---
title: Glossary
description: Look up the words VIABLE uses on screen and in these docs, each in one line, with a link to where it is explained.
updated: 2026-10-29
---

> All VIABLE docs, for people and their agents: https://developers.viablelab.org/llms.txt

# Glossary

The words VIABLE uses on screen and in these docs, one line each. Use it when a term is new to you.

## A

**Activity**: One thing to do in a course: a [lesson, pre-test, post-test or survey](/docs/teach/activities).

**Agent**: An [AI workflow made of steps](/docs/build/first-agent). Learners and apps meet its published version.

**Agent test**: A [case](/docs/build/agent-tests) (what a learner says, what a good reply does) run against a version of an agent, its reply rated pass or fail by a judge model.

**Agent profile**: An agent's name, avatar, greeting, suggested questions and notice, shown on its [chat page](/docs/build/chat-pages) and in activities.

**AI key**: The [API key](/docs/project/keys-and-costs) that pays for a course's AI.

**API key**: A [credential](/docs/project/keys-and-costs) with scopes, limits and model access that lets code call VIABLE.

**App**: An [outside app](/docs/connect/apps) calling your project with its keys, shown in **Build → Apps**.

**Assignment**: A learner's or section's [condition](/docs/research/conditions), fixed across activities and devices.

## C

**Chat page**: An agent published for [open use on websites](/docs/build/chat-pages). Visitors need no account.

**Codebook**: [Codes](/docs/research/coding) with definitions and examples, for coding messages, turns or AI replies.

**Comparative study**: A study that sets what learners get, [comparing groups or units](/docs/research/designs). Courses only.

**Condition**: What one group gets in a comparative study, such as [no AI or another agent](/docs/research/conditions).

**Consent**: A learner's decision on a study's [versioned form](/docs/research/consent). It decides whose data counts.

**Course**: What learners open: [one link](/docs/teach/first-class) with its sections, units and activities.

**Course code**: The code in a course's link (`…/course/RC8K85JH`). Nobody types it.

## F

**Durable skill**: Collaboration, communication or critical thinking at one of four levels, from the Carnegie Skills Progressions, for an [activity to aim at](/docs/teach/standards-and-skills).

**Final codes**: The codes the team [decides](/docs/research/coding) where coders differ.

**Flag**: A moment a teacher should see, such as a safety reply, under **To look at** in [Progress](/docs/teach/progress).

## H

**How the AI helps**: An activity's [goal, standard and how far the AI may go](/docs/teach/ai-helps).

## L

**Learner**: A person known to the project by a learner code, the same on every device.

**Learner code**: A learner's ID in data and exports, like `L-7F3KQ2`. Names never leave VIABLE.

**Learning component**: A smaller piece a [standard](/docs/teach/standards-and-skills) breaks into.

## M

**Member**: A person in a project, with a [role](/docs/project/members-and-roles).

**Misconception**: A common mistake that hinders a math skill, from Eedi's graph, that an activity's AI can [listen for](/docs/teach/standards-and-skills).

**Model coder**: A model that [codes a sample](/docs/research/coding) as one more coder, with a confidence and a reason per item.

## O

**Observational study**: A study that [follows how](/docs/research/designs) courses or a chat page are used, with no conditions.

## P

**Panel**: What learners work in: [Questions, Writing, Reading or Embedded page](/docs/teach/activities).

**Personal code**: A learner's [code](/docs/teach/sign-in) on a printed card, like `K7Q2-M9XC`. A personal link skips typing it.

**Project**: A team's space for agents, courses, studies, keys and logs, paid for by its [owner](/docs/project/members-and-roles).

**Provider key**: Your own model provider's key, billed there instead of [VIABLE credits](/docs/project/keys-and-costs).

## R

**Research notice**: A study's text people read [before taking part](/docs/research/consent). Not the agent's notice.

**Role**: Owner, editor or viewer: what a [member](/docs/project/members-and-roles) can change. Viewers see codes, not names.

**Run**: One execution of an agent, step by step, listed in its [Run history](/docs/build/testing).

## S

**Section**: A class period or group, with [its own link](/docs/teach/sign-in) and opening times.

**Section link**: A course link for one section, like `…?section=p2`.

**Standard**: A learning standard an [activity aims at](/docs/teach/standards-and-skills), kept as it was when chosen.

**Study**: A [protocol](/docs/research/first-study) over courses or a chat page: consent, design and data.

## T

**Trace**: A [run's record](/docs/connect/learners-and-traces) of what each step received and returned, and each VETTING round.

**Turn**: A learner's message and the reply, kept in the [export](/docs/research/export).

## U

**Unit**: A week or topic grouping a course's [activities](/docs/teach/activities), with optional dates.

## V

**VETTING**: A step where a [reviewer model](/docs/build/vetting) checks each reply against your rules and sends failed ones back to be rewritten.

**Visitor**: An anonymous chat page user: one browser on one device, shown in data by a visitor code (`V-…`).

::: cards
- [Key ideas](/docs/start/key-ideas): what VIABLE is made of, and who does what.
- [Your first class](/docs/teach/first-class): make a course and share its link.
:::