Core concepts
These pages exist so the rest of the docs can use a word without re-defining it every time. Each entry is short — 2 to 4 paragraphs — answering one question: what does this word mean in TeamMate, and how does it relate to the others?
If you’re already familiar with most of these, skim. If a word feels overloaded (“is a task the same as a workflow?”), the relevant page is the place to come back to.
The eight concepts
| Concept | One-line definition |
|---|---|
| Workspace | Your company’s private space in TeamMate. Holds everything else. |
| Agent | A named AI employee with a job, instructions, and personality. |
| Skill | A reusable behaviour an agent can load on demand — a playbook. |
| Tool & capability | What an agent can do (a tool); the higher-level switch that turns it on (a capability). |
| Knowledge base | A searchable collection of documents an agent reads from. |
| Channel | A place users reach an agent — chat, Slack, Teams, email, voice. |
| Interface | A pre-built form on top of chat (e.g. an “intake form” that sends a structured message). |
| Task vs workflow vs trigger | The three words for “how an agent runs without a user typing.” |
Suggested reading order
If you’re brand new, the most useful order is:
- Workspace — the container.
- Agent — the thing you build.
- Knowledge base — what the agent reads.
- Tool & capability — what the agent does.
- Channel — how users reach the agent.
- Task vs workflow vs trigger — how the agent runs by itself.
The other three — Team, Skill, Interface — are best read when you actually need them.
A picture if you prefer
The relationship in one ASCII sketch:
Workspace
└─ Agent(s)
├─ Instructions (what to do)
├─ Knowledge (what to read)
├─ Tools (what to do, programmatically)
├─ Skills (loadable playbooks)
├─ Channels (how users reach it)
└─ Triggers (when it runs by itself)For the full picture with model choice and governance, see How it works.