> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tied.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Glossary

> Customer-experience and AI messaging terms, defined as Tied uses them.

Terms as they are used in these docs and in the product. Where an industry term has a loose general meaning and a precise meaning in Tied, both are given — the gap between them is usually where confusion starts.

For a narrative introduction rather than an A-to-Z, read [Core concepts](/concepts).

***

## A

**A2P** — Application-to-Person messaging. Any message sent by software rather than typed by a human. In the US, A2P SMS over long codes requires [10DLC registration](/channels/sms-mms).

**Account** — Your workspace. Everything else lives inside one: inboxes, contacts, conversations, teams, billing.

**Action** — One call the AI agent made — a knowledge lookup, a read from your CRM, a write to your payment processor. Every action is recorded in a signed audit trail, which is what the [resolution class](/pricing/resolution-pricing) is derived from.

**Agent** — In these docs, always a **person** on your team. The software is an *AI agent*. The industry uses "agent" for both, which is why we don't.

**Agent bot** — A bot registered against an inbox through the API. Distinct from a Tied AI agent. See [Agent bots](/automation/agent-bots).

**AI agent** — The software that reads a conversation, decides what to do, and does it — bounded by the tool scope your plan grants. See [AI agents](/agents).

**AMB** — [Apple Messages for Business](/channels/apple-messages). Branded, interactive conversations inside Apple's Messages app.

**App Clip Code** — An [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages/entry-points) entry point. The customer scans a printed code or AR marker and a conversation opens. Useful on packaging, signage and equipment.

**Apple Business Register** — Apple's account and approval system. You register your brand identity, logo and colours there, and link Tied as your [MSP](#m). Verification typically runs four to six weeks. See [Registering with Apple](/channels/apple-messages/registration).

**Apple Pay (primitive)** — The [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages/rich-feature-messages) primitive that takes a payment inside the thread, authorised with Face ID. No redirect, no checkout page, no card entry.

**Approval chain** — A requirement that a person signs off before the agent performs a given action. Recorded for governance and audit, and deliberately **not** part of any [resolution class](/pricing/resolution-pricing) discriminator — switching one on never raises your price.

**Assignment policy** — The rule deciding who a conversation goes to. See [Assignment policies](/automation/assignment).

## B

**Authentication template** — A [WhatsApp template](/channels/templates) category: one-time passcodes, two-factor prompts, login verification. **Always charged, even inside the service window.**

**Brand verification** — Apple's review of your identity, logo and brand colours before you can send on [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages). Distinct from being live: verification is the identity check, go-live is a separate gate.

**BSP** — Business Solution Provider. Meta's designation for a partner authorised to send on WhatsApp. Tied is a direct BSP, meaning no resold infrastructure between you and WhatsApp.

**BYOK** — Bring Your Own Key. Supplying your own LLM provider keys so you pay the provider directly and Tied never touches that money. Available on every tier. See [Model costs and BYOK](/pricing/model-costs-byok).

## C

**Campaign Registry** — The body that vets 10DLC brand and campaign registrations for US long-code [SMS](/channels/sms-mms). Approval takes days and is mandatory — unregistered A2P traffic is filtered by carriers, silently.

**Carousel** — An [RCS](/channels/rcs) primitive: a horizontally scrollable row of rich cards. A product list inside the thread.

**Carrier** — One of the major US mobile networks. Each applies its own filtering and its own approval rules, independently — which is why an SMS can deliver to one network and vanish on another.

**Channel** — The transport a message travels over — Apple Messages, RCS, SMS, WhatsApp, email, web chat. Distinct from an *inbox*, which is a configured channel.

**Channel fee** — What it costs to **deliver** a message, as opposed to what it costs to **resolve** something. Billed separately and never blended. See [Channel fees](/pricing/channel-fees).

**Click-to-WhatsApp** — A WhatsApp ad or Facebook Page button that opens a WhatsApp conversation when tapped. Opens the [Free Entry Point window](#f), making 72 hours of messaging free.

**Compliance instrument** — An executed legal or audit artefact recorded on your account — a BAA, a PCI attestation, a SOX control attestation — without which the matching class of action is [refused outright](/agents/actions). The gate is the instrument, never the plan.

**Composer** — The one component of an [AI agent](/agents) that writes to the customer. Specialists return structured data; only the composer speaks. This is what makes it structurally impossible for two parts of the agent to contradict each other in a transcript.

**Contact** — One person, identified across channels. The same human texting you and later emailing you should resolve to one contact.

**Conversation** — A thread of messages with one contact in one inbox. Carries a status (`open`, `pending`, `snoozed`, `resolved`) and a priority.

**Corroborator** — Evidence that a silent customer was actually helped: a read receipt, an opened link, a consistent system state change, or a next contact about something else entirely. Required for a [Tier 3 resolution](/pricing/resolutions).

**Credit** — The unit Tied's prepaid balance is denominated in, pegged at ten cents. Fixed, not floating. See [Credits](/pricing/credits).

**CSAT** — Customer Satisfaction score. In Tied it is also a billing signal: a positive response is Tier 1 evidence, and a negative one [voids a billed resolution retroactively](/inbox/csat).

## D

**Deflection** — A question resolved without a human. Often quoted as a headline metric; Tied prefers *resolution*, because deflection counts conversations that ended rather than problems that were solved.

**Deterministic builder** — The code that turns an agent's *intent* ("offer these six choices") into a validated channel payload. The model never writes channel JSON itself. See [how the agent picks a message](/agents/messages).

**Discriminator** — The single mechanical test that assigns a [resolution class](/pricing/resolution-pricing). Evaluated against the action audit trail, not by judgement. A definition without a discriminator is marketing.

## E

**Entry point** — A surface where a customer can start a conversation. AMB has eight, including Apple Maps, Safari search and NFC tags. See [Entry points](/channels/apple-messages/entry-points).

**Escalation ground** — The recorded reason the AI agent handed a conversation to a human. A closed set of seven, one of which — the customer asking for a person — can never be switched off. See [Guardrails and safety](/agents/guardrails).

## F

**Flow** — A scripted conversation path built on the chatbot canvas. Use one where determinism matters; let the agent handle everything else. See [Chatbot](/chatbot).

**Form (primitive)** — The [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages/rich-feature-messages) primitive for multi-page data collection inside Messages: a splash screen, typed fields, validation, and a structured result.

**Free Entry Point window** — WhatsApp's 72-hour window, opened when a customer arrives via a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or Page CTA, in which all messages are free. Structuring acquisition around it routinely cuts WhatsApp costs 60–80%.

## G

**Golden set** — A curated list of real questions with agreed-correct answers, used to gate a publish. Grows automatically: every case worked through the [quality queue](/agents/operations) lands in one, so a failure becomes a permanent regression test.

**Groundedness** — Whether an answer is actually supported by the sources retrieved, rather than merely fluent. Measured separately from confidence, because a model confabulating an answer is not uncertain about it.

**GSM-7** — The standard SMS alphabet. 160 characters per segment. A single emoji or curly quote forces the message into Unicode at 70 characters per segment, which is the most common cause of an unexpectedly large SMS bill.

## H

**Handoff** — An AI agent passing a conversation to a human. **Free** — not reduced, not a routing fee, zero. And once a human messages the customer, that resolution is not billable at all. See [AI-to-human handoff](/inbox/handoff).

**HMAC identity verification** — Signing a user's identifier server-side so the browser cannot forge it, binding a [web chat](/channels/web-chat) conversation to a real contact.

## I

**iMessage app** — The [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages/rich-feature-messages) primitive that embeds your own app surface directly in the conversation. Also called an iMessage extension.

**Inbox** — A configured channel: the channel plus its team, assignment policy, business hours and attached agent. You connect channels; you work in inboxes.

## K

**`knowledge`** — The [resolution class](/pricing/resolution-pricing) where the agent answered from its knowledge base without touching any connected external system. \$0.35. The cheapest class, and where most volume lands.

**Knowledge gap** — A question the agent could not answer, paired with the answer a human then gave. Captured at the moment it happens, because recovering the pair from a closed transcript is lossy. See [the learning loop](/agents/knowledge#the-learning-loop).

## L

**List picker** — The [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages/rich-feature-messages) primitive that sends a native selectable list. The primitive to reach for when a reply drives a branch, because it returns a **stable identifier** rather than only the label the customer saw.

**Long code** — A standard ten-digit phone number used for [SMS](/channels/sms-mms). Requires 10DLC brand and campaign registration. The most common originator for business messaging, and the cheapest.

**`long_horizon_case`** — Work running for weeks or months across many conversations — a claim, dispute, or collections process. Billed as a **case** at negotiated milestones rather than as resolutions. Designated and priced under your Enterprise contract, on negotiated terms.

## M

**Macro** — A reusable set of actions applied to a conversation. Distinct from a canned response, which is reusable text.

**Marketing template** — A [WhatsApp template](/channels/templates) category: promotions, launches, abandoned cart, re-engagement. **Always charged.**

**Message Suggest** — An [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages/entry-points) entry point. Apple offers a Message option instead of a phone number when a customer tries to call you — turning a support call into a thread.

**MRR** — Mean Reciprocal Rank. A [retrieval quality](/agents/knowledge) measure: when the right chunk is found, how near the top of the results it sat. Unrelated to monthly recurring revenue.

**MSP** — Messaging Service Provider. Tied's role in your Apple Business Register account.

**MT / MO** — Mobile-Terminated (outbound, to the handset) and Mobile-Originated (inbound, from it). Carrier rate cards price the two differently.

## N

**NFC tag** — An [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages/entry-points) entry point. The customer taps a physical tag — in store, on packaging, on a machine — and a conversation opens already knowing which object they tapped.

## O

**`orchestrated`** — The [resolution class](/pricing/resolution-pricing) where three or more distinct providers were successfully written in one resolution. \$1.90. Reachable at Advanced, not an Enterprise-only class.

**Orchestration fee** — The flat per-resolution fee set by the resolution's class. One of the two numbers on your invoice; the other is LLM cost.

## P

**Pooled corpus** — The anonymised, aggregated training data drawn across accounts. **Anonymised tier only** — raw data is never pooled, on any plan. See [Evaluation](/agents/evaluation).

**Portal** — One published Help Center site: name, slug, branding, optionally a custom domain.

**Product catalog** — A [WhatsApp](/channels/whatsapp) primitive sending single or multi-product messages drawn from a catalog you keep at Meta.

**Prompt injection** — An attempt to smuggle instructions to the agent through untrusted content — a customer message, or a page it retrieved. Tied's defence is structural before it is statistical: tool authorization reads account entitlements only, never conversation content, so a successful injection still cannot reach a tool the account does not hold. See [Guardrails and safety](/agents/guardrails).

## Q

**Quality rating** — Meta's health score for your [WhatsApp](/channels/whatsapp) number, derived from customer blocks and reports. A fall here cuts your messaging limit and can suspend the number. Visible on the inbox's **Account Health** tab.

**Quick reply** — A tappable canned response. On AMB, the `key` you send is **not** returned — only the label text — which makes the label your matching identifier. See [Known limitations](/channels/apple-messages/limitations).

## R

**RBM** — RCS Business Messaging, Google's platform for verified business senders on [RCS](/channels/rcs).

**RCS** — Rich Communication Services. The successor to SMS, built into Google Messages, supporting rich cards, carousels and verified senders.

**`read`** — The [resolution class](/pricing/resolution-pricing) where the agent looked something up in a connected external system. \$0.50.

**recall\@5** — A [retrieval quality](/agents/knowledge) measure: how often the right chunk appears in the top five results for a labelled question. Reported as a number, not asserted.

**Receipt** — The per-resolution record showing the transcript reference, the signal tier and specific corroborator relied on, the class and its discriminator, the orchestration fee, the itemised model cost, and a one-click dispute. It is the enforcement mechanism for everything Tied claims about pricing.

**Resolution** — A customer's problem actually going away, evidenced by a positive signal. **Not** a closed conversation, not a reply. Most conversations do not produce one. See [What counts as a resolution](/pricing/resolutions).

**Resolution class** — Which of the seven classes a billable resolution falls into. Six are derived mechanically from the action audit trail; `long_horizon_case` is set in your Enterprise contract.

**Rich card** — An [RCS](/channels/rcs) primitive: image, title, description and tappable buttons in one card.

**Rich link** — The [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages/rich-feature-messages) primitive for a link with a preview image or video. The only Apple primitive that accepts video.

**Router** — The cheapest model in an [AI agent](/agents), running on every turn. It reads the conversation, picks the intent, and decides which specialists to call.

## S

**Sandbox** — Talking to your agent as a customer would, against real knowledge and real connected apps, with writes disabled. All sandbox traffic is flagged as test and never bills. See [Training studio](/agents/studio).

**Segment** — The SMS billing unit. 160 GSM-7 characters or 70 Unicode. A long message costs several.

**Service window** — WhatsApp's 24-hour period, opened by a customer message, in which free-form replies are free. Resets with every new customer message.

**Short code** — A five- or six-digit number for high-volume [SMS](/channels/sms-mms). Highest throughput, requires carrier vetting, and costs substantially more than a long code.

**Signal tier** — Which of the four evidence tiers justified billing a resolution: explicit confirmation, system-verified outcome, corroborated silence, or never-billable. See [What counts as a resolution](/pricing/resolutions).

**SLA** — Service Level Agreement. Response and resolution targets, with defined behaviour on breach. See [SLA policies](/automation/sla).

**Specialist worker** — One component of an [AI agent](/agents), owning a tool subset, a model tier and its own test suite. Returns structured data to the composer; never writes to the customer directly.

**Suggested action** — An [RCS](/channels/rcs) primitive offering a button that does something outside the thread: open a URL, dial a number, share or view a location, create a calendar event.

**Suggested reply** — An [RCS](/channels/rcs) primitive offering tappable replies so the customer keeps moving without typing.

## T

**Tier A / Tier B** — The two tiers personal data is held in. **Tier A** is raw and scoped to your account alone, held in your region. **Tier B** is anonymised and aggregated, and is the only tier used for anything cross-account. See [Guardrails and safety](/agents/guardrails).

**Time picker** — The [Apple Messages](/channels/apple-messages/rich-feature-messages) primitive that offers appointment slots and returns the chosen one as structured data rather than as text to parse.

**Toll-free number** — A 1-800-style number for [SMS](/channels/sms-mms). Higher throughput than a long code and faster to set up — no campaign registry — so it is the choice when speed matters more than cost.

**Tool floor** — The hard limit on which tools are ever loaded for your agent to see: only integrations you have connected and are entitled to. Enforced outside the model, before inference — a tool the model cannot see is a tool it cannot be talked into calling.

**Tool scope** — What your AI agent is *able* to touch in your connected systems, set by your plan and your integrations and enforced at the point of action. Distinct from instructions, which shape behaviour but grant no capability.

**Typed commitment** — A promise the agent makes as a **typed field** rather than free text — a refund amount, a date, an entitlement — which Tied validates against your real policy before anything is sent. The one control that makes a wrong model output harmless rather than merely less likely.

## U

**Utility template** — A [WhatsApp template](/channels/templates) category: order updates, shipping notices, confirmations. **Free inside the service window**, charged outside it.

## V

**Verified sender** — Your logo, brand colour and verification badge on [RCS](/channels/rcs), proving to the customer the message is genuinely from you.

**Version (agent)** — A published snapshot of an agent's configuration and knowledge. Every publish creates one and runs the evaluation suite; rollback is one click. See [Training studio](/agents/studio).

**Void window** — The period in which a billed resolution can be reversed. 30 days if the same issue reopens; **retroactive with no time limit** for negative feedback. Credits post automatically.

## W

**WABA** — WhatsApp Business Account. Volume tier discounts accrue across all WABAs you own, never pooled across Tied's other customers.

**Watcher** — A rule that wakes the agent when state changes in one of your connected systems — a failed payment, a stalled shipment — so it can reach out before the customer notices. See [Proactive outreach](/agents/proactivity).

**Webview** — An [RCS](/channels/rcs) primitive embedding a browser surface inside the conversation, so a checkout or a configuration step happens without leaving Messages.

**WhatsApp Flows** — Multi-screen forms and workflows completed entirely inside a [WhatsApp](/channels/whatsapp) thread.

**`write_financial`** — The [resolution class](/pricing/resolution-pricing) where money moved. \$0.95.

**`write_simple`** — The [resolution class](/pricing/resolution-pricing) where something changed but no money moved. \$0.70.

***

## Next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Core concepts" icon="shapes" href="/concepts">
    The same vocabulary as a narrative rather than a lookup.
  </Card>

  <Card title="What counts as a resolution" icon="circle-check-big" href="/pricing/resolutions">
    The term that carries the most weight, in full.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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