Terminology
Glossary of terms used throughout WebPal and this documentation.
A
Activity Log
A chronological record of all user actions in WebPal: uploads, downloads, logins, shares, deletions, and more. Accessible to administrators from the Server section. Can be filtered, sorted, and exported to Excel.
Admin / Administrator
A user with the admin role. Administrators have access to all documents, all websites, the Server administration section, and all AI agents. They can manage users, groups, shared drives, and site assignments.
Agent
An AI-powered program that can reason, use tools, and take actions within WebPal. Agents are configured with a role (set of instructions), a set of tools, and optionally event triggers. WebPal includes built-in agents and allows custom agents to be created without code via the AgentCreator.
AgentCreator
A built-in WebPal agent that allows authorised users to create new custom agents through a conversational interface — no PHP coding required.
Agent Context
The document or folder that an AI agent is currently working with. When you navigate to a file in the Documents section, the active agent is made aware of it and can reference it in responses.
Attachment
A file attached to a share notification email, or a file attached to an AI chat message. Chat attachments are stored in the Document Manager under a designated folder.
B
Background Agent
An AI agent that runs automatically without user interaction. Background agents are typically event-triggered or part of a workflow. They do not appear in the chat agent selector.
Breadcrumb
The navigation path displayed at the top of the centre panel showing the current folder location (e.g., My Drive > Projects > Q1 Report). Hover over truncated segments to see the full name.
C
Chapter
In the CMS/Sites context, a chapter is a page or section of a website. Chapters are arranged hierarchically in the web tree and can contain HTML content, images, forms, and sub-chapters.
CKEditor
The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) rich text editor used for editing HTML/web content in WebPal Sites and Markdown documents.
CMS (Content Management System)
The Sites module of WebPal that manages web content, page structure, and publishing to live websites.
Connector
A publish connector is a configured destination server where a WebPal site is deployed. Connectors hold the credentials and connection details for the target web server.
Context (AI)
A named, persistent conversation session with an AI agent. Each context maintains its own chat history. You can have multiple contexts and switch between them.
Context Reset
A visual marker in an AI chat timeline that signals the agent to ignore prior conversation history above the marker. This starts a fresh conversation within the same context without losing the history.
D
Dark Mode
A visual theme where the interface uses dark backgrounds and light text. Toggle between dark and light mode from your avatar dropdown.
Document
Any file stored in WebPal. The term "document" is used broadly — it includes PDFs, Word files, spreadsheets, images, code files, and WebPal native formats. (In WebPal UI, "Document" is preferred over "File".)
Document Manager (DM)
The core document management system of WebPal. Handles storage, versioning, sharing, search, and organisation of all files.
DocumentActivity
An event broadcast via WebSocket whenever a document is modified. Causes real-time updates in other users' browsers.
Draft
A status flag on a document indicating it is a work-in-progress and not yet final. Visual indicator only — does not restrict access.
E
Event Trigger
A configuration that causes an AI agent to run automatically when a specific event occurs. Supported triggers: FileChanged, FolderContentChanged, IncomingEmailReceived.
Extension
A modular component that adds functionality to a WebPal site. Extensions are built with Laravel and can include controllers, models, views, routes, and database schemas. They appear as a node in the web tree.
F
File
An object stored in WebPal. See also: Document. The terms are used interchangeably in WebPal's codebase, but the user interface uses "Document" for files and "Folder" for directories.
Flow
The AI automation platform in WebPal. Provides the chat interface, agent management, workflow orchestration, and event-triggered automation.
Folder
A container for organising documents hierarchically. Folders can be nested to any depth. (WebPal uses "Folder" rather than "Directory" in the UI.)
G
Group
A named collection of users. Groups simplify access management — you can share a drive or document with a group rather than selecting individual users. Groups also control which features users can access (e.g., the agent-creators group controls access to AgentCreator).
Guest
A user role with minimal access. Guests can only access documents explicitly shared with them. Guest accounts can be created for external collaborators who need access to specific files without a full WebPal account. External email recipients who access shared links are treated as temporary guests.
H
History Tab
The tab in the document detail panel (right panel of the Documents section) that shows all recorded activity for the selected document.
I
Inertia.js
The server-driven SPA framework used to build WebPal's frontend. Provides seamless navigation without full-page reloads while maintaining standard Laravel server-side rendering.
L
Lock
A mechanism that prevents concurrent editing conflicts. When a user opens a node for editing in the CMS, it is locked to them. The lock expires after a period of inactivity (typically 15–30 minutes).
LLM (Large Language Model)
The underlying AI engine powering WebPal's AI agents. WebPal supports multiple LLM providers including OpenAI (GPT-4o), Anthropic (Claude), and Google (Gemini).
M
Monaco Editor
A powerful code editor (the same engine as VS Code) used in WebPal for editing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other code files. Includes syntax highlighting, code completion, and auto-save.
Mermaid
A JavaScript-based diagram rendering library. WebPal uses Mermaid to visualise AI agent state diagrams on the Flow page.
N
Node
In the CMS context, any element in the web tree: a chapter, HTML block, image, list, form, or extension. Nodes can be created, moved, copied, and deleted.
Needs Review
A status flag on a document indicating it requires review before being considered final. Visual indicator only.
P
Permission
The level of access a user or group has to a document, folder, or shared drive. Permissions include: View Online, Download as PDF, Download as Original, Upload New Version, Move/Delete, Add Documents, Create Folders, Share.
Plugin
Legacy modular extensions to WebPal functionality, located in private/plugins/dm/. Being superseded by the modern Extension system.
Pretty Path
A human-readable symbolic path for a document or folder (e.g., /My Drive/Projects/Report.pdf) as opposed to the internal numeric ID. Pretty paths are used in the XML API when pretty="true" is set.
Preview Domain
The subdomain or URL used to preview a WebPal site before it is published to the live destination.
Publish
The action of sending saved CMS content to the configured live web server (publish destination/connector). Publishing makes changes visible on the live website.
R
Real-Time Broadcasting
The WebSocket-based system that pushes updates to connected browsers instantly. When a colleague uploads a file or an AI agent completes a task, your browser is notified without requiring a page refresh.
Reverb
Laravel Reverb — the WebSocket server included with WebPal that enables real-time broadcasting.
Recycler / Trash
Deleted files are moved to the recycler rather than being permanently deleted immediately. Administrators can recover files from the recycler within the configured retention period.
S
Sanctum
Laravel Sanctum — the package used for API token authentication. Personal access tokens can be created for programmatic access to the REST API.
Session
An authenticated user session. Also, an AI chat session (context) that maintains conversation history.
Shared Drive
A top-level folder that multiple users can access simultaneously. Shared drives appear in users' folder trees. Each user's access level within the drive is configured independently.
Shared With Me
A virtual folder that appears in the user's folder tree, containing all documents and folders that others have shared specifically with that user.
Share
An access grant that gives a user (or guest) access to a specific document or folder. Shares can have expiry dates and specific permissions. A share creates a notification email to the recipient (unless it's a group share without email).
Short Title
In the CMS, a shorter version of a chapter title used in navigation menus where full titles would be too long.
SSH Key
Automatically generated when a user account is created. Available in the user's profile. Used for programmatic access or integrations requiring SSH-based authentication.
System Group
Protected groups that cannot be renamed or deleted: admin, web-admin, web-developer, ai user agents.
T
Tag
A label attached to a document for categorisation and filtering. Tags are separate from the filename and can be searched.
Thumbnail
A small preview image automatically generated for supported document types (images, PDFs, Office files). Shown in the tile view and file listing.
Toast Notification
A small, temporary notification that appears at the corner of the screen. Used for system messages, upload confirmations, and AI agent completion alerts.
Token
1. An API token used for authentication (Sanctum personal access token).
2. An LLM token — the unit of text consumption for AI processing. Input and output token counts are tracked for all AI conversations.
Tool
A function that an AI agent can call to interact with WebPal or external systems. Examples: read_document, list_directory, github_query_issues. Tools have defined parameters and return JSON-encoded results to the agent.
Tool Registry
The centralised list of all available tools (built-in, Vizra ADK, MCP server). Visible in the Flow section left panel.
Trigger
An event binding that causes an agent to run automatically. See: Event Trigger.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
An additional security layer requiring a verification code (sent via SMS or voice call) in addition to the username and password. Configured per-user by administrators.
U
User
A person with an account on WebPal. Users have a username (login), password, email, role (admin/user/guest), and optional group memberships.
UserWeb / Web
The database entity representing a WebPal site. See: Web.
V
Version
A historical snapshot of a document. Every time a new version is uploaded, the previous content is saved as a version entry. Versions are numbered and can be individually downloaded or restored.
Vizra ADK
The Agent Development Kit that powers WebPal's AI platform. An open-source Laravel package for building LLM-based agents with tool support, memory, sub-agent delegation, and event triggers.
W
Web
A WebPal site (also called a "web"). Each web has its own content tree, settings, publish connectors, and user access list. Multiple webs can exist on a single WebPal installation.
WebDAV
Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning — a protocol that allows WebPal to be mounted as a network drive on Windows, macOS, and Linux. All file operations through WebDAV are logged and version-tracked.
Web Manager
The core service that manages web/site content, XML parsing, and compilation.
WDOC
A WebPal-native rich text document format (effectively an HTML file managed and edited through the CKEditor/Monaco editor within WebPal).
Workflow Agent
An AI agent that orchestrates multiple sub-agents in a defined sequence (possibly with parallel steps). Used for complex multi-step automation processes like the Meeting Summary Workflow.
WYSIWYG
What You See Is What You Get — a type of editor (like CKEditor) that shows content as it will appear when rendered, rather than showing markup code.
X
XML API
See: XML Web Service API.
XML Web Service API
The legacy document management API that accepts XML POST requests and returns XML responses. Available at /webservice/xml-service.php. Still the most comprehensive API for external integrations.
XTerm.js
The JavaScript terminal emulator library used to provide a browser-based terminal interface in WebPal.