Glossary
The words Meerkats uses, and what each one means.
These are the words we use on the site, in the app and in these docs. Each one means one thing, everywhere.
Basics#
Workspace
One business, project or app in Meerkats, with its own connections, context, rules, people and history. Workspaces are kept separate from each other.
Connection
A link to a tool you already use, such as Meta or Shopify, that Meerkats keeps in sync.
Also called a connector or integration in technical docs.
Sync
Meerkats fetching the latest data from a connection, on a schedule.
Access level
What a person can do in a workspace they're shared on: Read Only (view) or Read & Write (view and edit).
Set when you share a workspace.
Business context#
Business context
Everything an AI needs to understand your business: your data, what it means, how it connects, what is true right now, your rules and what happened before.
Context layer
The part of Meerkats that keeps business context current and serves it to agents.
Used in technical docs; customer copy says business context.
Metric definition
How a metric is calculated, defined once and used the same way by every agent and report. For example, ROAS = revenue ÷ ad spend.
The set of definitions is the semantic layer.
Entity
A thing in your business that Meerkats tracks: a campaign, product, order, customer or lead.
Relationship
How entities connect: a campaign promotes a product, a product has stock and a price.
State
What is true right now and how it got there. For example: ROAS below target for three days, after a price change.
Agents and workflows#
Agent
An AI worker that reads business context and does a job: answers questions, investigates, monitors or proposes changes.
In the app, agents live under Automation Agents.
Workflow
A repeatable process with steps, conditions and approvals that runs on a schedule or when something happens.
Rule
A condition and an action. For example: if ROAS is below 3 for four days, lower the budget by 20%.
Called an automation rule in the API.
Run
One time an agent or workflow does its job.
In the app, see Automation Agents › Agents run history.
Autonomy level
How much an agent may do alone: recommend only, ask before acting, or act within limits you set.
The API has two modes: suggest (ask before acting) and auto (act within limits).
Approval
A person saying yes or no to a change an agent proposed. Nothing changes until it's approved, unless you allow it.
In the app, proposals wait in the Inbox. Called a staged action in the API.
Action
A change Meerkats makes in a connected tool, such as pausing a campaign or changing a budget.
Trace
The record of a run: the data used, the reasoning, the decision, who approved it, what changed and what happened next.
In the app, runs show in Agents run history; workspace changes show in the Activity log.
Access and billing#
MCP
An open standard that lets AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT connect to other software. Meerkats has an MCP server, so those tools can use your business context.
Model Context Protocol.
API key
A secret that identifies your app when it calls the Meerkats API. Keep it on your server.
Credit
How Meerkats measures usage. Agent runs, agent calls and approved actions use credits.