> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.goassay.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.goassay.ai/help/glossary.md). # Glossary Look up the words used across the Assay guides. The words you will meet most often, in alphabetical order. Follow a link for the full guide. ## A | Term | Meaning | | ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Access rules** | Rules that decide which tools and providers an agent may use. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/set-limits-and-rules) | | **Account ceiling** | The most your whole account may spend, across all agents and payment keys. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/set-limits-and-rules) | | **Agent** | The identity Assay uses to group your AI's calls and apply spending and access rules. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/manage-agents-apps-and-keys) | | **Agent limit** | The most one agent may spend per call, per 24 hours or per month. It sits under your account ceiling; the lower one applies. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/set-limits-and-rules) | | **AI app** | The app you use to ask an AI to do work, such as Claude or ChatGPT. It connects to Assay so the AI can call tools. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/connect-your-ai-app) | | **API** | A way for one program to request work from another. A provider connects its API to an Assay tool. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/list-a-catalogue-tool) | | **API key** | A secret that lets software in. Your agent API key lets your own program call tools; a provider's API key protects its endpoint. Neither one can pay. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/manage-agents-apps-and-keys) | | **Arbiter** | The person who decides a provider's dispute of a stake penalty. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/penalties) | | **Assay fee** | Assay's 10% share of a paid call. It is included in the listed price, not added on top. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/get-paid) | | **assay-mcp** | The Assay app that runs on your computer, connects your AI app and signs payments within the limits you approved. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/connect-your-ai-app) | ## B–C | Term | Meaning | | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Bad-result report** | Your report that a call returned a bad answer, sent with **Report a bad result** on the receipt. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/get-a-refund) | | **Bond** | Another word for stake, used on goassay.ai. | | **Call** | One request to run a tool with particular inputs. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/make-your-first-call) | | **Catalogue** | All the tools you can browse. An agent may be allowed a smaller set. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/find-tools) | | **Checking** | A call whose result is still being checked. Its price is reserved and has not been charged yet. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/check-your-spending) | | **Claim** | The wallet step that moves money to you after a withdrawal wait. Requesting a withdrawal alone does not move it. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/withdraw-funds) | | **Connected app** | An AI app signed in to act as one of your agents. You can revoke it separately from its payment key. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/manage-agents-apps-and-keys) | ## D–E | Term | Meaning | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Deposit** | USDG you move from your wallet into escrow to pay for calls. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/add-funds) | | **Did not finish in time** | A call that did not complete in time: payment was never confirmed, the provider never answered, or the checks never finished. You were not charged, and any money reserved for it was released. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/check-your-spending) | | **Dispute** | A provider's on-chain objection to a stake penalty, decided by the arbiter. Customers send a bad-result report instead. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/penalties) | | **Endpoint** | The address of the provider's API that Assay calls to serve a tool. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/list-a-catalogue-tool) | | **Escrow** | The payment contract that holds the money you deposited for calls, separate from your wallet. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/add-funds) | | **ETH** | The token used to pay network fees on Robinhood Chain. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/add-funds) | ## F–H | Term | Meaning | | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Failure promise** | The share of checked calls a provider promises may fail, at most. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/quality-and-sla) | | **Failure rate** | Failed checked calls divided by all checked calls (passed and failed). Skipped checks do not count. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/quality-and-sla) | | **Free allowance (free tier)** | A number of free calls each agent gets per tool each day, set by the provider. After it is used up, further calls that day are paid if the tool has a price. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/find-tools) | | **Hold** | Money reserved for a call so it cannot be spent twice: first while the result is checked, then for about an hour before the provider is paid. [Read more](/start-here/how-it-works.md) | | **Hosted connector** | An Assay connection added inside a hosted AI app: claude.ai, ChatGPT or a Claude Desktop connector. It makes free calls only. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/connect-your-ai-app) | ## L–N | Term | Meaning | | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Listing** | A provider's offer to serve a tool through its API, with a price and quality terms. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/list-a-catalogue-tool) | | **Local app** | An AI app connected through assay-mcp on your computer. It can make paid calls. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/connect-your-ai-app) | | **MCP** | Model Context Protocol: the standard AI apps use to find and call tools. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/connect-your-ai-app) | | **Network fee (gas)** | The fee for a wallet transaction on the chain, paid in ETH. It is separate from a tool's price. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/add-funds) | | **Not charged** | A paid call that ended without a charge, or whose charge was refunded. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/check-your-spending) | | **Not credited** | Provider side: calls that did not turn into wallet earnings, with the reason, shown on **Money**. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/get-paid) | ## O–P | Term | Meaning | | --------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Owed** | A call that was served but whose payment was not collected. Paid calls pause until you settle it. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/fix-a-payment-problem) | | **Payment key** | The key assay-mcp keeps on your computer to sign payments within your approved caps. It cannot withdraw your money. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/manage-agents-apps-and-keys) | | **Payment permission** | Your wallet's approval for one payment key to spend within caps until an expiry date. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/turn-on-paid-calls) | | **Payment-key fingerprint** | A short code to check that the key in your local app matches the one on the wallet approval page. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/turn-on-paid-calls) | | **Payout wallet** | The wallet where a provider receives its share of paid calls. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/set-up-your-account) | | **Penalty (slash)** | A deduction from provider stake after a quality breach. A proposed penalty is not yet money lost. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/penalties) | | **Provider** | The person or business whose API supplies a tool's answer. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/set-up-your-account) | ## Q–R | Term | Meaning | | -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Quality checks** | Checks that compare a returned result with the tool's promises. The receipt shows which ones ran. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/check-your-spending) | | **Receipt** | The record of one call: price, charge, checks and timeline. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/check-your-spending) | | **Recourse** | Not being charged, or getting a refund, when a call fails. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/get-a-refund) | | **Refund** | Money returned to your Assay balance (escrow), not to your wallet. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/get-a-refund) | | **Refundable until** | The receipt's deadline for a bad-result report that can refund the call. After it, a report is still accepted for up to 7 days but cannot refund the call. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/get-a-refund) | | **Refused** | An attempt stopped before it ran, for the reason shown. You are not charged. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/fix-a-payment-problem) | | **Reserved** | A call's price set aside from your balance while its result is checked. It is charged only if the result passes. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/check-your-spending) | | **Robinhood Chain** | The blockchain Assay uses for USDG payments and provider stake. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/add-funds) | ## S–Z | Term | Meaning | | --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **SLA** | Service-level agreement: the provider's quality promise and its terms. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/quality-and-sla) | | **Stake** | Provider money set aside to back the quality promise of paid tools. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/manage-your-stake) | | **Tool** | A named action your AI can ask for, with defined inputs and an answer. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/find-tools) | | **Tool set** | Your own selection of tools behind its own MCP connection, which you can share. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/create-and-share-toolsets) | | **Unbonding** | The wait after a provider asks for stake back, before it can be claimed. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/list-your-api/manage-your-stake) | | **USDG** | The dollar token used for Assay payments and stake. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/add-funds) | | **Withdrawal** | Moving unspent escrow money back to your wallet: request, wait, then claim. Paid calls pause while it is open. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/withdraw-funds) | | **Written off** | An owed call whose reserved money was released after collection failed for too long. The provider was not paid, but you still owe it and paid calls stay paused until you settle it. [Read more](https://docs.goassay.ai/use-tools/fix-a-payment-problem) | --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. 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