Glossary

All proper nouns, abbreviations, and common terms on the platform in English and Chinese. Sort by first letter. If you have any doubts when reading other documents, come back and check them.

A

agent_based

A step type. An orchestrator agent reads the task description and dynamically decides which worker agent to assign the subtask to. It is suitable for scenarios where tasks have multiple branches and each branch requires LLM judgment.

Agent

An entity that encapsulates an LLM session and its available tools. Agents in Braidrun are declared by preset and overrides as needed. It is not a step itself - some type of step (single / group_chat / classifier, etc.) will refer to the Agent.

API Key

Authentication key issued by LLM provider. It is stored as Credential in the platform and is always encrypted and never appears in the log.

Artifact（Artifact）

Files generated during the step run (Markdown, Excel, images, JSON, etc.). Save it to the product directory of the platform and can be downloaded from the execution details page.

Audit Log / Audit Log

Structured logs of all "user actions + system events" within the platform. It can be checked by the administrator in the background and is retained indefinitely by default.

B

breakpoint / Breakpoint

Pause locations you can set in the debugger — 9 types: before a step, after a step, on step error, a state-machine state, a group-chat round, an iteration item, an agent_based dispatch, a sub-workflow entry, and a sub-workflow exit. A breakpoint can carry a conditional expression; on hit, the execution pauses and you can inspect and edit variables.

BYOK

Bring Your Own Key。Users bring their own LLM Provider’s API Key, and the token cost is charged to the user’s own account and does not account for the platform’s quota.

C

classifier

A step type. LLM assigns a category label to the input, and the output can be passed {{classifier.category}} Used as routing conditions in subsequent steps.

code

A step type. Python/Bash/TypeScript scripts are executed in an isolated sandbox, preferred for deterministic > LLM scenarios.

Condition

Boolean expression at step level. When false, step is marked as SKIPPED and execution is skipped. Can be used downstream {{steps.x.status}} Check if skipped.

Credential（Credentials）

AES-256-GCM encrypts the stored external key. Resolved by user/team/system three-level namespace. Never appears in logs or YAML exports.

cron

A type of scheduled trigger. It accepts a standard 5-field cron expression (minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week). Each schedule entry carries its own timezone setting; in a multi-instance deployment, a distributed lock ensures it fires only once per trigger point.

D

DAG

Directed Acyclic Graph。Visual modeling view of the platform. Each node is a step, and the edges represent the execution sequence/data dependency. Bidirectional synchronization with YAML byte level.

DTO

Data Transfer Object。The payload format of JSON API uses camelCase; the corresponding YAML uses snake_case. Automatic two-way conversion when the platform is running.

Dry-run

An option during execution. Walking through the data flow, filling in variables, and running non-side-effect steps (LLM/really sending messages) are skipped. Used to verify DAG connectivity.

E

Execute / Execution

A specific running instance of a workflow. State machine: PENDING → RUNNING → (COMPLETED / FAILED / CANCELLED / INTERRUPTED / TIMED_OUT).

extract

step field. Use JSONPath to select several fields from the original output of step and save them to the .data subnode for accurate downstream reference.

F-G

FeatureGate

A service that controls feature availability and resource quotas by subscription plan (Free/Pro/Team/Enterprise). Determine how many workflows, how many schedules you can build, and whether you can use the debugger.

group_chat

A step type. Multiple Agents speak in turns and refer to each other's context. Suitable for brainstorming and critical review.

H-I

HMAC

Webhook 触发的兼容认证方式。外部调用方用共享密钥对 raw body 算 HMAC-SHA256，以 sha256=<hex> 格式放进 X-Webhook-Signature 头。新接入建议直接用带 WEBHOOK_TRIGGER 范围的 API Key。

idempotent

step field. Promise "same input → same output, no side effects". When auto-resume is turned on, completed idempotent steps can be skipped from being redone.

M

manual_approval

A step type (also available as an enhancement to any step). The execution flow is stuck here waiting for administrator approval/denial. Configurable notification channel and approvers list.

MCP

Model Context Protocol。Standard protocols across tools. Braidrun can be used as a tool for MCP Client to consume external MCP Server, and it can also expose its capabilities to the outside world in MCP Server mode.

Module / Module

A workflow that implements WorkflowModuleContract. It can be called as a black box by other workflows via a sub_workflow step. The marketplace has 120+ installable modules.

Data migration

The data structure migration process is automatically executed when the platform is upgraded; distributed locks are used across instances to ensure that only one node executes.

P

Preset

Agent template. Package "model + default toolset + system prompt + max_iterations + strategy" into a named template. The platform has built-in universal / coder / researcher / writer / planner / reviewer, etc.

Provider

LLM service provider. OpenAI / Anthropic / DeepSeek / Kimi / OpenRouter etc. A provider can be bound to multiple API Keys (credentials).

R

RAG

Retrieval-Augmented Generation。A type of Agent toolset that performs vector retrieval on the built-in knowledge base. The platform automatically inserts the search results into the Agent's context.

Recovery Policy

Strategy options for automatic continuation: ABORT (not continuing) / RESUME_FROM_LAST_INCOMPLETE (continuing from the interrupted step) / RESUME_FROM_START (restarting from the beginning).

Round-trip（Two-way sync）

YAML → DAG → YAML maintains byte-level equivalence intact. No comments, order, or formatting are lost.

S

single

A step type. A single Agent + a task description. The most lightweight LLM calling primitive.

Sandbox（sandbox）

The execution environment of the code step. Use a one-time isolation sandbox in production, least privileges / read-only root / outbound network.

Schedule

An item that triggers a certain workflow regularly. Supports three categories: cron / interval / one-time. Each Schedule can be preset with input parameters + time zone.

Skill

Tools that can be called by Agent. Built-in rag / web / file / shell, or user-defined tools registered from the MCP server.

SSE

Server-Sent Events。Execution's real-time event streaming protocol, the browser's EventSource subscribes directly. Each event is a line of structured JSON.

Step

The smallest execution unit of workflow. Each step can only select 1 main mode (single / group_chat / agent_based / code / classifier / state_machine / sub_workflow / manual_approval), and can be superimposed with enhancements such as condition / retry / extract / aggregate / idempotent / on_success / on_failure.

state_machine

A step type. Embedded with multiple states + state transition conditions, it is suitable for multiple iterations or workflows containing small processes.

sub_workflow

A step type. Call another workflow (or built-in module) as a black box. With contract verification, loop detection, and variable isolation.

T-U

Team

A collection of users. Shared credential namespace and shared scheduling quota. Team Admin can manage members + credentials.

Tool

Functions that the Agent can call during LLM inference. Built-in + MCP extension.

TPM

Tokens Per Minute。The current limiting indicator of LLM provider. There is a self-limiting TPM inside the platform to avoid blowing up the upstream.

V-W

Variable Reference

{{...}} Grammar. Four sources can be referenced: var:* / steps.id.* / classifier.* / credentials.*.

Webhook

An endpoint that lets an external system POST to trigger a workflow execution. API Key authentication is primary, with HMAC signatures as a compatibility option. The request body's top-level fields map to workflow variables automatically by default, or you can specify the mapping explicitly with variableMapping.

Workflow

A collection of steps organized by DAG. Can be triggered manually by /cron/webhook/API. Use YAML to persist storage.

Y

YAML

The platform's workflow persistence format. Fields go snake_case (automatically mapped with DTO's camelCase). It can be run directly in the CLI (braidrun-agent), and the same YAML can also be edited in the Web UI.