Glossary

Every term used in the docs and dashboard, defined. Skim once before reading the rest.

agent identity: A first-class entity in Anima. Has its own org link, scoped credentials (`ak_*`), email inbox, optional phone number, and audit history. Distinct from the human's account; one human can own many agent identities.
ak_ key: Agent API key. Scoped to a single agent identity. The default credential your agent code authenticates with. Revoked or rotated independently of other agents and the human's master key.
mk_ key: Master API key. Org-scoped admin credential. Required for billing settings, agent creation, spend-limit changes, and anything that affects multiple agents. Held by the human, not the agent runtime.
sk_ key: Service API key. Server-to-server inside Anima's own platform. Not issued to customers. Mentioned in the API reference for completeness.
correlation ID: A workflow-level identifier that threads through every Anima action in one logical task — email reply chains to voice callback to vault read all share one ID. Server-generated for inbound events, propagated through HTTP headers (x-correlation-id) and the SDK. The /audit page renders the full chain.
request ID: Per-HTTP-call unique ID, returned in x-request-id. Distinct from correlation ID. Use request ID for "what happened on this exact call" debugging; use correlation ID for "what happened across this whole workflow."
TCPA: Telephone Consumer Protection Act (US). Sets statutory damages of $500 per call placed without consent, trebled to $1,500 if willful. Your org must record a consent basis before Anima will place an outbound call or send an SMS; the gate runs server-side and fails closed. See /tcpa for the plain-English guide.
RND: Reassigned Numbers Database (FCC). Tracks phone numbers that have been disconnected and reissued to a new subscriber. Calling under the assumption it's still the original owner is a TCPA violation, because the new subscriber never gave consent. Scrubbing your lists against RND is your responsibility — Anima does not query it on your behalf.
consent_source: The legal basis your org declares for contacting people, recorded once in the console rather than passed per call. One of customer_initiated, transactional, informational, prior_express_consent, non_telemarketing, or telemarketing_with_dnc_scrub. Outbound voice and SMS stay blocked (HTTP 451) until it is set alongside a Do-Not-Call attestation. Who attested and when is stamped server-side, not accepted from the caller.
DNC: Do-Not-Call Registry (US, FCC). Anima does NOT scrub against DNC server-side — it's the customer's responsibility (CPaaS-standard posture). See /trust/tcpa-dnc.
hard cap: Your plan's included quotas, enforced server-side. Emails, SMS, phone numbers, agents, domains, identities, and vault credentials each block at their tier limit — the API returns 402 with an upgrade path rather than billing you for the excess. This is the default for every plan and every channel; nothing is billed above it unless you opt in to metered overage.
metered overage: Opt-in, off by default. Turn it on and name a dollar limit, and voice usage above your plan's included minutes keeps working and is billed at the rate card, up to that limit and no further. The limit is checked before every call against what you have actually accrued, so it is a ceiling on new spend rather than a wallet — lowering it stops further metered usage immediately, and you are still billed for what you already used. Your plan bounds how much you can authorize. Voice only today.
Idempotency-Key: Header on POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE. We cache the response for 24 hours and replay on retry. Stripe pattern. Constraints: 1-255 ASCII printable. Reuse with a different body → 409 IDEMPOTENCY_BODY_MISMATCH. /api-reference has the full contract.
MCP: Model Context Protocol. Open spec for connecting LLMs to external tools/resources. Anima exposes its MCP tools at https://mcp.useanima.sh/mcp — one URL, path-routed per domain (email, voice, vault, phone, platform, agent).
vault: Per-agent encrypted credential storage backed by a dedicated vault service. Every read/write is audit-logged. Plaintext fields never touch disk; the underlying provider sees only ciphertext. Per-credential masking ensures sensitive fields (refresh tokens, etc.) never reach agent-visible responses by default.
OBO: On-Behalf-Of token exchange. Once part of the OAuth-gateway product surface, deprecated April 2026. The vault still stores OAuth credentials; OBO-style scoped-token minting is no longer exposed as a customer-facing feature. Listed here because older integration notes still reference it.
Anima identity sub-types: agent_unverified — restricted mode after sign-up. agent_verified — verified via OTP. claimed — human signed up on console with a payment method on file. Capabilities depend on sub-type and tier.
audit chain: The ordered list of events sharing one correlation ID. Visible at /audit, queryable via GET /v1/audit/events?correlation_id=..., streamable via GET /v1/events/stream. Backed by the audit_events table.