These terms describe distinct parts of Answer Cloud. Use the same definitions when requesting agent work, interpreting reports, or comparing outcomes.
Accounts and targets#
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Organization / workspace | The owner of sites, content, memberships, and organization access. |
| Organization ID | Numeric identifier used to select an approved workspace in MCP calls. |
| Hosted website | A complete static website published by Answer Cloud; site kind hosting. |
| Companion | A CMS-driven resource alongside a website that stays on another host; kind byo_cms. |
| Site slug | Stable DNS-safe operational identifier used by site-specific tools. |
| Site ID | Numeric site identifier used by integrations and stored data. |
| Canonical URL | The preferred public HTML address for a page and its attribution. |
| Origin | The scheme and host, with port when applicable, used to identify a website context. |
A name, slug, and ID are not interchangeable. See organizations and sites before operating across multiple targets.
Publishing#
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Astro source | Editable project files that build the static website. |
| Artifact | The packaged built output supplied for a deployment. |
| Deploy ID | Numeric identifier for inspecting/finalizing one deployment record. |
| Sequence | Site-local release number used for history and rollback. |
| Staging | Review destination in an enabled independent release workflow. |
| Production | Public release destination for the site's intended visitors. |
| Promotion | Publish a processed staging deploy to the active production domain. |
| CMS collection | Content model with entries, fields, URL patterns, and shared templates. |
| Draft | Saved changes that have not replaced the published content. |
| Archive | Remove an entry publicly while preserving its recoverable record. |
| Republish | Render already-published CMS content again, commonly after template changes. |
A live pipeline status does not mean the deploy is the current production pointer, and a deployment rollback does not necessarily restore historical CMS text. See deployment tools and CMS lifecycle.
AI and discovery#
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AEO | Answer engine optimization: making useful information accessible, understandable, and verifiable for answer-oriented retrieval. |
| Grounding | Using relevant published content when forming an on-site chat answer. |
| Embedding | A numerical representation used for semantic retrieval. |
| Retrieval | Finding source information relevant to a question. |
| Citation | A source reference included in a particular answer. |
| Query fanout | Exploring related searches or questions; audit suggestions are not observed private queries. |
| Markdown mirror | Text representation of a published HTML page. |
| llms.txt | Proposed Markdown guide to useful site resources. |
| Visibility Audit | Saved heuristic assessment with evidence and generated recommendations. |
See AI visibility for the limits of each signal.
Analytics#
A request is an observed access to a URL. A pageview event records page activity under the reporting definitions. A session groups related browser activity; it is not interchangeable with requests. An AI referral is an identifiable visit from an AI source. An agent classification labels an observed request based on available evidence; it is not necessarily verified provider identity.
A conversation is a stored on-site chat thread, including one started by a form. Answer tests are a defined sample of questions and recorded responses. Reporting freshness describes how current the available consolidated data is. Keep these measures separate: none alone describes every interaction with independent AI services.
Continue with analytics concepts and report methodology.