> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.molesignal.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Glossary

> Definitions of the terms that MoleSignal documentation and the product use.

| Term | Definition |
| - | - |
| **Alert** | The role that evaluates alert rules, drives escalations, renders scheduled reports, and runs connectors. See [Role-based deployment](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/deployment/role-based.md). |
| **API token** | A bearer credential of the form `ms_<prefix>_<secret>` that acts as a user or a service account. See [Identity & access](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/identity). |
| **APM** | Application performance monitoring. Bounded service, transaction, dependency, error, and version aggregates derived from trace spans. See [APM](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/apm). |
| **Arrow Flight SQL** | The SQL protocol on port `5083` for database clients such as DBeaver, JDBC, and ADBC. Disabled by default. See [Connect with a database client](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/query/database-clients.md). |
| **Catalog** | The record in PostgreSQL of which Parquet files and indexes belong to each stream. |
| **Cipher key** | The root key in `MS_CIPHER_KEY` that encrypts the secrets MoleSignal stores in PostgreSQL. See [Production checklist](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/deployment/production-checklist.md). |
| **Compaction** | Merging small Parquet files into larger ones. The `compactor` role runs it together with retention. |
| **Connector** | A managed integration with an external platform. A source brings logs in, pulled on a schedule or pushed by the platform, and a destination receives pipeline output. See [Connectors](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/connectors.md). |
| **Datasource** | An entry of the Datasource catalog that generates the endpoint, token, and configuration snippet for one source. See [Datasource](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/intake). |
| **Escalation policy** | Ordered notification targets with acknowledgement timeouts. See [Alerting](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/alerting). |
| **Extend table** | A key-to-record lookup table that a pipeline uses to enrich events. See [Extend tables](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/extend-tables.md). |
| **Federated query** | A query that also scans remote clusters, selected with `?clusters=local,<name>`. See [Role-based deployment](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/deployment/role-based.md). |
| **Flush** | Writing the in-memory buffer of an intake node to Parquet files and indexes in object storage. |
| **Function** | A reusable transform written in VRL or JavaScript. See [Functions](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/functions.md). |
| **Incident** | An alert occurrence that moves through acknowledgement and resolution. See [Alerting](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/alerting). |
| **Intake** | The path that receives telemetry. Also the role that validates, buffers, and flushes it. See [Datasource](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/intake). |
| **Intake token** | A token with the `streams.write` and `apm.deploy` permissions that senders and deployment pipelines use. See [Datasource](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/intake#intake-tokens). |
| **Log inspection** | A report that Mole Agent writes about the logs of a period, on demand or on a schedule. See [Log inspections](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/logs/inspections.md). |
| **Mole Agent** | The embedded operations agent that investigates issues through the tool catalog. See [Mole Agent](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/agent). |
| **On-call schedule** | A timezone-aware rotation with overrides that escalations target. See [Alerting](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/alerting). |
| **Organization** | The tenant and policy boundary. The web UI calls it a workspace. See [Core concepts](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/concepts.md). |
| **Parquet** | The columnar file format in which MoleSignal stores logs, metrics, and traces. |
| **Pipeline** | A chain of steps that routes, normalizes, redacts, and enriches events, either in realtime during intake or on a schedule. See [Pipelines](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/pipelines). |
| **Platform administrator** | The user, taken from `[auth].root_email`, that manages platform-wide settings. |
| **Probe Agent** | A process that runs synthetic checks from a location. A built-in agent runs on `standalone` nodes. See [Synthetic monitoring](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/synthetics.md). |
| **Role** | A process role selected with `[node].roles`: `standalone`, `router`, `intake`, `querier`, `compactor`, or `alert`. Also a named bundle of permissions in IAM. |
| **RUM** | Real User Monitoring of browser and mobile app sessions. See [RUM](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/rum). |
| **RUM client token** | A token with the `rum.write` permission, bound to one application, that browser and mobile code sends. |
| **Saved view** | A stored query with its time range and options. |
| **Search job** | A durable asynchronous query. Queries above the size threshold become search jobs, listed under **Streams → Search jobs**. See [Query](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/query). |
| **Self-telemetry** | The metrics, traces, and profiles that MoleSignal records about itself in the reserved `_molesignal` stream. See [Self-observability](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/self-observability.md). |
| **Service account** | A non-human identity for collectors and automation. It cannot sign in. See [Identity & access](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/identity). |
| **Silence** | A time-boxed rule that pauses notifications for matching alerts. See [Alerting](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/alerting). |
| **Standalone** | The default role that runs every role in one process. |
| **Status page** | A public or private page that shows component status and incidents. See [Status pages](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/status-pages). |
| **Stream** | The typed contract of a signal: a name, a type, a schema, and retention. See [Streams](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/streams.md). |
| **Stream type** | One of `logs`, `metrics`, `traces`, `profiles`, or `extend`. |
| **Synthetic monitor** | A scheduled check, such as an HTTP request, that records availability and latency. See [Synthetic monitoring](https://docs.molesignal.com/en-US/synthetics.md). |
| **VRL** | Vector Remap Language, one of the languages for pipeline functions. |
| **WAL** | The write-ahead log on the local disk of an intake node. It holds records until they are flushed. |
| **Workspace** | The name that the web UI uses for the selected organization. |


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