Glossary¶
Silico deliberately uses a small public vocabulary. These definitions describe what the concepts mean to a researcher; internal implementation names may differ.
Context¶
Material attached where Silico needs it, such as a file, paper, repository, dataset, model, report, or earlier thread. Context stays associated with the message that introduced it. Access depends on the relevant integration, credential, filesystem, and compute connection.
Experiment¶
The durable work record created when an approved plan launches. It connects the Plan, Timeline, Code, Compute, evidence, critic review, and reports. Experiments are canonically identified by an exp_… ID.
Folder¶
A sidebar organization tool for related threads. A folder does not own the research record or change thread access.
Lab¶
A Silico deployment that the desktop app connects to. A Lab contains organizations, threads, experiments, settings, and compute.
Plan¶
Silico's proposed work before an experiment begins. A useful plan states the goal, inputs, method, controls, outputs, resource requirements, and stopping conditions.
Report¶
A durable output meant to be inspected, discussed, or shared. Reports include research narratives, diagrams, interactive explorers, and other presentations of evidence. Supporting working files remain part of the experiment rather than becoming a separate public taxonomy.
Research Unit (RU)¶
The unit used to track charged Silico usage for an organization. RUs can include conversation, planning, model work, and experiment execution; they are not GPU-hours.
Summary¶
The thread view that answers “Where does this research stand now?” It combines the planner's current synthesis, active work, and recent reports.
Thread¶
The durable record for one research direction. A thread connects context, conversation, plans, experiments, reports, and follow-up work. Threads are canonically identified by a th_… ID.
Timeline¶
The chronological research record. At thread level it orders plans, experiments, decisions, and reports; inside an experiment it records the plan, progress, decisions, deviations, and reports for that work.