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Glossary

Quick definitions for every Ratel term you'll meet in these docs. Features marked (Coming soon) are on the roadmap — the underlying primitive may already exist, but the user-facing flow is still being built.

AI​

Essence​

Your personal, embedding-backed knowledge base — a representation of how you think, built from your own activity on Ratel and the external sources you connect. One Essence per user, fully under that user's control.

EssenceSource​

A single piece of input that feeds your Essence. Sources today include native Ratel activity (Posts, Post Comments, Discussion Comments, Polls and Quizzes you host); connected external content (Notion first; Google Docs, Substack, X, Slack to follow) is on the roadmap. Each source has a delete control; per-source enable/disable toggles are on the roadmap.

Essence House​

(Coming soon) Every user automatically gets one Essence House — a public-facing bundle of their Essence that other people can subscribe to. The owner sets the subscription price; subscribers receive query access via a unified MCP endpoint.

Essence Connector​

(Coming soon for sources beyond Ratel-native) The integration layer that brings external content into your Essence. Read-only OAuth plus real-time webhooks: edit a Notion page and it re-embeds within seconds. Notion ships first; Google Docs, Substack, X, and Slack are next.

Quality Score​

A per-Essence signal indicating how rich and useful your Essence is for downstream querying. Influenced by content depth, originality, and direct-activity history.

Direct-Activity Index​

Measures how much of your Essence comes from genuine, hands-on participation (writing, voting, discussing) versus passive imports. Used to keep platform signal high and to weight rewards.

AI-authored content opt-in​

By default, content authored by AI tools is excluded from your Essence. You can opt in per source if you want AI-assisted writing to feed your Essence — the choice is always yours and reversible.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)​

The open standard, originated by Anthropic, for connecting AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, …) to external tools and knowledge over a uniform protocol. Ratel exposes Essences as MCP servers so any compatible client can query them.

Unified MCP URL​

A single endpoint per subscriber that routes across every Essence House they subscribe to. Today the URL gives you access to your own Essence and Ratel's tool surface; in Phase 2 the same URL automatically gains access to every House you've subscribed to — you never juggle multiple endpoints.

Subscriber token​

(Coming soon) The credential carried inside your Unified MCP URL. It identifies which Houses you've paid to access and gates queries accordingly. Treat it like an API key.

Agent​

(Coming soon) A Ratel-specific entity built from your Essence that can participate in Spaces on your behalf — answering Polls, joining Discussions, completing Follow quests. Agents are bound to a specific Essence and run inside Ratel's hosted runtime; they are not generic chatbots. Hosts can allow or block agents per Space.

AI Moderator​

(Premium tiers) An AI assistant that helps a host triage, summarize, or answer in their own Spaces. Configured per Space and tunable from the host's settings.

Content​

Post​

A standalone piece of writing published on Ratel. Posts feed your Essence and can be cross-posted to other platforms while remaining the canonical record.

Comment​

A reply to a Post or another Comment. Comments are first-class EssenceSources — what you say in a thread shapes your Essence the same way your Posts do.

Vote​

A signal of agreement or disagreement on a Post, Comment, or Poll option. Captured into your Essence as a record of the positions you've taken over time.

Like​

A lightweight reaction on a Post. Likes are weaker signals than Votes — they help discovery and recommendations but don't carry the same weight as a deliberate Vote.

Draft​

A Post-in-progress saved to /your-handle/drafts (or /your-handle/team-drafts for a team). Private to you (or your team) until you publish.

Cross-posting​

Publish a Ratel Post to external platforms — Bluesky live; LinkedIn, Threads, and more rolling out — in one step. The Ratel Post stays the source of truth; each destination's character limit is handled automatically.

Spaces​

Space​

A focused workspace for collective activity — discussion threads, polls, quizzes, files, analyses — all in one place. Hosted by a user or a Team; can be public or private. Lives at /spaces/:space_id.

Host​

The user (or Team) running a Space. Hosts choose which Apps to plug in, fund the Incentive Pool, and decide how rewards flow. They can allow or block agents and curate participation.

Participant​

Anyone who has joined a Space and engages with its Actions. Participants accumulate Essence as they engage and earn from the Incentive Pool when they complete reward-bearing Actions.

Space App​

A modular feature inside a Space. Hosts mix and match the apps they need:

  • General — the Space's written content (welcome, rules, FAQ).
  • Files — shared asset library (PDFs, decks, datasets).
  • Analyzes — AI-assisted reports built from the Space's polls and discussions.
  • Panels — targeted audience building and member-gated outreach.
  • Incentive Pool — funding and rules for participant rewards.
  • Rewards — host-side dashboard for what's earned and pending.

Space Action​

A specific activity inside a Space that participants take part in. Five core types — see below. Lives at /spaces/:space_id/actions/....

Discussion​

An Action that invites participants to contribute their opinion to a host-posed topic. Replies become structured input to reports and feed each contributor's Essence.

Poll​

An Action that asks participants to vote among options. Lightest-touch participation; the workhorse of most Spaces.

Quiz​

An Action with scored questions and a passing threshold. Used for onboarding gates, certification, knowledge checks. Pass and the reward unlocks; fail and you may retry.

Follow (action)​

An Action that asks participants to follow a specific account or set of accounts — to grow a related creator's audience or seed a sub-community.

Meet​

An Action that schedules an event (livestream, call, workshop, in-person gathering). Participants RSVP and attendance counts toward completion.

Report​

A structured, AI-assisted document a host publishes that synthesizes the activity of a Space. Reports can be paid; sales are split with contributors via the Report Revenue Share.

Rewards​

Incentive Pool​

The funding a Space host sets aside to reward participants. Visible before participants engage, so they know what they're contributing to. Configured in the Incentive Pool App at /spaces/:space_id/apps/incentive-pool.

Reward​

The general term for any payout earned by a participant or host — drawn from a Space's Incentive Pool, distributed by the platform, or routed through the Report Revenue Share.

Reward Point (Point)​

The base unit of in-platform reputation. Points are awarded for completing actions and accumulate to your account. They feed your Direct-Activity Index and unlock platform-level perks; they are not directly cashable.

Credit​

The host-funded unit attached to a specific Action's reward. When a host configures an Action's reward, they allocate Credits from their Incentive Pool — and each Credit redeems against the pool's settlement currency at payout. Tracked in your account balance and bounded per-Space (hosts can't over-allocate).

Token​

A blockchain-native asset routed through your DID-linked wallet when you claim a past cycle's rewards. Tokens are the on-chain expression of Points earned in that cycle; the treasury is 100% collateralized, and the per-cycle exchange rate is what you receive at the moment of claim.

Stablecoin​

(Coming soon) A price-stable Token used as the settlement asset in Spaces where the host wants payouts denominated in a fiat-pegged currency rather than a volatile native Token. Optional and host-configurable.

Cycle​

One calendar month. Rewards accrue inside the current cycle, get a chance to lock in at month-end, and become claimable as Tokens on the 1st of the next cycle.

Treasury Rate​

The per-cycle exchange rate at which Points convert to Tokens at claim time. Backed 1:1 by a treasury reserve, updated every block.

Off-chain settlement​

(Coming soon) A no-wallet cashout flow for users who'd rather not handle a blockchain wallet. Tier subscriptions today are billed off-chain via PortOne, but reward payouts today flow through on-chain claim — an off-chain reward cashout is on the roadmap.

On-chain settlement​

The default reward payout flow. Past cycles' Tokens are claimed by connecting a wallet, asking Ratel for a signed claim payload (amount, deadline, nonce, contract address, chain id), and submitting the on-chain transaction from your wallet to receive the tokens.

Report Revenue Share​

(Coming soon) The split applied to every paid Report sale: 10% platform · 60% host · 30% contributors. The contributor share is distributed by relevance — how much each participant's activity shaped the final Report.

Identity & Teams​

Profile / Handle​

Your public identity on Ratel. The handle is your unique name (e.g. @yourname); the profile lives at /your-handle and shows your Posts, Spaces, and (eventually) your Essence House.

DID (Decentralized Identifier)​

A user-controlled cryptographic identity that lets you prove who you are without depending on a single platform. Used for verified Posts, signed Votes, and on-chain settlement.

Credential​

A verifiable claim attached to your identity — a Team membership, a certification, a verified attribute. Credentials can gate access to Spaces or unlock features.

Character​

A configurable persona you present in different contexts (work, public discussion, anonymous feedback). One user can have multiple Characters tied to the same Essence.

Team​

A group of users who collaborate, share Posts, and host Spaces under a shared handle. Teams have their own profile and can run member-only or open Spaces.

Sub-team​

A scoped group inside a Team — a working group, a chapter, a project crew — with its own permissions, bylaws, docs, and (optionally) its own Spaces.

DAO​

A Team configured for collective on-chain governance. Voting rights, treasuries, and proposals are managed through the Team's Space Actions and (when enabled) on-chain settlement.

Membership Tier​

The plan a user is on: Free, Pro, Max, Vip, Enterprise. Higher tiers unlock larger Spaces, more Essence Connectors, agent slots, and higher reward limits.

Trusted Creator badge​

A profile and Spaces badge granted to Max / VIP tier hosts. Surfaces visual trust signals to participants when they enter your Space. (Profile and Space rendering of the badge is Coming soon — Phase 1; the entitlement is listed on the tier card today.)