Glossary

The words telos uses, and what each one means. They are the same words the app, the API and the code use.

Places

Instance: One telos installation. Its admin can switch AI off for everyone on it.
Account: You, and everything you own. It has its own AI switch and the agent defaults new agents start from.
Project: A set of lanes and the todos in them. It has its own AI switch, auto-run, a description and context every agent working in it is given, and a new-todo lane.
Lane: A column in a project. A lane can have an agent that works the todos in it, routes that say where they go next, a WIP limit and max attempts.
Done lane: The one lane in a project where todos are complete. Moving a todo into it completes the todo, and moving it out reopens it.
New-todo lane: Where a todo lands when nobody says where: one an agent or MCP client filed, and the pieces of a split. If none is set, the first open lane. Pieces of a todo split in this lane skip it and go on down its success route, unless that is the done lane.
Route: Where a todo goes when its lane's agent is done with it: the success route after a pass, the failure route after a fail. A lane can archive todos on success instead. With no route, the todo stays where it is.
WIP limit: How many todos a lane's agent works at once.
Max attempts: How many failed runs a lane's agent gets at a todo before it hands it back.
Auto-run: When it is on, the lanes' agents start on ready todos by themselves; when it is off, a todo runs only when someone asks for a run.
Board template: A saved set of lanes to start a project with.

Work

Todo: One piece of work: a title, a description, acceptance, a due date and labels.
Description: What to do, and why.
Acceptance: What done means. An agent's work is judged against it.
Dependency also blocker: "this todo waits on that one". While a todo it waits on is open, the todo is blocked: it cannot be completed, and no agent works it.
Parent and piece: A piece is a todo split out of a larger one, its parent, or one someone filed under it.
Umbrella: A todo split into pieces. No agent works it; it completes by itself when its last piece does, and reopens when a piece reopens or a new one is filed under it. You cannot complete it while pieces are open; unsplit it to finish it alone.
Archive: Putting a todo away: hidden, not gone, and it can be restored. Deleting a todo archives it, unless you delete it for good.
Hands off: A todo no agent may read or work, nor anything under it. A person sets it; an agent or MCP client can set it too, with a reason, to give a todo back to you.
Label: A coloured tag on a todo or a project.
Run request: Asking for one run of a todo now. It waits like any other run: it does not get round an AI switch that is off, a blocker or the lane's WIP limit.
Retry: Giving a lane's agent another go at a todo it handed back; its failed runs stop counting.

What agents make of a todo

Queued: Its lane's agent will start on it when there is room.
Running: A run is working on it.
Waiting: It is an umbrella, and is done when its pieces are.
Blocked: It waits on an open dependency.
Parked: Nothing will work on it where it is: its lane has no agent, AI or the agent is switched off, it is hands off, or auto-run is off and nobody asked for a run.
Handed back: Its lane's agent is done with it and it cannot move on without you: the agent gave up after more failed runs than the lane's max attempts, or it finished and the lane has nowhere to send it.

What happened

Thread: A todo's notes, reports and verdicts, oldest first.
Note: Something a person or an agent wrote on a todo's thread.
Report: What a run said it did. Never changed afterwards.
Verdict: A run's PASS or FAIL, with its reasons. Never changed afterwards.
History: Every change to a todo: what changed, who changed it and why.
Attempt: A failed run since a person last changed the todo, retried it or asked for a run.
Artifact: A file or link a run or an MCP client recorded making. It outlives its todo.

Agents and runs

AI switches: The instance's, the account's, the project's and each agent's. Every one above an agent must be on for it to run.
Agent: A model with instructions, the MCP servers it may use and the tools it may call. A setting left blank uses the account's agent defaults. An agent knows nothing of lanes: a lane is given an agent.
Agent template: Starting text for a new agent: Planner, Worker or Reviewer.
MCP server: A tool server added to an account; each agent names the ones it may use.
MCP client: An assistant connected to telos with an API key, working in the projects and todos AI may see.
Runner: The program that starts runs: it takes ready todos and runs their agents.
Run: One go by an agent at a todo, ending in a reply.
Reply format: The rules every run's reply is read by, sent after the agent's own instructions.
Outcome: What a reply comes to: a verdict, a report, a refine or a split. A run that fails or breaks the reply format is an error, and counts as an attempt.
Refine: A reply that rewrites its todo's title, description or acceptance; what it leaves out stays. The todo then takes its success route.
Split: A reply that breaks its todo into two or more pieces. The todo becomes an umbrella where it is.