# Glossary

> Every word this documentation uses, alphabetically, in one sentence each.

Every term in this documentation, in one sentence each.

**Agent.** One of the command-line tools beafk runs for you — Claude
Code, Codex, Grok Build, Kimi Code. See
[which agents beafk runs](https://beafk.app/docs/which-agents-beafk-runs.md).

**Ask.** A question an agent stopped to put to you. The chat waits —
twelve hours with nobody looking — and the answer reaches it whenever you get
there. See [when an agent needs you](https://beafk.app/docs/when-an-agent-needs-you.md).

**beafk cloud.** This website: the account, the workspace, the fleet and the
bill. It holds no code and no chats.

**Cabinet.** beafk cloud, seen from a machine — the thing a machine reports to
and takes its permission from.

**Certificate.** The short-lived, device-bound permission your browser presents
to a machine to open it. Signed by us, verified by the machine on its own, and
spent at once. See [how your phone reaches it](https://beafk.app/docs/reaching-your-machine.md).

**Chat.** One thread, one agent you are typing to, and up to eight folders it is
pointed at — the first is where the agent runs, the rest it may work in. It runs
in a process of its own on the machine. With a [crew](https://beafk.app/docs/what-a-crew-is.md) on,
the pieces that agent hands out are chats of their own. Not a *session*, which
here is what a browser holds. See [a chat](https://beafk.app/docs/a-chat.md).

**Command.** A line your project is run by, kept as a button in
`.beafk/commands.json`. See [commands](https://beafk.app/docs/commands.md).

**Compress.** The agent's own summarise-and-continue, for a chat whose
context has filled up.

**Context meter.** The gauge under the message box showing how full the agent's
memory of the chat is.

**Crew.** Talk to one agent. It hands pieces to the right CLIs, and brings
every result back to the same thread. See
[what a crew is](https://beafk.app/docs/what-a-crew-is.md).

**Device key.** A key your browser makes and cannot export. A certificate is
issued against it, which is why a copied cookie opens nothing.

**Draft.** A CLI lined up on a [task](https://beafk.app/docs/tasks.md) with the brief it should open
with, waiting for one press to start.

**Effort.** How hard an agent thinks about one answer. More effort is more time
and more of your subscription.

**Fingerprint.** The long `SHA256:…` name a machine calculates for itself from a
key it made. It is the reason a machine belongs to exactly one workspace.

**Grant.** Permission for a named person to open a particular machine, at full
or read-only level. Teams only. See
[who may open what](https://beafk.app/docs/who-may-open-what.md).

**Hold.** The claim an agent takes on the files it is about to edit, so that a
second agent queues instead of writing over the first. See
[two agents, one file](https://beafk.app/docs/holding-files.md).

**Lead.** The agent you are typing to when a crew is on. It hands the pieces
out, reads what comes back, and tells you what came of it.

**Lease.** The signed note, good for a day and refreshed every five minutes,
that tells a machine it is paid for.

**Machine.** A computer you own with beafk installed. Also called a node. One
machine is one line on your bill.

**MCP server.** See tool server.

**Node.** Another word for machine, used in some screens and commands.

**Pane.** One real terminal on the machine, running one line you gave it, with
its output still there when you come back. See
[running a line yourself](https://beafk.app/docs/the-terminal.md).

**Panel.** The screen you use to drive a machine, in your browser, talking to
the machine directly. See [the home screen](https://beafk.app/docs/the-home-screen.md).

**Permission mode.** What a turn may do to the machine without asking you first.
Each agent has its own set. See
[models, effort and permission](https://beafk.app/docs/models-effort-and-permission.md).

**Project.** A folder on your machine, usually a git repository. The screens —
commands, variables, git — are scoped to the one in the header; a chat can
carry several. See [the home screen](https://beafk.app/docs/the-home-screen.md).

**Role.** A job written down: what it does, when to use it, which agent runs it,
on which model and at what effort. See
[writing a role](https://beafk.app/docs/writing-a-role.md).

**Seat.** One connected machine on your bill. Not a person.

**Session.** What a browser holds: the hour a machine gives it after a
certificate, and the sign-in it holds here. Never a thread with an agent — that
is a chat. See [your browsers](https://beafk.app/docs/your-browsers.md).

**Skill.** A page of instructions an agent reads before a certain kind of job.
See [skills](https://beafk.app/docs/skills.md).

**Sketch.** A clickable stub of a screen, built in minutes, so you can pick the
right one before an hour is spent. See
[seeing it before it is built](https://beafk.app/docs/seeing-it-before-it-is-built.md).

**Tailnet.** Your own private network, made by Tailscale, that your phone and
your machines are on.

**Task.** A row on a project's work list, with the chats it has been
the subject of underneath. See [tasks](https://beafk.app/docs/tasks.md).

**Tool server (MCP).** An outside service an agent can use — a ticket tracker, a
browser, a database. Described once, delivered to every agent. See
[tool servers](https://beafk.app/docs/tool-servers.md).

**Trace.** A record of one operation and how long it took. See
[logs and timings](https://beafk.app/docs/logs.md).

**Trash.** Where deleted things on a machine go, with a receipt, for thirty
days. See [the trash](https://beafk.app/docs/the-trash.md).

**Usage.** What the agents spent in tokens, by model — on the machine, and
across the fleet in beafk cloud. Not a dollar amount. See [usage](https://beafk.app/docs/usage.md).

**Workspace.** Who you share machines with. A machine belongs to exactly one.
See [workspaces](https://beafk.app/docs/workspaces.md).

---

beafk documentation · Reference · https://beafk.app/docs/glossary

In this section:
- When something is wrong — https://beafk.app/docs/when-something-is-wrong.md
- When a machine will not open — https://beafk.app/docs/a-machine-will-not-open.md
- Glossary — https://beafk.app/docs/glossary.md (this page)
- The command line — https://beafk.app/docs/every-command.md
- Legal — https://beafk.app/docs/legal.md
- The licence — https://beafk.app/docs/license.md

Every page, one line each: https://beafk.app/docs/llms.txt
All of it in one file: https://beafk.app/docs/llms-full.txt