# Words we use

At the end, you know every technical word these docs use, each explained once in plain language.

## At a glance

**Time:** 5 minutes to read.

**You need:**

- Nothing. Come back whenever a page uses a word you do not know.

## The run

**A task.** One thing you want done, in your words. Every step gets it verbatim.

**A workflow.** Who works the task and in what order, drawn as a track: agents, checks, gates, joins, fan outs and a pull request. One agent alone is a workflow of one step.

**A pattern.** A built-in workflow on the Workflows page, ready to run or to copy and change.

**A step.** One station on the track. An agent step runs one turn in a coding tool; its whole final message is what it hands on.

**An agent.** A persona of at most sixty words, instructions, and the engine and access it runs with. Agents are on the Agents page; a plain session is the coding tool with no persona.

**A check.** A command your repository declares, which Loopgate runs. Its exit code decides which way the run goes.

**A gate.** A place where a person decides: Approve, a Choice, or a Lock on a document.

**A verdict.** The last line of an agent's reply, such as `Verdict: approve`. The routes drawn out of the step name the values it may give.

**A round.** One pass around a loop. Every loop has a bound; when its rounds are used, the run goes where the author said, often to you.

**A worktree.** A second checkout of your repository, beside it, on a branch of the run's own. The agents work there, never in your folder, unless you choose Your checkout.

**The copilot.** Loopgate's helper, thinking on your signed-in coding tool. It proposes a workflow, or changes to a run, and you press.

**The workbench.** The app: tasks by workspace, each run as a conversation, the builder and Settings. On a runner it is the page your team opens.

**Needs you.** The page listing every run that waits on a decision of yours or stopped, each opening at its step.

## The computer

**A box.** A Linux server with Docker that runs Loopgate for your team: your own, or one you rent by the month from Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure), Google (GCP) or a smaller company (a VPS). You reach it from your laptop by typing commands, and these docs give you each one.

**Linux and Ubuntu.** Linux is the operating system most boxes run, the way your laptop runs macOS or Windows. Ubuntu is a popular, free version of Linux. These docs use Ubuntu 24.04.

**SSH.** The way you type commands on the box from your laptop: you run `ssh` in your laptop's Terminal, and from then on what you type runs on the box. On a Mac, Terminal is in Applications → Utilities; on Windows, in the Start menu.

**A key pair.** The lock and key for SSH. The box holds the public half; you keep the private half, a small file, on your laptop. Whoever has that file can get into the box, so never share it.

**A firewall, or security group.** The list of who may knock on the box's door. Ours allows only SSH from you. Nothing else may come in.

## The program

**Docker.** A program that runs other programs the same way on every computer.

**A launch link.** The one-minute address, starting `http://127.0.0.1:`, that opens Loopgate on your laptop and signs your browser in.

**An image.** A packed program, ready for Docker to run. Loopgate's runner ships as one image. Your box downloads it; nothing is built there.

**Docker Compose.** Docker's way to start several programs from one file, `compose.yaml`. Loopgate's starts the runner, the Slack app (idle until you connect Slack), the temporary address, and a Cloudflare tunnel when you want one.

**Your agent.** A coding tool on your laptop that runs commands for you, such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor; each setup page opens with words to paste into it, and signing in, the portal's buttons, tokens and passwords stay yours, never typed into it.

**The runner.** Loopgate's program on your box. It runs your workflows, keeps your code on the box, and serves the workbench: the web page where your team watches and steers the work.

**A repository and a pull request.** A repository is the folder that holds one project's code and its history. A pull request is a proposed change to it that a person reviews before it goes in.

**x86 and Arm.** The two kinds of processor a cloud offers. The image runs on both, so if a cloud asks you to choose, either works; these docs choose x86.

## The address

**An address.** The web address your team opens the runner at. The runner has a temporary one by itself, ending `trycloudflare.com`, which changes when the box restarts; a permanent one, such as `https://runner.yourcompany.com`, stays.

**HTTPS.** The secure kind of web address, the one with a padlock. Browsers protect sign-in cookies only on HTTPS, so the runner's address must start with `https://`.

**A domain.** A name you own on the internet, such as `yourcompany.com`, needed for a permanent address with Cloudflare Tunnel. Cloudflare sells one for about ten dollars a year.

**A tunnel.** A safe cable from the internet to your box. The box dials out to Cloudflare, which sends visitors down that cable; the box opens no door to the internet.

**Tailscale.** A private network between your own devices. Only laptops signed in to your team's Tailscale can reach the runner.

**A proxy.** A program that passes web requests on to another. A tunnel is one kind; your company's own can point at the runner.

**Why a public address is safe.** The runner refuses every visitor who did not arrive with a one-minute pass from your Loopgate portal. The pass becomes a sign-in that lasts thirty days from its last use, even across a restart. Anyone else gets a refusal and nothing more.

## Tokens and keys

A token or a key is a long password for a program, not a person. Paste each one only where a page says. Never send one in Slack, in an email or in a support message. If one leaks, delete it where you made it and make a new one.

- **Install token** (starts `lgr_`). Signs a new runner in to your org, once, within an hour. It is in the line the portal's **Add a runner** gives you.
- **GitHub token.** Lets the runner clone private repositories, push its changes and open pull requests. Pasted in the runner's Settings → GitHub.
- **Slack app token** (starts `xapp-`). Lets the Slack app connect to Slack. Pasted in the runner's Settings → Slack.
- **Slack bot token** (starts `xoxb-`). Lets the Slack app post in your workspace and match your team by email. Pasted beside the app token.
- **Tunnel token.** Lets your box connect to your Cloudflare tunnel, for a permanent address.
- **API key.** A paid alternative to signing in to a subscription. It bills the model company per use.

## Signing in

**Signing in to your subscriptions.** The agents think with an AI model you already pay for, such as ChatGPT or Claude. You sign in once, on the runner's Settings → Engines. Loopgate never sees that sign-in; the coding tool keeps it on the box.

**The portal and the workbench.** The portal, at app.loopgate.dev, is where your org, its members and its runners are. The workbench is the runner's own page, opened from the portal's **Devices → Open**, where tasks run and the settings above live.

## What leaves your box

Loopgate's servers get a heartbeat and one short record of each finished run, never your code, the changes, what the agents were told or what they said: [What leaves your box](what-leaves.md).

## What it costs

You pay your cloud company for the box: a few dollars to about thirty a month. You pay your AI subscription as you do today. Loopgate's own price is separate and is not part of these docs.

## Next

- [What leaves your box](what-leaves.md)
- [By hand](by-hand.md), every file in the `loopgate` folder, line by line