Platform and organization
Company The billing and data-isolation unit. Every account in Timely belongs to a single company. Data never leaks between companies — each one has its own logical database via Row Level Security in Supabase. Workspace A subdivision of a company. A company can have multiple workspaces (e.g., “Sales”, “Support”, “SDR”). Agents, channels, and conversations belong to a specific workspace. Users can have different roles in different workspaces. Role A user’s permission level within a workspace. Hierarchy:owner > manager > trainer > attendant > member. The full permissions matrix is in Team & Permissions → Permissions.
Squad
A grouping of multiple agents with a configurable operating mode. Enables automatic routing, agent-to-agent handoff, and aggregated analytics. Ideal for splitting by specialty (e.g., sales/support/finance).
Agents and AI
Agent A configurable AI assistant with a personality, language model, tools, knowledge base, and voice. An agent responds across one or more channels. Model / LLM Provider The language engine powering the agent. We support OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, and custom providers via your own credentials in the workspace. Prompt The base instruction that defines how the agent behaves. Timely provides a visual editor, version history, automatic improvement, and support for conditional prompts (which change based on conversation variables). Training Content that becomes the agent’s knowledge base: documents, Q&A, free text, indexed websites, and YouTube videos. All go through the RAG pipeline. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) A technique where the agent retrieves relevant excerpts from the knowledge base before responding, reducing hallucination. Timely indexes content via embeddings and performs semantic search. Handoff The transfer of a conversation from the AI agent to a human attendant (or between agents). Can be triggered by a rule (e.g., keyword, intent, complexity) or manually. Takeover A temporary pause of the AI agent so a human can take over the conversation. Different from a permanent handoff — the agent can resume responding once the human signals it.Channels
Channel The medium through which the agent communicates with the contact. Supported: Official WhatsApp (WABA), Instagram, Web widget, Telegram, Slack. WABA WhatsApp Business API — Meta’s official integration with support for approved templates, webhooks, and higher send limits. Configured via embedded signup in the dashboard. Widget An embeddable chat on your website. Generates a JavaScript snippet to paste into the page. Supports voice calls, appearance customization, and multiple agents. Template (Template Message) A pre-approved WhatsApp message that can be sent outside the 24-hour window. Required for re-engagement or proactive notifications.Conversations and CRM
Conversation A thread of messages between a contact and one or more agents/attendants on a channel. Has a status (open, in progress, waiting, closed), tags, assignment, and history. Contact The person on the other side of the conversation. Identified by phone, email, or external ID. Can have custom fields, an activity timeline, and a health score. Lead / Pipeline A contact in a sales process, positioned at a stage in the funnel (Kanban). Workflows automate transitions between stages. Datagrid A custom spreadsheet-style table for storing structured information (e.g., a real estate catalog, a product list). Agents can read and write to datagrids via tools.API and integrations
API Key A credential for authenticating REST API calls. Sent in thex-api-key header. Can have a limited scope and be rotated at any time.
Webhook
An HTTP POST that Timely sends to your URL when an event occurs (message received, conversation closed, etc.). Signed with HMAC-SHA256 in the X-Timely-Signature header.
MCP Server (Model Context Protocol)
An external server that exposes tools to the agent via the MCP protocol. Allows you to plug any custom capability into the agent.
Composio
A managed integrations platform. Timely uses Composio to connect 29 apps (Notion, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Stripe, Slack, GitHub, etc.) with managed OAuth.
Automation
Workflow A visual drag-and-drop flow with triggers, conditions, and actions. Similar to n8n/Make but native to Timely. Executes in response to events (new message, lead created, etc.). Follow-up A rule that sends an automatic message after a time delay or condition (e.g., “24 hours with no reply → send a reminder”). Managed via API and dashboard. Broadcast Sending a message to multiple contacts (mass campaign). Respects channel limits and has a speed optimizer to maximize delivery without getting blocked.Billing and credits
Plan A monthly/annual subscription (Basic, Standard, Enterprise) that defines limits for agents, messages, channels, and features. Credits (Coins) Internal currency consumed by variable actions (extra messages, TTS, tools). Rechargeable via Stripe. Automatic low-balance alerts. Trial An initial free-of-charge test period. Expires automatically — checkcheck-trial-status or the widget in the dashboard.