Reference
Glossary
Clear definitions for the core Cortex terms used across the guide and API.
- Project
- A project is the top-level organizational container within Cortex that groups related feeds and sources under a shared objective.
- Objective
- An objective is a human-provided, freeform text description of the fundamental goal that a given entity should optimize for. It guides how content is selected, prioritized, and synthesized.
- Project Objective
- A project objective is the top-level statement of what a Cortex project is meant to accomplish across its feeds and digests. A strong project objective defines the domain, the broader use case, and the kind of signal the system should ultimately help surface.
- Feed Objective
- A feed objective is the scoped statement of what incoming content should be treated as relevant within a feed. A strong feed objective makes the signal boundary legible by stating what to prioritize, what to exclude or deprioritize, and what kinds of developments are materially worth keeping.
- Digest Objective
- A digest objective is the statement of what recurring artifact a digest should produce from feed data for its intended consumer. A strong digest objective defines the audience, purpose, and organizing lens of the output so Cortex can shape the result instead of merely restating the feed's scope.
- Row Objective
- A row objective is the statement of what a single row in a dataset digest represents. A strong row objective defines one stable entity, event, conversation, or action per row so the dataset can be maintained consistently over time.
- Column Objective
- A column objective is the statement of what one dataset column should capture for each row. A strong column objective is precise and atomic, and when useful it makes valid categories, formats, or decision rules explicit so the dataset stays consistent.
- Source
- A source is an external content provider that Cortex connects to for periodically retrieving raw content.
- Feed
- A feed is a configured ingestion channel governed by an objective that determines which incoming content items are relevant and how they are summarized.
- Digest
- A digest is a configured, recurring output of Cortex that consumes content from one or more feeds and produces a structured deliverable aligned to its objective.
- Digest Output
- A digest output is the persisted result produced by a digest run. It contains the generated digest content together with the execution metadata needed to inspect, track, and reason about what a specific digest execution produced.
- Processing Event
- A processing event is a persisted record of a workflow or task state transition within Cortex processing. It captures execution status, timestamps, and related context so operators can inspect what happened during ingestion or digest execution.
- API Credential
- An API credential is a managed authentication artifact issued by Cortex for programmatic access to the API. It belongs to an organization, is scoped by role and status, and is presented exactly once as a secret at creation time.