a value a person has checked and vouched for. A draft
contradicting one is reported as breaking the rule, rather than as worth a
check. [More](/concepts/values)

**Conversation** — a run of questions and answers in Ask, kept so a reload loses
nothing and a follow-up is understood. Readable only by the person who asked.

**Context pack** — what an AI tool receives when it asks for the rules that
apply to a task: the relevant rules in precedence order, their values, and an
account of anything left out.
[More](/ai-tools/what-agents-receive)

**Key** — the credential a tool connects with. It carries the access of the
person who created it. [More](/ai-tools/keys)

**MCP** — the Model Context Protocol, the standard AI tools use to connect to
outside systems. How Claude, Cursor and others reach your Playbook.
[More](/ai-tools/overview)

**Memory** — the searchable text of everything you've connected or uploaded.
Private to each person, and never governing. [More](/concepts/memory)

**Owner** — whoever created the workspace. Today, the only person who adds and
retires rules.

**Playbook** — the set of documents your agency's work must respect. The rules,
organised by category and scope. [More](/concepts/playbook)

**Precedence** — the order rules are ranked in. Scope first (a client's rules
beat house rules), then category. Tools are told the order explicitly.

**Rule** — a document someone named as governing. Not typed-in text: a Drive
file, a Notion page or an upload that Vythos follows.
[More](/concepts/rules-and-documents)

**Retire** — to stand a rule down. It stops reaching people and tools
immediately; its text and history are kept.
[More](/using-vythos/retire-a-rule)

**Replaces** — the tick that says a new document supersedes an existing rule.
Without it, two documents covering the same ground both stay in force.
[More](/concepts/versions)

**Scope** — who a rule governs: *every client*, or one named client. Separate
from permissions, which decide who may *see* it. [More](/concepts/clients)

**Source** — a connected account or upload that feeds memory: Google Drive,
Notion, uploads, your website, GitHub, Gmail. [More](/sources/overview)

**Value** — a figure or list read out of a rule: a day rate, payment terms in
days, words never to use. Sent to tools labelled with what it is, so nothing
has to be inferred from prose. [More](/concepts/values)

**Version** — a rule's number, starting at 1 and rising each time its document
changes wording. Old versions are kept, and a draft is checked against the
version its author was given. [More](/concepts/versions)

**Workspace** — your agency in Vythos: one Playbook, your clients, your people.