AI Workflow Glossary

Plain English: A small piece of text a language model reads or produces; it may be a whole word, part of a word, punctuation, or another text unit.

Technical: A tokenizer maps a text sequence to model-specific token IDs; token boundaries vary by tokenizer.

Example: The same sentence can have different token counts with different model tokenizers.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-001

Plain English: The software/rules that split text into units a model can process.

Technical: A mapping from input text to a sequence of token IDs for a particular model family/encoding.

Example: Use the target model’s tokenizer rather than converting words with a fixed ratio.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-001

Plain English: The information a model can consider in one request or active conversation, subject to product/runtime rules.

Technical: A maximum context capacity over model-defined tokenized input/output; actual usable capacity may be lower.

Example: More history can crowd out task instructions and current evidence.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-005

Plain English: Choosing which model handles a task based on its needs.

Technical: Policy mapping task features/state to model/provider route and fallback transitions.

Example: Use a smaller route for a task only after it passes the same checks.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-015

Plain English: A way to store model numbers using fewer bits, often reducing memory needs with possible quality/performance tradeoffs.

Technical: Numerical representation transformation (e.g. lower precision) applied to weights/activations with implementation-dependent effects.

Example: A quantized local model is not automatically quality-equivalent to its unquantized source.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-021

Plain English: Charges for using a software service through requests, often with usage-based categories.

Technical: Provider-defined accounting and rate application by model, token type, tools, caching, region, or other dimensions.

Example: An API rate card may price input and output differently.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-010

Plain English: A repeated request produces the same final effect as making it once.

Technical: Operation property that permits safe replay under a stable key and controlled state.

Example: Retrying a key should return the original payment receipt, not charge again.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-031

Plain English: A saved snapshot of enough job state to continue after interruption.

Technical: Versioned durable state with integrity and consistency guarantees at a safe boundary.

Example: Save completed step IDs and artifact references before continuing a long workflow.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-033

Plain English: A workflow state meaning progress is blocked until a named resource becomes available.

Technical: Typed resumable state with resource, reason, entry time, deadline, retry/escalation policy, and checkpoint.

Example: Record which queue/resource the job is waiting for; do not silently sleep forever.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-039

Plain English: A workflow state meaning valid permission or user authorization is needed before continuing.

Technical: Typed resumable state for expired/invalid/absent credentials or consent; secret material must remain protected.

Example: Pause a provider call and ask the user to reauthorize through the official flow.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-043

Plain English: A plan label used here for the ChatGPT Pro 100 scenario; product meaning and limits must be verified from current official terms.

Technical: User-specified plan label; exact entitlement, usage allowance, model access and period remain CURRENT_EXTERNAL verification requirements.

Example: Do not infer API token pricing or throughput from the name alone.

DEFINITIONAL; platform-specific meanings require current primary documentation. · Parent guide key: HT-012