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The reference glossary
Nine words keep coming up in conversations about the tool: agent, token, context window, project, skill, plugin, connector, scheduled task, subprocessor.
Nine words keep coming up in this course and in the conversations that will follow it: agent, token, context window, project, skill, plugin, connector, scheduled task, subprocessor. They do not cover the whole vocabulary of the tool, they cover what is needed to phrase a request and describe a blocker to someone. This lesson gathers them into a single sheet, to keep open during your first week of use rather than to memorise all at once.
The words the course has already used
Seven of these nine words have been used in the previous modules, most of them with their definition given on the spot. Only one of them has been circulating since the very first lesson without ever being defined, and it is the most encompassing one: an agent is a programme that chains several actions together on its own to reach a described result, instead of returning one answer and stopping there. That is what separates Cowork from chat. The token and the context window measure what Claude reads, writes and retains within a single session. The project picks up the context of several sessions again without you having to piece everything back together every time you open it. A skill is a specialisation loaded for a specific domain, and a plugin groups several of them installed together. Finally, a connector links Claude to an outside tool with no intermediate gateway, always set up by an administrator after a grouped request.
The two words that deserve a written definition
Two words have been used in passing, without ever receiving the definition they deserve. A scheduled task is an instruction given to Claude to run automatically at a fixed time, without you having to relaunch it by hand every time, for example a weekly reminder to check a shared folder. A subprocessor designates, under GDPR, the supplier that processes data on behalf of the cooperative, here Anthropic, without this shifting the responsibility for the processing, which remains the cooperative's, as the lesson on the organisation account detailed.
With these nine words, a request can be phrased and a blocker described to a colleague or an administrator. Other words will come, memory, approval mode, sandbox: whichever one is missing is to be asked about, not guessed.
Open the Training project, check the remaining token quota in the settings, then note down the connector and the scheduled task you would need for next week.Use this sentence as a personal test: if each of the nine words it contains brings a precise definition to mind without you rereading the sheet, the glossary has been learned.
This sheet completes the document produced and reviewed in the previous lesson: together, they form the two concrete pieces of evidence that a first week of independent use can rest on a shared vocabulary and on an already checked deliverable.
The glossary in nine words
| Word | One line definition |
|---|---|
| Agent | A programme that chains several actions together on its own to reach a described result, instead of returning one answer and stopping. |
| Token | A unit of text that Claude reads and writes, it counts against your quota and fills up the context window. |
| Context window | A limited space that holds the current message, the session's history and the attached files. |
| Project | A container that gathers reference files and a standing instruction, read again by every session opened inside it. |
| Skill | A specialisation loaded by Claude to address a specific domain. |
| Plugin | A grouping of several skills installed together. |
| Connector | A direct link between Claude and an outside tool; you switch on the ones offered to you, the administrator sets the list of what is offered. |
| Scheduled task | An instruction given to Claude to run automatically at a fixed time, with no manual relaunch. |
| Subprocessor | Under GDPR, a supplier that processes data on behalf of the cooperative, which remains responsible for the processing. Anthropic declares itself a subprocessor for commercial accounts, not for a personal subscription. |
An employee receives a team message that uses the words connector and scheduled task. She opens the course's glossary sheet, reads the two definitions, then drafts a three-line reply that she sends the same day. The colleague replies that her wording is clear.
Write in one sentence what this situation establishes, and in one sentence what it does not establish.
What this establishes: It establishes that the glossary sheet is enough to rephrase two technical terms into a reply a colleague can understand, within a few minutes and with no other resource.
What this does not establish: It does not establish that the content of this reply is correct on the substance: the colleague judged the wording, not the accuracy, and a well restated definition can still be misapplied to the specific case.
The three most common miscalibrations
- Too broad Concluding that the employee now has mastery of the subject of connectors, when she has only restated two definitions on a case she did not have to handle herself.
- Too narrow Concluding that the glossary was useless because it only contains definitions, when it produced a usable reply within the day.
- Beside the point Concluding that the colleague validated the substance of the reply, when his feedback concerns the clarity of the wording.
- The nine words of the glossary are enough to follow any technical conversation about the tool, without learning more in the first week.
- An artefact designates a document or code produced by Claude outside the conversation thread, viewable separately.
- A skill covers a specific domain, a plugin groups several of them under a single installation.
- Subprocessor status is a reminder that responsibility for data processing remains the cooperative's, never Anthropic's alone.
Save or print the glossary sheet in a single place and keep it within reach during your first week of use, to check a word before rephrasing a request.
These points depend on an interface or a rule that may have changed since this was written. Check them on your own screen before relying on them.
- This glossary fixes definitions as of 2 September 2026. The four lines that describe a product, project, skill, plugin and connector are to be checked again at the source on the day you use them to decide something.
Every datable claim in this lesson links here to the public text behind it. A source that does not open proves nothing.
- CNIL, working with a subprocessor consultée le 2026-09-02
- Anthropic, subprocessor or controller status depending on account type consultée le 2026-09-02