Words we use

Read this once and the other pages get easier. Each entry is short, with a pointer to the page that goes deeper.

The four you need first

word	what it means here
network	One of the blockchains this runs on: Ethereum, Base or Arbitrum. The same money can sit on any of them, and moving between them takes real time.
your account	An account on the blockchain that belongs to you and holds your money. It is not an account with us.
the agent	The thing that reads your sentence, writes the plan, and approves each step. It never holds your money.
a plan	The numbered list of steps your sentence became. You read it and approve it before anything runs.

The things you make

word	what it means
Step	One thing the plan does, such as supply collateral or move money to another network. Steps have names, not positions, so inserting one does not renumber the rest.
Operation	One capability the platform has. A step uses an operation. The catalogue lists all of them.
Run	One execution of a plan. A plan can be run many times, and each run has its own record.
Version number	Every operation carries one, such as `@v1.1`. It pins the step to the behaviour you approved, so an update cannot change it halfway through.

What happens during a run

word	what it means
Wave	Steps that do not depend on each other run at the same time. What depends on what is worked out from the plan, not from the order you wrote.
Group	Steps merged into one transaction. All of it lands or none of it does, which is what makes “give permission, then supply” safe.
Stopped to ask	The run paused and is waiting for a decision from you. A normal outcome, not a failure.
Approval gate	A point where the run deliberately stops and asks a person. Some gates must be answered on the network itself.
Stuck	A transaction that will not go through. It is resent at a higher fee, up to a limit, and then waits for a person.
Amendment	An edit to a plan that has already moved money. It can change the future and never the past: steps that already ran must stay exactly as they were.

What starts a run without you

word	what it means
Schedule	Starts the plan on a clock. A saved schedule does nothing until you switch it on.
Price trigger	Starts the plan when a price arrives. Also called a limit order. It rests as a price and a size and re-arms itself after each partial fill.
Chain (of plans)	Plans in order. One starts when the one before it succeeds.
Bite	One partial fill of a resting order. A 40% fill leaves 60% resting, and each bite is separately rebuilt, re-priced and approved.
Firing	One occasion when a schedule or trigger went off. A firing that arrives while your account is busy is recorded and asks you what you meant, rather than being dropped.

“Chain” means two things in these docs. A network is Ethereum, Base or Arbitrum. A chain of plans is several plans arranged to run in order. Where it could be read either way, the pages say “a chain of plans”.

What keeps it safe

word	what it means
Your key	Yours. The root authority over the account. Nothing sits above it, including us.
The agent key	Ours. Approves actions inside the limits set on your account, and does nothing else. Holds no money, pays no fees.
The fee-payer key	Ours. Pays network fees and sends transactions. Authorises nothing and holds nothing but fees.
The form	What the agent signs: a fixed set of labelled boxes for an amount, an asset, a network, an operation and a deadline. There is no box for a destination address and no box for a raw instruction.
Role	How a destination is written, such as “the owner’s account”. Looked up from your account, never chosen by the plan.
Spending limit	A cap per asset, per period, fixed in your account when an operation was switched on. The agent cannot raise it.
Switching off	Turning the agent off. You can do it for your own account from your own wallet. A separate key of ours can kill a stolen agent key across every account on a network.

→ All of these in detail, with their limits, on Your account and your keys.

What you set on a trade

Four different limits, routinely confused.

you set	it answers	who picks the size
Slippage	What will I still accept if the price moves before my transaction goes through?	Nobody. The size is yours.
Price impact	How far may my own trade move the pool?	The router, by shrinking what you offered.
Cost	How large a trade will the market take at this price?	The market, before you choose.
Limit price	What price will I accept?	The pool, which fills what clears and stops.

In one line: slippage protects you from other people, and price impact protects you from yourself.

Only the limit price is enforced on the network itself. A fill below it fails. The two size limits can only make a trade smaller, so they do not need to be.

→ Slippage and price impact and Sizing a trade.

Two conventions that trip people up

Amounts are written twice. Machines write amounts as very large integers, so a plan says 1000000 where you mean 1.00. Every plan therefore also states each amount in plain units with the symbol. Read that one. Prices are two whole numbers, never a decimal. A limit price is written as out units/in units, for example 1250000/1000000000. A price written as a decimal has to be converted against two different token scales, and every place that happens is a place a limit can be multiplied by a million by mistake.

Start here

How it works

Swaps and trading

Your account and security

The agent

Reference

The four you need first

The things you make

What happens during a run

What starts a run without you

What keeps it safe

What you set on a trade

Two conventions that trip people up

​The four you need first

​The things you make

​What happens during a run

​What starts a run without you

​What keeps it safe

​What you set on a trade

​Two conventions that trip people up

The four you need first

The things you make

What happens during a run

What starts a run without you

What keeps it safe

What you set on a trade

Two conventions that trip people up