Glossary of Anythink terms
An A to Z of Anythink's own terms, from API key and entity to workflow and widget, each with a short definition and a link to the page that explains it.
Last updated
This glossary lists the terms Anythink uses for its own features, in alphabetical order. Each entry gives a short definition and links to the page that explains it in full. If you're new, start with Core concepts and come back here when a word is unfamiliar.
A#
Access token. The signed token a sign-in returns. Your app sends it as Authorization: Bearer <token> on every API call, and it lasts 30 minutes. See Sign in users.
AI chat. The AI panel in the Anythink dashboard. It answers questions about your project and can make changes through tools, using your permissions. See How AI chat and MCP work.
Anythink dashboard. The web interface for your project: model data, edit records, manage users and permissions, build workflows and charts, and read your API documentation. See Core concepts.
AnythinkPay. The payments and subscriptions system built into every project. It takes payments through Stripe and verifies Apple in-app purchases. See How payments and subscriptions work.
API Access. A setting on a role. While it's off, users on that role get 403 from your own entities' data endpoints, whatever permissions the role holds. See Roles and permissions.
API call trigger. A trigger that gives a workflow its own POST route at /org/{project_id}/workflows/api/{route}. It returns 204 No Content once the job is queued. See Triggers and scheduling.
API key. A credential for servers, scripts and CI, sent in the x-api-key header. It carries a list of permissions you choose, never more than its creator has, and it expires. See API keys.
B#
Billing account. The organisation that pays. It holds a payment method, invoices, usage and a team, and can hold several projects. Each project belongs to exactly one. See Account, billing and projects.
Bundle. A one-off extra that adds to a quota and doesn't expire. You buy it for the billing account. See Limits and quotas.
Button group. A set of action buttons registered with Anythink that a push notification can carry. A tap on a button can start a workflow. See Push notifications from a workflow.
C#
Chart. A saved chart definition: an entity, how values are combined, how they're grouped, filters and a timeframe. One chart can sit on several dashboards. See Dashboards and charts.
CLI. The anythink command-line tool. It has a command for each area of the platform and suits scripts, CI and repeatable setup. See Install and use the Anythink CLI.
cli tool. The one MCP tool that runs any Anythink CLI command through your installed anythink binary. An assistant uses it for entities, records, workflows, roles and everything else inside a project. See MCP server tools reference.
CLI profile. A saved set of credentials for one project. The active profile is shared by every terminal and tool on your machine, so name it with --profile in scripts. See Install and use the Anythink CLI.
Connection. Your project's link to an integration provider: a name plus encrypted credentials. A project can hold several connections to the same provider. See How integrations work.
D#
Dashboard. A named page of widgets that shows your data at a glance, laid out on a 12-column grid. Each project has one default dashboard, and people can build personal ones. See Dashboards and charts.
E#
Email template. A subject and an HTML body with {{ }} variables, used by a Send An Email step. See Send email from a workflow.
Entitlement. The answer to "can this user use the paid feature right now?". One call covers Stripe, Apple and the app's free trial. See Offer codes, free trials and entitlements.
Entity. A type of thing you store, such as orders or blog_posts. Saving an entity gives it REST endpoints. See Model your data.
Event trigger. A trigger that starts a workflow when something happens in your project, such as a record being created or updated, a user registering or a payment changing. See Triggers and scheduling.
F#
Field. One named, typed property of an entity, such as price or customer. A relationship is also a field. See Model your data.
Field type. The type that decides how a field's value is stored and validated, such as varchar, decimal, boolean, jsonb, file or many-to-one. See Data Types.
G#
Group. A named set of users in a project, such as a team or a class. Grant a record to a group and every member can reach it. See Groups and row-level security.
I#
Instant REST API. The REST endpoints every entity gets when you save it. There's nothing to deploy and no routes to write. See Call the instant REST API.
Integration. A provider such as Slack, GitHub or Google Calendar that your project can call from a workflow's Integration step, without you writing the HTTP calls or storing tokens. See How integrations work.
J#
Job. One run of a workflow. It records the payload that started it, every step's log and output, and a final status of Pending, Running, Success or Failed. See How workflows work.
Job history. The list of a workflow's jobs, with what each step received and returned. Open it with View Job History or anythink workflows jobs. See Test workflows and read job history.
L#
Legacy URL. An older route kept as an alias so existing integrations keep working. For example, the subscription-templates route is an alias of the subscription-plans routes. Use the current route for anything new. See Create plans and manage subscriptions.
M#
Manual trigger. A trigger that lists the entities it applies to. Those records get a button in the Anythink dashboard that runs the workflow, and your code can call the trigger endpoint. See Triggers and scheduling.
MCP. Model Context Protocol. The Anythink MCP server, anythink-mcp, lets an assistant such as Claude or Cursor work on your project from plain English, with your permissions. See Connect Claude to your backend with MCP.
Menu. The set of links a role sees in the sidebar of the Anythink dashboard. Menus change what people see, not what they can do. See Menu configuration.
N#
Name field. The field that identifies a record at a glance in the dashboard. Search always matches it and ranks it highest, and it implies searchable. See Model your data.
O#
Offer. A referral programme or a promotion: a set of codes, an optional eligibility rule and a reward. See Offer codes, free trials and entitlements.
Operation. One thing an integration provider can do, such as Slack's send-message, with a fixed set of inputs and a fixed output. See Integration providers and operations.
P#
Permission. A named right to do one thing. Entity permissions follow {entity}:{action}, such as orders:read. A request without the matching permission gets 403. See Permissions reference.
Plan. In AnythinkPay, a product you define once: name, price, billing interval, trial length and an optional tier rank. A subscription takes its terms from its plan. See Create plans and manage subscriptions.
Platform limit. A fixed limit that's the same for every project whatever the plan, such as the 250-step cap on a workflow job. See Limits and quotas.
Project. Your whole backend: its data model, records, users, files, workflows and settings. Projects are isolated from each other. See Core concepts.
Project connection. A connection any workflow in the project can use, such as a team Slack workspace. See How integrations work.
Project plan. The Anythink plan a project is on. It sets the project's quotas. This is separate from an AnythinkPay plan. See Account, billing and projects.
Promo code. A one-off code such as LAUNCH50 that carries a reward and rules for who can redeem it. See Offer codes, free trials and entitlements.
Public entity. An entity that can be read without signing in. Only fields marked publicly searchable are exposed. See Model your data.
Publicly searchable. A field setting that lets signed-out visitors search the field and see it in public results. It needs the field to be searchable too. See Search records across your entities.
Push device. A device's push token registered with your project and tied to a user, through FCM or web push. See Push notifications from a workflow.
Q#
Quota. An allowance that depends on your project's plan, such as database storage, monthly active users, workflow runs or daily emails. See Limits and quotas.
R#
Record. One saved item in an entity: one product, one order, one post. See Records, views and CSV import.
Refresh token. The token a sign-in returns alongside the access token. It lasts 30 days, is single use and is exchanged for a new pair when the access token expires. See Sign in users.
Relationship. A field that links one entity to another. The types are one-to-one, many-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many. See Connect entities with relationships.
Role. A set of permissions assigned to users. Every project starts with Standard User and Admin User. See Roles and permissions.
Row-level security. A switch on each entity. While it's on, users reach only the records granted to them, by name or through a group. See Groups and row-level security.
S#
SDK. @anythink-cloud/sdk, which handles sign-in and sessions in React apps. It doesn't read or write data. See Anythink SDK: sign-in and sessions.
Secret. A credential you store once, encrypted and write-only, and refer to by name in a workflow step with {{ $anythink.secrets.NAME }}. See Store API keys and tokens as secrets.
Sender address. A full address on a verified sending domain, with an optional display name. One address is the default. See Send email from a workflow.
Sending domain. A domain you own, verified with DNS records, so your project can send email as you. See Send email from a workflow.
Spend cap. A monthly limit on extra spending beyond your plans, set by a billing account Owner. It either warns you or blocks charges. See Account, billing and projects.
Step. One action in a workflow, such as reading data, creating a record, calling an API or sending an email. Each step links to a next step on success and on failure. See Step types.
Step key. The name of a step, made of letters, numbers and underscores. Later steps read its output as $anythink.steps.<key>.data. See Step types.
Subscription. One subscriber's purchase, with a status, the current period, the provider (Stripe or Apple) and the users it is linked to. See Create plans and manage subscriptions.
T#
Template. An expression inside {{ }} that puts a live value into a workflow step's parameters just before the step runs. Not the same as an email template. See Template syntax.
Timed trigger. A trigger that starts a workflow on a five-field cron schedule, in UTC, with a resolution of one minute. See Triggers and scheduling.
Trial. Free access before the first charge. A plan can have a trial of 1 to 365 days, and a project can also give every user who has never subscribed one free window. See Offer codes, free trials and entitlements.
Trigger. What starts a workflow. There are four kinds: Event, Timed, Manual and API call. A workflow can have several. See Triggers and scheduling.
Trigger filter. A condition on an event trigger that decides whether a job is created, such as only when an order's status changes to paid. See Triggers and scheduling.
U#
User connection. A connection one user links with their own account. Only jobs that user triggers can use it. See Let each user connect their own account.
W#
Widget. One tile on a dashboard: a chart, a list of records, a quick-action button or a materialised view. See Dashboards and charts.
Workflow. A named automation with one or more triggers and a set of steps, run in the background with nothing to host. See How workflows work.