Glossary
The core concepts an administrator works with, defined briefly. For how they fit together, see How Cobalt works.Cobalt’s primitive nouns are capitalized as proper concepts — Agent, Skillset,
Skill, Channel, Integration. Sensitivity values are lowercase:
standard and elevated.Agent
The thing employees talk to. An Agent has an identity (name, role, personality, safety boundaries, languages) and a set of tools it can use. Everything else you configure attaches to an Agent.Skillset
A self-contained domain of custom capability that an Agent owns — a small chapter of related work. A Skillset groups Skills and their configurations, and carries a sensitivity. Use one only when an Integration can’t do the job.Skill
A single playbook within a Skillset: plain-language instructions for one job, optionally including shell orcurl. A Skill has a name, a “use when / skip when”
description, a content body, and a requires confirmation flag for actions that
change data.
Skillset configuration
The credentials a Skillset’s Skills need — named variables like a URL and an API key. Values are encrypted and injected at run time as environment variables (<CONFIGURATION_NAME>_<KEY>, upper-snake-cased). Secrets never appear in Skill
text or in anything the agent says. Add one from the Skillset with Add
configuration.
Integration
A Cobalt-built connector to an external system (service desk, HRIS, identity provider, file store, collaboration tool). An Integration turns that system’s capabilities into tools, with guardrails and audit built in. This is the primary way an Agent gains capability. Most integrations are curated apps from the catalog; you can also bring your own MCP Server — any MCP-compliant server you host or trust, whose tools are discovered at connect time.Tool
A single capability the Agent can invoke — a search, a lookup, an action. Tools come from Integrations, from Skillsets, or are built in. How a tool may behave is governed by rules and hooks.Hook
A policy gate that runs at the moment a tool is called. A Hook can require confirmation, check an argument against an allowlist, rewrite a call, or deny it — with audit logging.Custom knowledge
Reference material that doesn’t live in a connected system — an uploaded PDF or FAQ — organized into collections the Agent can search and cite. For content that does live in a connected system, prefer an Integration.Channel
How employees reach an Agent: the web widget, Slack, and more. One Agent can serve many Channels. An Agent with no Channel is invisible.Tenant
Your organization’s isolated space in Cobalt — every object belongs to exactly one Tenant, and isolation is enforced at the data layer — one Tenant can never see another’s data.Sensitivity
A Skillset isstandard (default) or elevated. Setting elevated — for PHI,
compensation, credentials, or security operations — routes work only to models
covered by a Business Associate Agreement, tightens PII handling and retention,
and isolates memory under a separate key.