# Key Concepts

> The Link AI mental model: workspaces, agents, Work, Ally, procedures, workflows, and integrations.

Source: https://docs.getlinkai.com/getting-started/key-concepts

Link AI has two halves. **Agents** talk to your customers and take action. **Work** is where agents and your team share the results: conversations, board items, orders, bookings, and forms. **Ally** is your personal agent across both. Everything lives inside a workspace.

## How it works

1. A customer calls, chats, or sends a DM. An **agent** answers on that channel.
2. The agent uses its **instructions** and **knowledge** to reply, and its **actions** to do things: book a slot, take an order, open a ticket.
3. When a condition is met, a **procedure** walks the agent through several actions in order, such as qualifying a lead and creating an item on a **Leads** board.
4. The conversation lands in **Inbox**, and what the agent created shows up in **Work**: boards, orders, calendar, forms, and tickets.
5. **Workflows** react to events in the background, and **Ally** helps you and your team act on all of it.

## Glossary

| Term | What it is | Where in the app |
|------|------------|------------------|
| Workspace | Container for one business or team: agents, data, members, billing | Workspace switcher, **Settings** |
| Agent | An AI that talks to customers on your channels | **My Agents** |
| Instructions | What the agent does and how it behaves, up to 10,000 characters | Agent page, **Agent** tab |
| Knowledge source | Files, URLs, crawled sites, and text the agent searches | **Knowledge Base** |
| Action | One tool the agent can use, such as Calendar or Orders | Agent page, **Actions** tab |
| Procedure | A step-by-step playbook the agent follows when a condition is met | Agent page, **Procedures** tab |
| Channel | Where the agent talks: phone, web, WhatsApp, Instagram, and more | Agent page, **Deploy** tab |
| Agent model | The model behind the agent, such as Link Core Smart | Agent page, **Brain** tab |
| Inbox | Every conversation from every channel in one place | **Inbox** |
| Board and item | A shared list of work, such as Leads, and the records on it | **Boards** |
| Workflow | Trigger then steps, run without a conversation | **Workflows** |
| Ally | Your personal agent for running the workspace | **Home**, **Chat**, WhatsApp |
| Integration | A connection to another tool, such as Shopify or Outlook | **Integrations** |

## Workspace

A workspace holds your agents, contacts, calendars, phone numbers, and integrations. Each one has its own plan and trial, its own members with roles (Owner, Admin, Member, Viewer), and its own data. Use separate workspaces for separate businesses, brands, or clients. See [Workspaces](https://docs.getlinkai.com/account/workspaces).

## Agents

An agent talks to your customers on your behalf. Create one agent per job, such as support, sales, or bookings. Each agent has:

- **Instructions:** its role, rules, and tone. Set **Persona** and **Always do / Never do** rules on the **Agent** tab. See [Prompting Tips](https://docs.getlinkai.com/getting-started/prompting-tips).
- **Knowledge source:** the content it searches to answer. Train the source, then assign it to the agent. Product catalogs live in [Orders](https://docs.getlinkai.com/products/orders), not the knowledge base. See [Knowledge Base](https://docs.getlinkai.com/agents/knowledge-base).
- **Actions:** the tools it can use, such as Smart Forms, Smart Tickets, Calendar, Orders, email, and web search. See [Actions](https://docs.getlinkai.com/agents/actions).
- **Procedures:** playbooks it follows when a condition is met. See [Procedures](https://docs.getlinkai.com/agents/procedures).
- **Channels:** phone, web chat, web calls, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, SMS, Slack, and Outlook. One agent can run on all of them. Web channels only load on domains you allow. See [Channels](https://docs.getlinkai.com/agents/channels).
- **Model:** Link Core Smart for accuracy, Link Core Fast for speed, or Link Health Smart and Link Health Fast for HIPAA-compliant healthcare use. See [Models](https://docs.getlinkai.com/agents/models).

Agent Vision is optional and lets the agent understand images customers send.

## Actions, procedures, and workflows

These three are the most common source of confusion. The short version: an action is a tool, a procedure is a playbook, and a workflow is an automation.

| | Action | Procedure | Workflow |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | One tool the agent can use | Ordered steps the agent follows | Trigger then steps |
| Runs inside a conversation | Yes | Yes, or on a board item | No |
| Who decides when | The agent, based on the conversation | A condition you write, or an event such as something happening on a board | The trigger event |
| Example | Book a slot on the calendar | Qualify a lead, create a Leads item, get a teammate's approval | New Meta lead creates a Leads item and calls a representative |

**Use an action** when the agent needs a capability. **Use a procedure** when a job takes several actions in a set order and you want it done the same way every time. Procedures can include approval steps, where named teammates approve or reject. **Use a workflow** when something should happen automatically after an event, with no conversation involved.

See [Actions](https://docs.getlinkai.com/agents/actions), [Procedures](https://docs.getlinkai.com/agents/procedures), and [Workflows](https://docs.getlinkai.com/agents/workflows).

## Work

Work is where agents and your team share the job. Agents create and update records here, and your team picks them up.

- **[Inbox](https://docs.getlinkai.com/products/inbox):** calls and every channel in one inbox, with full conversation history per thread.
- **[Boards](https://docs.getlinkai.com/products/boards):** shared lists such as Leads, Pipeline, or Projects. Each item has a status, assignee, due date, properties, documents, and an activity feed.
- **[Contacts](https://docs.getlinkai.com/products/contacts):** everyone your agents and team have talked to.
- **[Orders](https://docs.getlinkai.com/products/orders):** your product catalog and the orders agents take.
- **[Calendar](https://docs.getlinkai.com/products/calendar):** availability and bookings.
- **[Smart Forms](https://docs.getlinkai.com/products/smart-forms):** structured information agents collect.
- **[Smart Tickets](https://docs.getlinkai.com/products/smart-tickets):** escalations for a person, kept as a pinned board.

## Ally

Ally is your personal agent. Talk to it in **Home** and **Chat**, on WhatsApp, or by mentioning @Ally on a board item. It knows your workspace, acts with your role, and asks for approval before it sends anything. Ally also builds agents for you. See [Ally](https://docs.getlinkai.com/getting-started/ally).

## Integrations

Integrations connect Link AI to the tools you already use: Meta and WhatsApp for channels, Shopify and Stripe for commerce, Outlook and Gmail for email, Google Calendar, Slack, Monday, Zoho, and more. Connect a tool once for the workspace, then turn it on where you need it, such as Outlook on an agent's **Deploy** tab. See [Slack](https://docs.getlinkai.com/integrations/slack) and the rest of the Integrations section.

## Next steps

**[Quickstart](https://docs.getlinkai.com/getting-started/build-your-first-agent)**:
Build, test, and deploy your first agent in about 10 minutes.

**[Procedures](https://docs.getlinkai.com/agents/procedures)**:
Turn your SOPs into steps an agent follows.

**[Boards](https://docs.getlinkai.com/products/boards)**:
Share leads, projects, and requests between agents and your team.

**[Inbox](https://docs.getlinkai.com/products/inbox)**:
Every call and message in one place.