.AIGlossary
Definitions of the terms used across the APIANT.ai documentation, each linked to the page that explains it.
An automation is the unit APIANT.ai runs: one trigger followed by steps. The terms below are the ones the product screens, Claude and the assistant use. Each entry links to the page that covers the term in full.
A
Account. The login that owns automations, connections and run history, and that a plan applies to. See Your account.
Action. A step that does something in an app or in APIANT, such as creating a record, sending an email or looking up a value. See Actions and built-in apps.
Assembly. The stored definition behind a connector, an action or a trigger: how APIANT authenticates to the app, which request it sends, and which fields go in and come out. Claude builds and edits assemblies when an app or operation is missing from the catalog. See Build a connector, action or trigger.
Associated account. Access one person has to another person's account, for example a contractor working in a customer's account. The associate switches into the owner's account to work in it. See Linked and associated accounts.
Assistant. The APIANT assistant, the chat panel inside app.apiant.ai that builds, edits and explains automations. It is separate from Claude working over MCP. See The APIANT assistant.
Assistant credits. The monthly allowance that pays for assistant messages. A message that starts a model turn costs 20 credits. Working through Claude over MCP does not spend credits. See Assistant credits.
Automation. A trigger plus the steps that run each time it fires. An automation is either on (active) or off. See Automations.
C
Catalog. The list of apps APIANT.ai can connect to, with their triggers and actions. See App catalog.
Chat widget. A hosted chat page backed by an automation. Each message a visitor sends starts a run of that automation. See Chat widgets.
Claude Code plugin. The APIANT skills plus the connection to the APIANT MCP server, installed into a Claude Code project from the account menu. See Connect Claude Code.
Commit. Saving Claude's draft of an automation back to the automation, which makes it the version that runs. See Drafts and versions.
Condition. A step that sends a run down one branch or another based on data. Loops and parallel branches are the other control-flow steps. See Conditions, loops and parallel branches.
Connection. Your authorized account in an app (an OAuth sign-in or an API key) that automations use to call that app. See Connecting accounts.
Connector. The assembly that defines how APIANT signs in to an app. Every connection is made through a connector, and an app's actions and triggers use that connection. See Apps and connectors.
D
Deploy. Copying an automation, or a folder of automations, into other accounts, linked or unlinked. See Publish and deploy.
Draft. A working copy of an automation that Claude edits before committing. The committed automation keeps running unchanged until the draft is committed. See Drafts and versions.
E
Execution history. The record of an automation's runs, with each step's input, output and errors. How long it is kept depends on your plan. See Execution history.
F
Fan-out and fan-in. Starting several child automations at once (fan-out) and pausing the parent until all of them finish (fan-in). The children are counted in a named latch group. See Fan-out and fan-in.
Field mapping. The expression that fills a step's input field from trigger data or an earlier step's output. See Field mapping.
H
Hosted form. A public form page served by APIANT. A form can start a run on every submission, or pause a running automation until one person fills it in. See Hosted forms.
Human approval. A step that pauses a run until a person approves or denies an item from a moderation link, optionally with a timeout. See Human approval.
L
Linked account. A child account attached to a parent account. A child account can use the connections its parent chooses to share. See Linked and associated accounts.
Lookup table. Key-value storage that keeps data between runs. Each saved value has a scope (This automation, My account or Linked accounts) and an expiry (90, 180 or 365 days, or Never). See Storing data between runs.
M
MCP (Model Context Protocol). The open protocol Claude Code uses to call APIANT. APIANT's MCP server is https://mcp.apiant.ai/mcp. See APIANT over MCP.
MCP tool automation. An automation that an external AI agent can call as a tool through your account's MCP URL. See Automations as MCP tools.
O
Operation. One trigger or action that an app offers in the catalog.
P
Polling trigger. A trigger that checks an app for new or updated records on an interval. See Polling triggers.
Publish. Moving an automation or assembly from a development environment to production. See Publish and deploy.
R
Retry. A later attempt at a run that failed with a retry-eligible error. APIANT retries on a fixed schedule of up to 9 attempts in total. See Retries, replays and restarts.
Run. One execution of an automation, from the trigger firing to the last step. See Execution history.
S
Scheduled trigger. A trigger that fires an automation at set times. See Scheduled triggers.
Skill. A set of instructions in the Claude Code plugin that Claude follows for one kind of work, such as building or testing an automation. You describe the work and Claude picks the skill. See Claude Code skills.
Snooze. A step that pauses a run until a date and time, then continues. See Delays, snooze and waits.
Step. One node in an automation after the trigger: an action, a condition, a loop, a subroutine call or another control-flow step. See Core concepts.
Step comment. A note you leave on a step in the automation diagram for Claude to apply. See Review a diagram and send comments to Claude.
Subroutine. An automation that another automation calls, passing inputs and receiving outputs. See Subroutines and calling automations.
T
Task. The usage unit your plan counts each month. A task is counted when an action step that calls an app completes successfully. See Plans, usage and billing.
Trigger. The event that starts an automation: a webhook, a poll, a schedule, a form submission, a chat message, a web service call, a call from an AI agent that uses the automation as a tool, or a call from another automation. See Triggers.
Two-way sync. A pair of trigger and action settings that keeps records in step between two apps without each update echoing back. See Two-way sync.
V
Version. A saved earlier copy of an automation. Each save keeps the previous copy, so you can ask Claude to list or compare versions. See Drafts and versions.
W
Web service automation. An automation behind a URL that holds the HTTP request open and returns the response the automation builds. See Web service automations.
Webhook trigger. A trigger that fires when another system sends an HTTP request to a URL APIANT generates for the automation. See Webhook triggers.