> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dialai.ca/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Key Concepts > The vocabulary you need before building flows and agents This page is the glossary. Everything else in the **Building & Managing Flows** group assumes you know these terms. ## Flow A **Flow** is a structured sequence of states and transitions that guides a conversation between your AI agent and the customer. A flow has an **initial state**, branches based on what the agent learns during the conversation, and ends when the agent (or a function) decides the interaction is done. Flows are customer-facing. They run on every channel — voice, SMS, web chat, email, Slack. See: [Flows](/flows), [Building Your First Flow](/first-flow). ## State A **State** is one step inside a flow. Each state has: * A **Thought** — the instructions that tell the AI agent what to say or do here. * A set of **Functions** the agent is allowed to call from this state. * Outgoing **Transitions** to other states, each triggered by an **Event**. The agent stays in a state until a transition fires. ## Transition A **Transition** is a directed edge from one state to another, triggered by a named **Event**. Transitions are how flows branch — different events from the same state can lead to different next states. ## Event An **Event** is a named outcome a function can emit. Functions declare the events they may emit; transitions listen for them. Example: a `Lookup Account` function might emit `AccountFound` or `NoAccountMatch`, each driving the flow to a different state. ## Thought A **Thought** is the natural-language instruction attached to a state. It tells the AI agent how to behave at this point in the conversation — what to say, what data to collect, when to call functions, how to handle edge cases. Well-written thoughts use strong directives ("must", "will") and reference function names explicitly. See [Designing Thoughts](/thoughts) for the full guide. ## Function A **Function** is a piece of JavaScript the agent can call. Functions can: * Take in **parameters** from the agent, from conversation context, or from flow-level static configuration. * Return a **response** the agent will see. * Set **context additions** for use by later functions. * Emit an **event** that drives a state transition. See [Functions and Events](/functions-and-events). ## Parameter **Parameters** are data values used inside a flow. Four kinds: * **Normal parameters** — passed to a function by the agent at call time. * **Internal (context) parameters** — values set by a previous function or by the runtime, available to later functions. * **Static parameters** — flow-level configuration (API keys, base URLs, feature toggles). Configured under **Configure Flow > Variables**. * **Emitted context additions** — context keys a function may write. Declaring these enables UI suggestions and a warning when a function writes an undeclared key. ## Agent An **Agent** is an internal AI assistant your team uses inside the platform — for analysis, reporting, or back-office tasks. Agents are not customer-facing. They live alongside flows on the Build page for convenience. See [Agents](/agents). ## Point of contact (POC) A **Point of Contact** is the channel that connects a flow to the outside world — a phone number, SMS line, email address, web chat snippet, or Slack workspace. One flow can serve many POCs; one POC runs exactly one flow at a time. See [Points of Contact](/points-of-contact). ## Skill A **Skill** is a named capability that human agents have (e.g., Billing, Spanish, Fraud Assistance). When a flow hands off to a human, the routing engine matches the conversation's required skills against the available human agents. See [Operations > Skills](/operations#skills). ## Draft vs Published Every flow has a **draft** (the version you're editing) and zero or more **published** versions. Points of Contact reference a specific published version, so editing a draft never disrupts traffic. Hit **Publish** to cut a new immutable version and update the POCs that should pick it up. ## Test Scenario A **Test Scenario** is a recorded simulated conversation used to assert flow behavior. Scenarios can be replayed across flow versions to catch regressions before publishing. See [Testing Flows](/testing-flows). ## Document A **Document** is reference material the AI agent can search during a conversation. Documents can be uploaded directly, or sourced from a connected S3 bucket or Confluence space. See [Manage Documents](/manage-documents). ## FAQ An **FAQ** is a Q\&A pair attached to a flow. FAQs are surfaced to the agent when the customer's message matches the question. See [FAQ](/faq). *** ## Related Apply the concepts. Manage flows. Every flow setting, explained.