Glossary

Cortex uses a small vocabulary consistently, and most of it is ordinary English used precisely. This page collects the words you will meet on other pages of this site, in alphabetical order, with one or two sentences each and a link to the page that explains the thing properly. Only words the product actually uses are listed here. The application names themselves are not in the list: Cortex Chat, Cortex Code, Cortex Bot, Cortex Design, Cortex Security, the Cortex CLI and Cortex Bounty each have their own section of the site.

A to C

Term	What it means
Activity	The record of what happened on your account across Chat, Code and Bot, covering sign-ins, connector changes, exports and approvals over the last 30 days. See Data and privacy.
Appshots	A desktop-only capture of the last Chat or Code thread you used, taken with a double tap of a modifier key. The web app has no global hotkey. See Cortex desktop app.
Approval matrix	The grid in Settings where you choose Ask or Always ask for each kind of action, read, edit, shell and pay, on Chat, Code and Bot. Pay always asks. See Permissions and approvals.
Artifact	Something Cortex produced that is kept in its own place rather than only inside a transcript. The sidebar collects them under Artifacts.
Canvas	A document surface you keep and work on, rather than a message in a conversation. Chat and Cortex Design each have their own. See Chat canvases and Design canvases.
Closed beta	A product that is open only to invited accounts. A signed-in account that has not been invited sees a gate and can continue in Chat. See Accounts and sign-in.
Command palette	The jump-anywhere panel in Cortex Code, opened with `⌘ K` or `Ctrl K`. See Keyboard shortcuts.
Connector	A connected app whose tools join your conversations, so Cortex can act on that app instead of only talking about it. See Connectors.

E to M

Term	What it means
Entitlement	A capability that a plan includes. When your plan does not include one, Cortex says Not included in your plan. See entitlement_required.
Global Privacy Control	A signal some browsers send to refuse optional tracking. Cortex honours it: optional analytics stay off and the signal wins over an “allow” sent from the page. See Data and privacy.
Grace period	The 30 days between requesting deletion of your data and the erasure actually running. Signing in again during that time cancels the request. See Data and privacy.
Guest	Someone using Chat without signing in. A guest has a message allowance for the browser session and cannot create anything it would later need to come back and revoke. See Accounts and sign-in.
Library	Where Chat keeps the files you upload and the files it produces. The storage meter under Plan & billing measures it. See Library.
Mascot	Another word the product uses for a bot, most visibly when Cortex asks whether your mascots may use your connected tools. See Cortex Bot.
MCP server	A Model Context Protocol server you attach over HTTP so its tools join the model in your conversations. See MCP servers.
Member	A signed-in Cortex account. Everything beyond guest Chat is member territory. See Accounts and sign-in.
Memory	Standing preferences and facts you have shared, kept so answers get more personal over time. Reviewable, deletable, and switchable off. See Memory.
Mode	Chat, Code and Bot are modes of one shell. Switching mode keeps the shell and the sidebar in place rather than loading a different application. See What is Cortex.

O to R

Term	What it means
Overlay	A dialog that opens over the product instead of navigating away from it. Settings is the one you meet most. See Settings.
Plan	The named ceiling on what an account may use in a window. The ladder is Guest, Free, Go, Plus and Pro. See Plans and quotas.
Preview	A label on a live model whose name and behaviour are not final. Every public Cortex model carries it today. See Models.
Problem code	The stable identifier attached to every failure, such as `quota_exceeded` or `forbidden`. Each one has its own page. See the problem catalog.
Project	A container for related chats and files, with custom instructions of its own that can override your account instructions. Your plan caps how many you may have. See Projects.
Quota	A count that resets on a fixed window, such as messages today or messages this month. See Limits and quotas.
Reference id	The identifier printed on a failure card. Quote it in a bug report and the team can find the exact request. See Errors.
Reserved space	A member-only product that a guest has opened. The dialog offers to sign you in, or to continue in Chat. See Accounts and sign-in.
Routine	A repeatable job you set up in Cortex Bot. Routines belong to your account and follow you across devices. See Routines.
Runtime	The isolated computer a Cortex Code session runs in. See Cloud runtimes.

S to W

Term	What it means
Scheduled task	A Chat task that runs on a schedule rather than when you ask. Cortex notifies you after one has run. See Scheduled tasks.
Session	A unit of work in Cortex Code, started with New session and kept as its own thread of changes. See Code sessions.
Shortcut sheet	The in-product list of keyboard chords, opened and closed with `⌘ /` or `Ctrl /`. It lists only chords that are actually bound. See Keyboard shortcuts.
Single sign-on (SSO)	Signing in through your organisation’s identity provider instead of a personal account. See Accounts and sign-in.
Skill	A reusable capability you add to a product. Chat, Cortex Bot and the CLI each document their own: Skills in Chat, Bot skills, Skills in the CLI.
Step-up confirmation	Re-entering your authenticator code before a sensitive action such as an export or a deletion. A confirmation lasts fifteen minutes and covers only the session that asked for it. See Two-factor authentication.
Temporary chat	A conversation that neither reads nor writes memory. See Conversations.
Window	The period a quota counts over, a day or thirty days. Windows are fixed rather than rolling, and the product shows a Resets in line instead of a wall-clock time. See Plans and quotas.

Words that belong to one product

Some vocabulary is specific enough that it is defined where it is used rather than here: tickets and environments in Cortex Code, channels and tasks in Cortex Bot, checks and review policy in Cortex Security, and hooks, agents and themes in the Cortex CLI. Each product’s own pages carry those definitions, and the Related links below are the fastest way in.

What is Cortex for the applications and how they fit together.
Which product do I need? for picking one.
Plans and quotas for plans, quotas and windows.
Frequently asked questions for the short answers.
Troubleshooting for what a message in the product means.

Welcome

Your account

Apps and downloads

Help

A to C

E to M

O to R

S to W

Words that belong to one product

​A to C

​E to M

​O to R

​S to W

​Words that belong to one product

​Related

A to C

E to M

O to R

S to W

Words that belong to one product

Related