Glossary

Terms are in alphabetical order. Each one says what it is, where you meet it, and what it is easily confused with. Link to a term with its anchor, for example /getting-started/glossary/#milestone.

Actor

See Principal and actor.

Agent

An AI worker that picks up tasks a person has approved, works on them, and hands the result back for review. It cannot approve its own work.

• Where you see it: the Agents page, and on tasks it has claimed.
• Not to be confused with: the bot. The agent is the worker; the bot is the user account its comments and changes appear under. See Principal and actor.

Beta

See Feature flag.

Blueprint

A repeatable procedure your team writes once and applies to a project. Applying it creates real tasks in that project. A Blueprint is reviewed before anyone can use it.

• Where you see it: Blueprints in the sidebar, and suggestions on a project.
• Not to be confused with: a Guardrail, which only warns and creates nothing. Or a Timeline template, which lays out a whole plan with dates.

Brief

A project document that sets out what a project is for and what is in scope, written before the work is priced.

• Where you see it: a project’s documents.
• Not to be confused with: an SOW, which is the priced agreement a client signs.

Change order

A document that changes an agreed SOW, for example to add scope or cost. It always belongs to a SOW on the same project that the client already has.

• Where you see it: a project’s documents.
• Not to be confused with: editing the SOW itself. The signed SOW stays as it was.

Claim

When an agent takes a task from the ready queue, it holds a claim on it. While the claim is active no other agent can take that task. The agent checks in regularly; a claim that goes quiet expires and the task goes back to the queue.

• Where you see it: the Agents page.
• Not to be confused with: assigning a task to a person.

Department

A part of your organization, such as Design or Finance. A department can sit directly under the organization or under a subsidiary.

• Where you see it: Settings > Organization > Departments.
• Not to be confused with: a Team, which sits under a department or above it.

Ethical wall

A project only the people on its team can see, whatever role they hold elsewhere in the organization. The app calls this a walled project. Also called a project wall.

• Where you see it: Wall it off on a project’s team, and the list of walled projects in Settings.
• Not to be confused with: a private 1:1 standup, which is limited to the people in it.

Facilitator

The person who runs a particular standup. A facilitator can nudge people who have not posted and ask questions on lines. Being a facilitator in one standup gives nothing in another.

• Where you see it: on a standup’s settings and Team view.
• Not to be confused with: a team lead role. A person needs both the right role and a place as facilitator on that standup. See Standups.

Feature flag

A switch that turns a feature on or off for one organization. Features still in beta start turned off. A beta page in these docs carries a badge; if you do not see the feature, ask your admin to turn it on for your organization.

• Where you see it: in these docs as a beta badge. In the app, a feature that is turned off is simply absent.
• Not to be confused with: a permission. A feature can be on and you can still lack permission to use it.

Guardrail

A warning tied to something that went wrong on a past project, voted on by your team. It shows a caution when a similar project starts. It changes nothing.

• Where you see it: Guardrails in the sidebar, and kickoff warnings on a project.
• Not to be confused with: a Blueprint, which creates tasks. A Guardrail can point at a Blueprint that helps avoid the problem.

Milestone

A named goal that tasks can be assigned to, such as “Beta launch”. This is the milestone you pick on a task.

There is a second meaning: a milestone bar on a timeline, a marker on the chart. ProjectBrain keeps the two linked. When you add a milestone bar to a timeline, a matching milestone is created that you can pick on a task, so the chart and the task picker show one list.

• Where you see it: the milestone field on a task; milestone bars on the Timeline tab.
• Not to be confused with: each other. Say which you mean on first use. Removing a bar from the chart does not delete the milestone tasks point at.

Organization

The company account. Everything belongs to one organization: projects, roles and settings. A person can belong to several organizations, and a role in one grants nothing in another.

• Where you see it: your organization’s name in the app, and Settings > Organization.
• Not to be confused with: a Subsidiary, which is a part of an organization.

Permission

One thing a person may do, such as create projects or manage roles. Permissions are grouped into roles.

• Where you see it: Settings > Organization > Roles and permissions.
• Not to be confused with: a role. You give people roles, not single permissions.

Principal and actor

When an AI tool connects to ProjectBrain, two accounts are involved. The principal is the person who connected it. The actor is the bot user whose name appears on what it writes. The person’s permissions limit what the bot can do.

• Where you see it: comments and changes signed by a bot such as Claude, noted as acting for a person.
• Not to be confused with: an Agent, which is the worker using the bot account.

Project wall

See Ethical wall.

Ready queue

The list of approved tasks an agent can claim next. A task leaves the queue if someone edits it after approval, until a person approves it again.

• Where you see it: the Agents page.
• Not to be confused with: a task with a “ready” status on your board.

Role

A named set of permissions inside one organization. The default roles are Owner, Executive, Team lead, Team member and Client (read & comment). Owners can change them or create new ones.

• Where you see it: Settings > Organization > People and Roles and permissions.
• Not to be confused with: a Permission, a single thing a role allows.

SOW

A statement of work: the priced agreement for a project, sent to the client for approval or signature.

• Where you see it: a project’s documents.
• Not to be confused with: a Brief or a Change order.

Starter pack

A ready-made set of pages you can start a wiki with. You pick one, optionally, when you create a wiki. In these docs, the box at the end of a work-style guide is also called a starter pack: it lists what a template sets up and links to it in the app.

• Where you see it: Starter pack (optional) when creating a wiki.
• Not to be confused with: a Timeline template.

Status category

The group a workflow status belongs to, such as done or canceled. ProjectBrain uses the category to decide what counts as finished, so you can name your statuses freely.

• Where you see it: when editing statuses.
• Not to be confused with: the Workflow status itself.

Subsidiary

A separate company or business unit inside your organization. By default, people in one subsidiary cannot see another subsidiary’s departments.

• Where you see it: Settings > Organization > Subsidiaries.
• Not to be confused with: a separate organization, which shares nothing.

Team

A group of people, such as a launch crew. Picking a team when you create a project adds its people to the project.

• Where you see it: Settings > Organization > Teams, and Assign to Team on a new project.
• Not to be confused with: a Department, or the people on one project.

Timeline template

A reusable plan: phases, tasks, durations in working days and the order they come in. Starting a project from one builds its timeline. Templates hold structure only, never people’s names or real dates.

• Where you see it: Settings > Organization > Timeline templates, and when starting a timeline from a template.
• Not to be confused with: a Blueprint, which adds a procedure’s tasks to a project that already exists.

Workflow status

The column a task sits in, such as To do, In progress or In review. Each project’s statuses can differ.

• Where you see it: board columns and the status field on a task.
• Not to be confused with: the Status category that groups statuses.