Reference
Glossary
Definitions for the main MARCUS concepts, how they relate to one another, and where they appear.
This glossary reflects the current codebase and current product language. Where a concept is mostly internal, experimental, or only visible in some deployments, that is called out directly.
How To Use This Glossary
Each entry gives you:
- a plain-language definition
- the concepts most closely related to it
- where you are most likely to encounter it in the product
If two terms sound similar, use the Related concepts column first. That is usually the fastest way to understand the difference.
Core Objects
| Term | Definition | Related concepts | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Library workspace (project) | A focused work area inside one organization. Routes and administrative controls call it a project. | Project source set, Question scope, Organization | Project list, project page, project-scoped conversations, settings |
| Source | A document or imported artifact attached to a library workspace. | Project source set, Passage, Briefing | Project source list, upload flows, briefings, Library page |
| Source inventory | The visible list of sources inside a project. | Source, Ingestion, Briefing | Main project page |
| Passage | A stored segment of source text used for source review and citation. | Source, Source review | Source detail, citations, diagnostics |
| Search representation | An internal record that helps MARCUS match questions to passages. | Passage, Question, Source review | Internal ingestion and source-review services |
| Project source set | The sources attached to one library workspace. A source must also be ready before it can reliably support a question. | Library workspace, Source, Ingestion | Project source list and project conversations |
| Question scope | The permitted sources MARCUS may search for one question. This is usually the active project source set and may be narrowed by a collection or source selection. | Project source set, Collection, Source review | Conversation composer and answer workflow |
| Library page | The cross-project source-exploration page within the active organization. Finding a source here does not add it to the active project. | Organization, Source, Library workspace | Library route and source detail |
| Library quality | The usefulness, currency, scope, and authority of a source set for producing reviewable cited answers. | Project source set, Source, Authority, Coverage | Guides, troubleshooting, project management |
Source Interpretation And Enrichment
| Term | Definition | Related concepts | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Briefing | A machine-generated source overview that helps a user judge what a document is and whether it looks usable. | Summary, Key points, Source evidence | Source briefing panel, project source views |
| Summary | A short machine-generated description of a source. | Briefing, Key points | Source briefing panel |
| Key points | Short extracted statements that capture the main takeaways of a source. | Summary, Concepts | Source briefing panel |
| Tags | Lightweight labels attached to a source, often derived from analysis or ingestion metadata. | Concepts, Document type | Briefings, Library filters |
| Concepts | Extracted topics, terms, or entities used to connect related material. | Tags, Knowledge graph | Briefings, concept views, enrichment outputs |
| Document type | A classification such as protocol, guideline, note, or policy. | Source, Source evidence | Source list, briefing badges, Library |
| Authority score | Legacy term for internal ranking metadata. It is not a customer-facing quality rating; read the source evidence fields. | Source evidence, Metadata provenance | Historical records and internal retrieval |
| Authority rank | Internal retrieval metadata retained for compatibility. It does not establish source approval or quality. | Authority score, Source evidence | Internal retrieval |
| Metadata provenance | The recorded origin of a metadata field: extracted, inferred, provided by user, or unknown. | Source evidence, Briefing | Source records and Library |
| Source evidence | Available authors, publisher, publication information, version status and metadata provenance. | Metadata provenance, Citation | Source records, briefings and Library |
| Enrichment | Post-ingestion analysis such as summary generation, metadata extraction, and concept extraction. | Summary, Key points, Tags | Briefings, library metadata |
| Indexing | The point at which a source becomes available for source review after parsing and passage preparation. | Ingestion, Passage, Source review | Upload status, source status |
| Ingestion | The asynchronous pipeline that parses, prepares passages, and stores uploaded documents. | Source, Passage, Enrichment | Upload flows, status indicators, worker pipeline |
| Upload status | The visible state of a source while it is moving through ingestion. | Ingestion, Indexing | Project source list, upload flows |
Conversations And Answering
| Term | Definition | Related concepts | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversation | A saved set of messages inside a project or organization scope. | Question, Citation, Suggestion chip | Conversation history, conversation routes |
| Question | The user's ask sent into source review and answer drafting. | Source review, Response style | Composer, streamed status messages |
| Source review | The process that searches indexed content for relevant passages before answer drafting. | Passage, Citation, Coverage or support cue | Internal pipeline, streaming status UI |
| Citation | A traceable link from an answer to a selected passage or source. It enables review but does not prove that the claim, source, or answer is correct or complete. | Source review, Source, Evidence grounding | Conversation answers, shared answers, message detail |
| Coverage or support cue | A review aid describing the apparent selected support for a question. It is not a calibrated probability of correctness or completeness. | Source review, Library quality, Citation | Conversation response surfaces |
| Response style | The answer framing selected for a question, such as protocol-style or reasoning-oriented output. | Question, Answer drafting | Answer assembly and streamed planning messages |
| Suggestion chip | A follow-up question shown after an answer to help refine or extend the conversation. | Conversation, Question | Conversation UI after assistant responses |
| Streaming status | Live status text that tells the user what the system is doing while a streamed answer is being prepared. | Question analysis, Source review, Answer drafting | Thinking-state UI during conversation streaming |
| Evidence trace | Structured source-review and answer-assembly provenance used for auditing and debugging. This is not hidden chain-of-thought. | Source review, Response style | Evidence detail and internal diagnostics |
| Shared answer | A public, read-only snapshot of a MARCUS question, answer, and citation labels. It does not grant source-document access. | Citation, Share link | Shared answer page and sharing flow |
| Share link | A public URL for a shared-answer snapshot. It can expire or be revoked, but anyone with a valid link may be able to open it. | Shared answer, Security model | Shared-answer page |
Knowledge And Analysis Surfaces
| Term | Definition | Related concepts | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge graph | A project-level view that shows relationships between sources or concepts. | Concepts, Knowledge page | Knowledge area of the project UI |
| Knowledge page | A synthesized project-level knowledge artifact generated from project material. | Briefing, Library synthesis | Knowledge Pages surfaces where enabled |
| Theme analysis | A workflow for identifying, reviewing, or refining recurring themes across a project library. | Concepts, Library synthesis | Theme review pages where enabled |
| Evidence matrix | A comparison surface that lays evidence from multiple sources side by side. | Source, Citation, Theme analysis | Project matrix routes |
| Library synthesis | Cross-document synthesis across an entire project library. This exists conceptually and in parts of the system, but user-facing exposure may vary by deployment. | Knowledge page, Theme analysis | Knowledge and synthesis features, feature-dependent |
| Knowledge surface | A broad term for advanced project views that summarize or compare evidence beyond a single answer. | Knowledge graph, Knowledge page, Evidence matrix | Guides and project knowledge routes |
Organization And Access
| Term | Definition | Related concepts | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenant | The broader isolation boundary used to keep one organization's data separate from another's. | Organization, Membership | Internal authorization and persistence layers |
| Organization | The user-facing team or institutional container for memberships and projects. | Project, Membership, Tenant | Org switcher, settings, route prefixes |
| Membership | A user's relationship to an organization or project. | Organization, Project | Members and invites surfaces |
| Invitation | A pending access grant that lets someone join an organization or project. | Membership, Organization | Invite and join flows |
| Org scope | The currently selected organization context in the app. | Organization, Project | Org-scoped routes, switcher, API scoping |
| Project scope | The subset of the library allowed for a given conversation, source list, or knowledge view. | Project, Source review | Project pages, project conversations, source routes |
System, Quality, And Governance
| Term | Definition | Related concepts | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evidence grounding | The principle that answers should be assembled from reviewed project evidence and shown with citations. | Citation, Source review, Authority | Conversations, concepts docs, evaluation |
| Self-knowledge | MARCUS answering questions about its own capabilities, scope, or behavior. | Question, Conversation | Conversation responses to product questions |
| Benchmark | A repeatable evaluation or performance check used to inspect quality, latency, or regressions. | Analytics, Developer surface | Developer page, backend benchmark endpoints |
| Analytics | Usage and operational visibility into how MARCUS is being used. | Costs, Benchmark | Analytics surfaces |
| Costs | The tracked expense associated with running parts of the MARCUS workflow. | Analytics, Answer drafting, Enrichment | Admin cost pages |
| Feature flag | A configuration switch that enables or disables a behavior or UI surface. | Configuration, Deployment | Frontend and backend config |
| Preview environment | A temporary deployment created for validating a change before merge. | Staging, Production | GitHub PR workflows, Vercel, Railway |
| Staging | A pre-production environment used for integrated testing. | Preview environment, Production | Deployment workflows and test commands |
| Production | The live user-facing deployment. | Staging, Preview environment | marcus.surgic.ai and production backend |
A Few Frequently Confused Terms
Project vs Organization
An organization is the larger team or institutional container. A library workspace (project) is a focused work area inside that organization. The project source set is the document inventory attached to that workspace. The Library page can explore accessible sources across projects, but does not automatically change a project's source set or a question's scope.
Source vs Passage
A source is the uploaded document. A passage is one smaller segment MARCUS stores so source review can find relevant sections instead of only entire documents.
Briefing vs Knowledge Page
A briefing is about one source. A knowledge page is about a project-level topic or synthesis across multiple sources.
Coverage And Source Evidence
Coverage describes how much of a question the available passages address. Source evidence describes the document and the origins of its metadata. Neither establishes that a source is approved or appropriate for a particular decision.