Glossary

Plain-English definitions for every term used in the Zubby dashboard, ordered alphabetically. Bookmark this page; it’s the fastest way to disambiguate.

A

Agent: The Zubby AI as a software system — a language model wrapped in a retrieval pipeline, tool registry, and guardrail layer. Distinct from the underlying language model, which can be swapped out.
Assisted conversion: An order that Zubby can attribute to a conversation in the configured attribution window. See Analytics.
Audience rule: A rule that decides which widget variant a shopper sees. Conditions include URL, segment, locale, device, cart value. See Audience rules.

B

Bootstrap call: The widget’s first network call, made on page load. Returns the widget config (mode, theme, starter prompts) and a short-lived session token. Hits /api/v1/widget/bootstrap.
Browse abandonment: A shopper viewing 3+ products from a category without adding to cart. Triggers browse rescue. See Recovery.

C

Citation: A reference back to a product card, knowledge-base entry, or page that supported a specific AI sentence. Tracked at the sentence level.
Confidence threshold: The minimum retrieval similarity score the AI requires before answering. Below the threshold, it either escalates or declines. Default 0.55 cosine similarity. See Training.

D

DLQ (dead-letter queue): Where background jobs land after exhausting retries. Visible under Settings → Queues → Dead-letter. Replayable from the UI or API.

E

Embedding: A 1,536-dimensional vector representation of a product or document. Used for semantic retrieval. Generated on sync via an AI provider.
Engagement rate: The share of widget impressions that became conversations. A healthy floor for first-time storefronts is 6-12%.

G

Gaps inbox: The list of conversations where the AI’s answer was missing, uncertain, or downvoted. Each row carries a drafted fix you can accept or edit. See Training.

H

Handoff: When the AI yields control to a human teammate. Triggered manually, by shopper request, or by automatic rules.

I

Identity stitching: Linking multiple session IDs to a single shopper profile based on email matches, customer IDs, or cookie continuity. See Customers.

J

Journey: A multi-step automation: trigger → steps with delays, branches, and exit rules. Powers recovery campaigns and lifecycle drips. See Journeys.

K

Knowledge base (KB): Policies, FAQs, and long-form pages indexed for retrieval. Distinct from product catalog — KB covers shipping, returns, brand story.

L

Lifecycle stage: Where a shopper sits in the customer journey: first-time visitor, repeat buyer, churn risk, etc. Recomputed nightly.

P

Provider routing: How the AI chooses which provider (OpenAI, Azure, Anthropic, Gemini) to call for a given capability. Resolved by status, health, and priority order. See How the AI works.

R

Recovery: Outbound message to a shopper who abandoned a cart, browse session, or had a long lapse. Email, SMS, WhatsApp, or other channels.
Retrieval: The process of fetching relevant products and KB snippets for the AI’s context window. Combines vector similarity + keyword (BM25) + reranker.

S

Segment: A saved query on shopper profiles. Powers audience rules, journey triggers, and outbound campaigns.
Shadow DOM: The browser primitive the widget renders into. Isolates its styles from the storefront so global CSS resets can’t break it.
Smart offer: An AI-proposed discount within the bands you set. Used in recovery emails and rarely in chat. Capped per-conversation and per-shopper.
Store ID: The unique identifier for a tenant inside Zubby. Required on every API request via the X-Store-ID header.
System prompt: Composed instructions the AI sees on every turn: tone, brand voice, opinions, do-not-say, escalation rules. Defined in the persona editor.

T

Tool call: When the AI invokes a function rather than answering directly: search products, check inventory, get order status. Stored alongside the conversation.

V

VIP tier: A high-value customer designation, defined by LTV / order count or manual flag. Influences widget variant, recovery tone, handoff rules.

W

Weekly review: Monday-morning snapshot emailed and stored in the dashboard. Top wins, top risks, suggested actions. See Analytics.
Widget key: Origin-bound public key used by the widget loader. Different from the merchant API key. Rotatable if leaked.

Glossary

Plain-English definitions for every term used in the Zubby dashboard, ordered alphabetically. Bookmark this page; it’s the fastest way to disambiguate.

A

Agent: The Zubby AI as a software system — a language model wrapped in a retrieval pipeline, tool registry, and guardrail layer. Distinct from the underlying language model, which can be swapped out.
Assisted conversion: An order that Zubby can attribute to a conversation in the configured attribution window. See Analytics.
Audience rule: A rule that decides which widget variant a shopper sees. Conditions include URL, segment, locale, device, cart value. See Audience rules.

B

Bootstrap call: The widget’s first network call, made on page load. Returns the widget config (mode, theme, starter prompts) and a short-lived session token. Hits /api/v1/widget/bootstrap.
Browse abandonment: A shopper viewing 3+ products from a category without adding to cart. Triggers browse rescue. See Recovery.

C

Citation: A reference back to a product card, knowledge-base entry, or page that supported a specific AI sentence. Tracked at the sentence level.
Confidence threshold: The minimum retrieval similarity score the AI requires before answering. Below the threshold, it either escalates or declines. Default 0.55 cosine similarity. See Training.

D

DLQ (dead-letter queue): Where background jobs land after exhausting retries. Visible under Settings → Queues → Dead-letter. Replayable from the UI or API.

E

Embedding: A 1,536-dimensional vector representation of a product or document. Used for semantic retrieval. Generated on sync via an AI provider.
Engagement rate: The share of widget impressions that became conversations. A healthy floor for first-time storefronts is 6-12%.

G

Gaps inbox: The list of conversations where the AI’s answer was missing, uncertain, or downvoted. Each row carries a drafted fix you can accept or edit. See Training.

H

Handoff: When the AI yields control to a human teammate. Triggered manually, by shopper request, or by automatic rules.

I

Identity stitching: Linking multiple session IDs to a single shopper profile based on email matches, customer IDs, or cookie continuity. See Customers.

J

Journey: A multi-step automation: trigger → steps with delays, branches, and exit rules. Powers recovery campaigns and lifecycle drips. See Journeys.

K

Knowledge base (KB): Policies, FAQs, and long-form pages indexed for retrieval. Distinct from product catalog — KB covers shipping, returns, brand story.

L

Lifecycle stage: Where a shopper sits in the customer journey: first-time visitor, repeat buyer, churn risk, etc. Recomputed nightly.

P

Provider routing: How the AI chooses which provider (OpenAI, Azure, Anthropic, Gemini) to call for a given capability. Resolved by status, health, and priority order. See How the AI works.

R

Recovery: Outbound message to a shopper who abandoned a cart, browse session, or had a long lapse. Email, SMS, WhatsApp, or other channels.
Retrieval: The process of fetching relevant products and KB snippets for the AI’s context window. Combines vector similarity + keyword (BM25) + reranker.

S

Segment: A saved query on shopper profiles. Powers audience rules, journey triggers, and outbound campaigns.
Shadow DOM: The browser primitive the widget renders into. Isolates its styles from the storefront so global CSS resets can’t break it.
Smart offer: An AI-proposed discount within the bands you set. Used in recovery emails and rarely in chat. Capped per-conversation and per-shopper.
Store ID: The unique identifier for a tenant inside Zubby. Required on every API request via the X-Store-ID header.
System prompt: Composed instructions the AI sees on every turn: tone, brand voice, opinions, do-not-say, escalation rules. Defined in the persona editor.

T

Tool call: When the AI invokes a function rather than answering directly: search products, check inventory, get order status. Stored alongside the conversation.

V

VIP tier: A high-value customer designation, defined by LTV / order count or manual flag. Influences widget variant, recovery tone, handoff rules.

W

Weekly review: Monday-morning snapshot emailed and stored in the dashboard. Top wins, top risks, suggested actions. See Analytics.
Widget key: Origin-bound public key used by the widget loader. Different from the merchant API key. Rotatable if leaked.