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Glossary
An alphabetical list of the terms used in the Sela dashboard and documentation, each with a short definition and a link to the page that explains it in full.
Last updated: 2026-09-29
Terms used in the Sela dashboard and in this documentation, in alphabetical order. For the ideas behind them, read Core concepts.
| Term | Meaning | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| Admin | A role with every permission, and the role that can invite teammates, buy plans and top up wallets. | Team, roles and permissions |
| AI Assist | The add-on that turns on the AI assistant, knowledge base, custom tools and identity verification. It is not part of any platform plan. | Plans and billing |
| AI credit | The unit that meters AI work. A plan includes monthly credits in blocks of 100. | Credits and usage |
| AI wallet | Prepaid money used for AI after monthly plan credits run out. It does not expire. | Credits and usage |
| Appointment | A calendar entry for your team, on the Operations plan or higher. | Bookings and appointments |
| Approval | A request that needs someone's decision before work continues. | Tasks, work items and approvals |
| Assistant identity | The name, brand, tone and rules of your AI assistant. A saved identity with a brand is required for the AI to answer. | Assistant identity and scope |
| Automation | A rule that runs without the AI: when something happens, if conditions match, do these actions. | Automations and proactive messages |
| Automation run | One execution of an automation. Runs are metered per plan. | Plans and billing |
| Away message | An automatic reply sent when your team is outside business hours. | Settings and white-label |
| Billing (customers) | The page for quotes, invoices and receipts you send to your own customers. Different from your Sela subscription. | Orders and payment links |
| Board | A set of columns (stages) that hold work items. | Tasks, work items and approvals |
| Branch | One location's workspace inside a business account. | Multiple branches |
| Business account | A group of branch workspaces that share one payer and pooled plan allowances. | Multiple branches |
| Business hours | Your weekly schedule in a timezone. It drives away messages and the AI's knowledge of whether you are open. | Settings and white-label |
| Catalog | The structured list of products or dishes with names, prices and availability. The AI reads it for live facts. | Catalog and products |
| Channel | A way customers reach you: web chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, email or SMS. | Platform tour |
| Company | An organization that contacts belong to. | Contacts and CRM |
| Confirmation | The customer's explicit approval of the exact quote the AI prepared. An order is created only after it. | Orders and payment links |
| Contact | A customer record with fields, tags, lifecycle stage and channel identities. | Contacts and CRM |
| Contact session | The web widget's per-browser session. Chat history belongs to it, not to the email address. | Web chat widget |
| Conversation | A thread between one customer and your business on one channel. | Inbox and conversations |
| Cooldown | A temporary block on AI replies for a customer who misuses the assistant. Your team can still reply. | AI control and takeover |
| Copilot | An inbox tool that drafts replies for operators. It uses AI credits. | Inbox and conversations |
| Custom field | A field you define on contacts or work items. | Contacts and CRM |
| Effect | What a tool changes. Most tools are read-only. A few save a quote, escalate or pause a chat. | Tools and actions |
| Enterprise | The sales-led plan with custom limits, white label, calls and the AI voice option. It is never bought in the dashboard. | Plans and billing |
| Entitlement | A single capability that your plan grants, such as AI Assist or API keys. | Plans and billing |
| Environment | Your business type (General Business, Restaurant, Store, Appointments & Services and others). It adds matching tools and screens. | Settings and white-label |
| Escalation | A handoff from the AI to your team, with a reason, summary, priority and category. The status becomes Escalated. | AI control and takeover |
| Grounding | Answering from evidence found in your data rather than from memory. Unsupported replies are replaced with a hedged message. | How the AI works |
| Handling | The state that says who is dealing with a conversation: the AI, a human or nobody yet. | AI control and takeover |
| HMAC identity verification | A signed proof from your server that a widget visitor is a known customer. | Identity verification (HMAC) |
| Inbox | The screen where your team reads and answers conversations from every channel. | Inbox and conversations |
| Integrations | The settings page where you connect channels and apps. | Settings and white-label |
| Knowledge base | The documents and notes the AI may quote. It is for stable text facts, not live prices. | Knowledge base |
| Learned from chats | Suggested knowledge notes captured from conversations your team resolved. | Knowledge base |
| Lifecycle stage | A contact's stage, by default Lead, Active customer, Inactive or Lost. It is editable. | Contacts and CRM |
| Media Understanding | The option that lets the AI read images and transcribe voice notes. It uses credits. | Web chat widget |
| Needs review | An inbox view of held replies and AI escalations waiting for a decision. | Inbox and conversations |
| Organization | Your business account in Sela. The dashboard calls it a workspace. | Core concepts |
| Organization ID | The identifier the widget snippet needs, shown under Integrations. | Web chat widget |
| Permission | A fine-grained right, such as reading or closing conversations. Roles are bundles of permissions. | Team, roles and permissions |
| Plan | What your workspace can do: Sandbox, Inbox, Operations, Scale or Enterprise. | Plans and billing |
| Proactive message | An outbound message your workspace sends on a trigger or schedule. | Automations and proactive messages |
| Quote | A priced order summary that the AI prepares for the customer to confirm. | Orders and payment links |
| Read-only workspace | A workspace that cannot send, for example after a lapsed subscription or offboarding. | Delivery troubleshooting |
| Reference | A 16-character code on a failed-send banner. Give it to support. | Delivery troubleshooting |
| Role | A preset bundle of permissions: owner, admin, manager, agent, designer, finance or viewer. | Team, roles and permissions |
| Sandbox | The free evaluation plan with a single seat and no automations. | Plans and billing |
| Scope | The boundary of what the assistant will talk about: your business only. | Assistant identity and scope |
| Seat | A team member slot on your plan. Pending invitations count. | Team, roles and permissions |
| Service window | The 24-hour period after a customer's last message when you can reply freely on WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram. | |
| Shortcut | A saved reply (canned response) an operator can insert. | Inbox and conversations |
| SLA | A response-time target for conversations. | Notifications, SLA and escalations |
| Smart notes | Notes you paste in that Sela turns into draft knowledge items. | Knowledge base |
| Status | A conversation's lifecycle: New, Open, Waiting on customer, Waiting on team, Snoozed, Closed or Blocked. | Inbox and conversations |
| Task | A to-do with an owner and a date, on the Operations plan or higher. | Tasks, work items and approvals |
| Team | A named group of members with a colour, capacity and work routing. | Team, roles and permissions |
| Template (WhatsApp) | A Meta-approved message that can start a conversation outside the 24-hour window. | |
| Template (automation) | A ready-made automation blueprint you set up from a short form. | Automations and proactive messages |
| Tool | A controlled function the AI can call, such as knowledge search or catalog lookup. | Tools and actions |
| Trial | The 14-day free start on the Operations plan with a small AI allowance. | Plans and billing |
| Webhook | An event message Sela sends to your server, on the Scale plan or higher. | Webhooks |
| Widget | The chat button and panel you embed on your website. | Web chat widget |
| Work item | A card on a board that your team tracks to completion. | Tasks, work items and approvals |
| Workspace | Your business account in the dashboard. Every record belongs to one workspace. | Core concepts |
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