> For the full page index, fetch https://echonova.ai/llms.txt

# Glossary

Every word the portal and these docs use with a meaning of its own, in alphabetical order, one or two sentences each, with the page that explains it in full.

The portal and these docs use a small set of words with a fixed meaning. This
page defines each one in a sentence or two and links the page that explains
it in full. Look a word up here when a page uses it before it explains it,
or when two pages seem to use it differently.

## A

**Agent.** One saved configuration that answers people on your behalf. It
holds a persona, a model, one or more voices, the knowledge it may quote from,
the tools it may call, and the channels it can be reached on. An idle agent costs nothing; a conversation is charged for its connected time and its AI usage.
[What is an agent](/docs/agents/what-is-an-agent).

**Allowance.** The plan credits a workspace receives each month, shown on the plan card as credits every month, and the knowledge storage the plan grants. Unused credits roll over up to three times the allowance; the storage is a ceiling the workspace stays under.
[Credits, top-ups and rollover](/docs/account/credits-top-ups-rollover).

**API key.** The secret your own backend sends as a bearer token on every
Developer API request. It starts with `ek_`, is shown once when created, and
belongs to one workspace.
[Get an API key](/docs/developers/get-an-api-key).

**Archived.** The status an agent holds after **Pause Agent**. An archived
agent cannot be edited or tested from the portal and does not count toward
the plan's agent limit; **Restore** makes it active again.
[Agent status](/docs/agents/agent-status).

**Assets.** The page that records every Text to Speech generation and every
Speech to Text transcript made from the portal in the
workspace, newest first, with play, download and recreate on each item.
[Assets and history](/docs/playground/assets-and-history).

**Auth connection.** A saved credential with an authentication method
attached, basic, bearer or OAuth2, that a tool uses to produce its own
`Authorization` header. Save it once and attach it to every tool that calls
that API. [Auth connections](/docs/agents/auth-connections).

**Auto top up.** A rule that buys a batch of extra credits for the workspace
whenever the balance falls below a threshold you set, charged to the card on
the subscription, within a monthly limit you set.
[Credits, top-ups and rollover](/docs/account/credits-top-ups-rollover#auto-top-up-rules).

## B

**Basic limits.** The limits a workspace has with no paid plan, after a cancellation or an unpaid renewal: no plan credits, the Free Trial plan's feature limits, and extra credits still usable. The Subscription page reads **No paid plan, basic limits**. [Credits, top-ups and rollover](/docs/account/credits-top-ups-rollover#with-no-paid-plan).

**Binding.** The link between one channel and the one agent that answers on
it. A connected account is bound to exactly one agent; **Assign to another
agent** moves the binding, and the next message opens a conversation with the
new agent. [Channels overview](/docs/agents/channels-overview).

## C

**Channel.** A place your customers already are, connected to one of your
agents: a WhatsApp number, a Slack workspace, a phone number, a helpdesk
account. Every message or call that arrives on it becomes a conversation with
that agent. [Channels overview](/docs/agents/channels-overview).

**Chunk.** One passage a knowledge source was split into when it was
indexed. The **Chunks** column shows how many a ready source has; a very low
count means very little text could be read from it.
[How knowledge works](/docs/agents/knowledge-overview).

**Conversation.** One call or one chat an agent handled, kept with its
transcript and the numbers measured while it ran. Every conversation belongs
to exactly one agent and is listed on that agent's **Conversations** tab.
[Find and read a conversation](/docs/agents/conversations).

**Conversation tag.** A label the workspace curates and puts on
conversations. Tags belong to the workspace, not to an agent, so one tag can
sit on conversations from every agent you run.
[Tag a conversation](/docs/agents/conversation-tags).

**Credit.** The unit usage is paid in, from one balance. A generation, a transcription or a cleanup costs a fixed number of credits, taken before the work runs and returned if it fails; AI usage is the provider's price plus 10%, turned into credits.
[Core concepts](/docs/get-started/concepts#credits).

**Credit limit.** An optional ceiling on one API key: the credits it may
spend per billing cycle. A Text to Speech call that would cross it is refused
with **429 Monthly spending limit exhausted**.
[Get an API key](/docs/developers/get-an-api-key).

**Credits History.** The list on the **Payment History** page that shows
every credit consumed or refunded: what each speech job cost, whether it was
refunded, and the balance after it.
[Track your credit usage](/docs/account/usage).

## D

**Database connection.** A read-only connection to your own database,
registered once so an agent can answer callers from live data. It is not a
row in the tool library; the agent reaches it through the questions you
approve. [Connect a database](/docs/agents/database-tools-connect).

**Database question.** One read-only query, drafted from your schema and
checked against your database, that the agent may run with parameters it
fills in. Nothing reaches a conversation until you approve it.
[Review and approve database questions](/docs/agents/database-tools-templates).

**Developer API.** The HTTPS API your own systems call for Text to Speech and
Speech to Text, authenticated with an API key and billed in credits against
the workspace. [Developer API overview](/docs/developers/overview).

**Dialect.** The accent a voice speaks in. Every voice speaks exactly one, so
you choose a voice and its dialect comes with it; **Fusha** is Modern
Standard Arabic and the others are the speech of one country.
[Dialects](/docs/playground/dialects).

**Diacritics (tashkeel).** The marks that fix how an Arabic word is
pronounced. The **Tashkeel** switch on Text to Speech marks a passage before
an Arabic voice reads it, keeping any marks you typed yourself.
[Add diacritics](/docs/playground/add-diacritics).

**Diacritization.** The **Tashkeel** control, **ON** or **OFF**, on an
agent's voice that adds diacritics to the text before it is spoken. It
appears on every voice except English ones.
[Voices and language](/docs/agents/voice-and-language).

## E

**Extra credits.** Credits bought with a top-up, by you or by auto top up. Each batch never expires, survives a plan change or a cancellation, works with no paid plan, and is spent only when the plan credits cannot cover a charge. [Credits, top-ups and rollover](/docs/account/credits-top-ups-rollover).

## F

**Folder.** A group of sources inside the knowledge library. Selecting a
folder for an agent is a live reference, so anything you drop into that
folder later reaches the agent with no further change.
[Organize knowledge in folders](/docs/agents/knowledge-folders).

**Fusha.** Modern Standard Arabic, understood across the region. It is the
dialect the API's `tashkeel` option applies to.
[Dialects](/docs/playground/dialects).

## G

**Generation.** One piece of speech made from text on the Text to Speech
page or through the API. Every generation made in the portal is kept in the
**History** panel and on **Assets** until you delete it, and replaying it
costs nothing.
[Text to Speech history](/docs/playground/tts-history).

**Greeting message.** The first line the agent says when a conversation
starts, written on the **Persona** tab. It may be left empty.
[Write the persona](/docs/agents/persona).

## H

**Handoff.** The moment the agent stops and a person takes over. On Zendesk,
Zoho Desk, Intercom and Genesys Cloud chat the agent marks the ticket or
conversation for your team and goes quiet; on every other channel the persona
has to carry the customer to a person in words.
[Human handoff](/docs/agents/human-handoff).

## I

**Integration.** A provider you connect once so that its ready-made actions
become tools your agents can call, such as the calendar tools of a connected
Google account or **Send SMS** on a connected Twilio number. Integration
tools carry their own credentials, so there is nothing to configure per
call. [Tools overview](/docs/agents/tools-overview).

## J

**Job.** One asynchronous Text to Speech or Speech to Text request on the
API. A job moves through four statuses, `pending`, `processing`, `completed`
and `failed`, and you read its result from the job endpoint or through a
webhook. [Synchronous and asynchronous calls](/docs/developers/sync-vs-async).

## K

**Knowledge source.** Material an agent can quote from: a file you upload,
text you paste, or a web page or site you point the library at. Sources
belong to the workspace, each agent picks the ones it may use, and only a
source at **Ready** is used. [How knowledge works](/docs/agents/knowledge-overview).

## M

**Model.** The one model that thinks for an agent, chosen on the **Voice**
tab under **Model**. On models that support it you also set how hard it
reasons before it answers.
[Choose a model and reasoning effort](/docs/agents/model-and-reasoning).

## N

**Notification.** A message the portal sends you in the bell in the header:
a knowledge source finishing or
failing, a payment succeeding or failing, a voice session ending for lack of
credits. [Read your notifications](/docs/account/notifications).

## O

**OpenAPI tool.** One imported Swagger or OpenAPI document. The whole API
becomes a single row in the tool library, and the agent finds the right
operation inside it during a conversation.
[OpenAPI tools](/docs/agents/openapi-tools).

**Operation.** One record inside an OpenAPI tool, one per operation in the
imported document, with its own auth mode, fixed values and enable switch.
[OpenAPI tool operations](/docs/agents/openapi-tool-operations).

## P

**Persona.** The tab that holds who the agent is in your workspace, how it
speaks, and the first line it says. It changes an agent's behaviour more
than any other tab. [Write the persona](/docs/agents/persona).

**Personality.** The prompt. It is the one box the model reads word for
word, and every wording rule an agent follows comes from it: its identity,
its scope, its tone, what it refuses and when it hands over.
[Write the persona](/docs/agents/persona).

**Plan.** The subscription a workspace runs on: a trial with no time limit to begin
with, then the paid plan you choose on monthly or yearly billing. The plan
card lists its credits, agents, storage, API keys and services.
[Choose or change your plan](/docs/account/plans-and-subscription).

**Plan credits.** The credits a plan grants every month. They are spent first, and what is left rolls over when the same plan renews, up to three times the allowance. [Credits, top-ups and rollover](/docs/account/credits-top-ups-rollover).

**Playground.** A real conversation with your agent started from the portal
with **Test**, by **Chat** or by **Call**, instead of from a channel. It runs
the same agent a customer would reach and is charged the same way.
[Test your agent](/docs/agents/test-your-agent).

**Preview.** The short clip most voices in the library carry, played from
the orb on the voice row so you can hear the voice before you use it.
[Browse the voice library](/docs/playground/voice-library).

## R

**Reasoning effort.** How hard the model reasons before it answers, set on
the **Voice** tab for models that support it: **Default**, **Minimal**,
**Low**, **Medium** or **High**. Higher effort can improve quality and adds
latency. [Choose a model and reasoning effort](/docs/agents/model-and-reasoning).

**Recovery code.** The one code you save when you turn on two-factor
authentication, for signing in when the authenticator app is not to hand.
[Two-factor authentication](/docs/account/two-factor-authentication).

**Relevance threshold.** The retrieval setting that decides how closely a
passage must match the turn before the agent may use it. The agent keeps the
passages that clear it, up to **Top documents** of them.
[How knowledge works](/docs/agents/knowledge-overview#what-happens-at-a-turn).

**Request log.** The list under **Developers** on the **Request Log** tab of
every `POST` request that passed authentication on the Developer API, with its
status and the key that made it. [Read the request log](/docs/developers/request-logs).

**Retrieval.** The step, on every turn of an agent with **Enable retrieval**
on, that searches the sources the agent may use and puts the matching
passages in front of the model. With retrieval off, every selected source is
ignored. [How knowledge works](/docs/agents/knowledge-overview).

**Retrieval bench.** The **Test Tool** check on an imported OpenAPI tool
that answers one question: would this agent reach this operation if a caller
said that? It is a retrieval test, not an execution test.
[The retrieval bench](/docs/agents/tool-bench).

**Rollover.** Unused plan credits carried into the next month when the same plan renews, up to three times the monthly allowance. Extra credits do not count toward the limit. [Credits, top-ups and rollover](/docs/account/credits-top-ups-rollover#plan-credits-roll-over).

## S

**Secret.** One named value that belongs to the workspace, sealed on the way
in, never shown again, and referenced by name from a tool's header. Use it
for an API key; for a username and password, a bearer token or OAuth2, use an
auth connection. [Workspace secrets](/docs/agents/secrets).

**Session.** One run of the playground, from **Chat** or **Call** until you
close the overlay. Closing always ends the session, and everything said in it
lands on the agent's **Conversations** tab like any other conversation.
[Test your agent](/docs/agents/test-your-agent).

**Signing secret.** The value, starting with `whsec_`, that every new
webhook receives once so your server can verify each delivery. The portal
and the API keep only its first 12 characters afterwards.
[Configure a webhook](/docs/developers/webhooks-configure).

**Summary.** The short account of a conversation written once, at the end,
when the agent wraps the conversation up. A conversation can have a complete
transcript and no summary.
[Transcripts and summaries](/docs/agents/transcripts-and-summaries).

**Synchronous and asynchronous.** The two call styles of the Developer API.
A synchronous call holds the connection open and returns the result; an
asynchronous call returns a job id at once and does the work in the
background. [Synchronous and asynchronous calls](/docs/developers/sync-vs-async).

**System tool.** One of the three built-in capabilities every agent has,
switched off until you switch it on: web search, dialect detection and end
conversation. They live on the **Tools** tab under **Built-in tools** and
are never added or deleted. [System tools](/docs/agents/system-tools).

## T

**Top documents.** The retrieval setting that caps how many matching
passages the agent keeps on one turn, once they clear **Relevance
threshold**. [How knowledge works](/docs/agents/knowledge-overview#what-happens-at-a-turn).

**Top-up.** A purchase of extra credits with **Add More Credits** on the
Subscription page, on a paid plan or on a trial. Each top-up is its own batch
and never expires.
[Credits, top-ups and rollover](/docs/account/credits-top-ups-rollover#how-a-top-up-works).

**Transcript.** What a conversation records as it runs: one message for each
side of every turn, with the numbers measured on that turn. On the Speech to
Text page, the text produced from an audio file.
[Transcripts and summaries](/docs/agents/transcripts-and-summaries).

**Trial.** The subscription every new workspace starts on, with 60,000 credits, no time limit and up to $1 of AI model cost. Subscribing to a paid plan ends it, and the unused trial credits end then. [Choose or change your plan](/docs/account/plans-and-subscription).

**Turn.** One exchange in a conversation: the customer says something, the agent answers. Each turn charges its AI usage, and on a call the connected time since the last turn.
[What a turn costs](/docs/agents/what-a-turn-costs).

**Two-factor authentication.** A second check on every sign-in: after your
password, or after Google or Microsoft returns you to the portal, you enter
the 6-digit code your authenticator app shows for EchoNova.
[Two-factor authentication](/docs/account/two-factor-authentication).

## V

**Voice.** What speaks. The library under **Voices** holds every voice you
can use, the same in every workspace; each has a name, a dialect and a style
line, and reads either the text you type on Text to Speech or what an agent
composes in a conversation. [Browse the voice library](/docs/playground/voice-library).

## W

**Webhook.** An HTTPS endpoint you own that EchoNova
calls when an asynchronous job finishes or an API key crosses its credit
limit. You create
it in the portal, choose its events and keep its signing secret.
[Configure a webhook](/docs/developers/webhooks-configure).

**Webhook tool.** One HTTP endpoint of yours, described once with a name, a
description the agent reads, a URL and parameters, that the agent can call
mid-conversation with your credentials already on the request.
[Webhook tools](/docs/agents/webhook-tools).

**Working hours.** An agent's time zone and answering window, set on the
**Settings** tab. They record when you intend the agent to be available; to
stop an agent answering, disconnect its channels or bind them to another
agent. [Working hours](/docs/agents/working-hours).

**Workspace.** The container everything you build lives in: agents,
knowledge, tools, conversations, speech generations, transcripts, API keys
and the subscription. One is created for you at sign-up with you as
**Owner**.
[Workspaces](/docs/account/workspaces).

**Workspace tools.** The section of an agent's **Tools** tab that lists the
webhook, OpenAPI and integration tools in the workspace library, which any
agent in the workspace can select. [Tools overview](/docs/agents/tools-overview).

## FAQ

### Is a voice, a knowledge source or a tool mine or the workspace's?

The voice library is the same in every workspace. Knowledge sources, tools,
secrets, auth connections, conversation tags and agents belong to the
workspace; your account holds only your name,
sign-in method, two-factor setting, theme, language and notifications.
[Workspaces](/docs/account/workspaces).

### What is the difference between a secret and an auth connection?

A secret is one opaque value you name a header for. An auth connection
knows how to authenticate on its own and always produces the
`Authorization` header itself. [Auth connections](/docs/agents/auth-connections).

### What is the difference between plan credits and extra credits?

Plan credits arrive each month with the plan, are spent first, and roll over up to three times the allowance while the subscription is active. Extra credits come from top-ups, never expire, and are spent only when the plan credits cannot cover a charge.
[Credits, top-ups and rollover](/docs/account/credits-top-ups-rollover).

### Is the playground a channel?

No. Web chat and web calls from **Test** need no channel; they run the same
agent a customer would reach and are charged the same way.
[Test your agent](/docs/agents/test-your-agent).

## Related

- [Core concepts](/docs/get-started/concepts): the six words that come up on
  every page, each in a few sentences
- [Troubleshooting](/docs/help/troubleshooting): the messages and symptoms
  people hit most, with the fix for each
- [Contact and support](/docs/help/contact-and-support): where to write when
  a page does not answer the question
- [What is an agent](/docs/agents/what-is-an-agent): every part of an agent
  and where each one is set