The main ideas
| Dashboard word | Plain-English meaning |
|---|---|
| Agent | Your AI Agent. It talks with customers and follows the instructions you give it. |
| Workflow | The conversation plan for your agent: what it says, what it asks, what it can do, and when it should finish or call a person. |
| Node | One step in a workflow, such as greeting a customer, asking for an email address, or transferring the conversation to a teammate. |
| Channel | The place where a customer contacts you, such as your website, WhatsApp, email, SMS, Slack, or Telegram. |
| Inbound | A phone or WhatsApp call that comes into your business. |
| Outbound | A phone call that your business starts. |
| Campaign | A planned set of outbound calls to a contact list. |
| Broadcast | A planned WhatsApp message sent with an approved template to a contact list. |
| Handover | Moving a conversation from the AI to a human teammate. |
| Ticket | A support request saved for your team to work on later. |
| Knowledge Base | The files, web pages, and other information your agent can read before answering questions. |
| Tool | A task the agent can perform, such as checking an order, sending an email, or booking a meeting. |
| Integration | A connection between Botcadence and another app, such as Gmail, Shopify, Slack, or Google Sheets. |
| Action | A custom tool that calls an internet address you provide. Use one when the built-in tools do not do what you need. |
| MCP server | An outside service that gives your agent a group of tools. You connect it once, then choose which tools the agent may use. |
| Prompt | The instructions that tell your agent who it is, how it should speak, and how it should handle a request. |
| Playground | A safe testing area where you can try a workflow before customers use it. |
| Voice Lab | A page where you listen to different computer voices before choosing one for a voice agent. |
| Insights | Reports that help you understand conversations, calls, tickets, and handovers. |
Words used by outside services
| Word | Plain-English meaning |
|---|---|
| API | A way for one computer program to ask another program to do something. You can ignore this section if you only use the dashboard. |
| API key | A private password-like value that lets another program use your Botcadence project. Keep it secret. |
| Webhook | An automatic message that one app sends to another when something happens. |
| Endpoint | The web address where an app receives a request. It is usually a URL. |
| Payload | The information included in a request, such as a customer name or order number. |
| Authentication | Checking that a request comes from an approved person or program. |
| OTP | A one-time code sent by email or SMS to confirm that someone owns that address or phone number. |
| CRM | A customer management system that stores people, leads, and sales information. |
| TTS | Text-to-speech: turning written words into a spoken voice. |
| STT | Speech-to-text: turning a person’s spoken words into written text. |
| LLM | The language model that helps an AI agent understand a message and write a reply. In most guides, we simply call this the AI model. |
| MCP | Model Context Protocol. For most users, this simply means a standard way to connect an outside tool service to an AI agent. |
| WABA | WhatsApp Business Account, the business account that owns your WhatsApp numbers and templates. |
| AWB | The shipment tracking number used by a delivery company. |
| Meta | The company that operates Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. |
Where to start
- New to Botcadence? Follow the Quickstart.
- Building an agent? Start with Build and Workflows.
- Putting an agent in front of customers? See Deploy.
- Connecting another app? See Integrations.
- Connecting your own software? Start with the API Reference.
If a guide uses a word you do not know, return to this page. Dashboard labels are shown in bold so you can find the same words on screen.