The conversational operator for Decisional. Dex helps you build agents, ask questions, change workflows, run one-off work, and monitor what happened.Example: Ask Dex to create an agent for quote review, then later ask it to explain a failed run or adjust the approval policy.
Agent
An autonomous AI worker that executes your business workflows. Agents understand natural language instructions, process documents, and complete tasks automatically.Example: A Quote Generation Agent that creates customized quotes based on customer requirements.
Worksheet
A full-featured spreadsheet where your agent reads input data and writes output. Worksheets are powered by SpreadJS and support all standard Excel features (formulas, charts, formatting, etc.).Example: A price list where your agent looks up product prices and writes generated quotes.
Sources
Documents, files, and links that provide context to your agents. Sources help agents make informed decisions by giving them access to company policies, examples, and reference materials.Example: Uploading past quote PDFs so your agent can match your formatting style.
Run
A single execution of your agent’s workflow. Each time your agent performs its task, that’s a run. Runs have a status (Running, Completed, Failed, Needs Review) and include detailed logs.Example: When your Quote Generation Agent processes 10 customer requests, that’s one run.
Workspace
A container for your team’s agents, worksheets, sources, and integrations. Workspaces can be personal (individual use) or organizational (team collaboration).Example: “Acme Corp Sales” workspace containing all quote generation and CRM automation agents.
Integration
A connection to an external service that your agent can interact with. Integrations enable agents to send emails, update CRMs, post to team chat, query databases, and more.Example: An email integration allowing your agent to send quotes after approval.
Approval Policy
The set of rules that decides whether an agent can proceed, must ask for approval, can bypass eligible approvals, or is blocked from taking an action.Example: A reporting agent can always read records but needs approval before sending a final customer-facing message.
Trigger
The mechanism that activates your agent. Triggers can be time-based (schedule), event-based (webhook, new data), manual (click Run button), or API-based (programmatic).Example: “Run every day at 9 AM” or “Run when a new row is added to the worksheet.”
The conversational mode for an agent. Use it to ask questions, run one-off work, inspect context, and iterate with the agent.
Operator Mode
The configuration and monitoring mode for an agent. Use it to change instructions, workflow, tools, triggers, skills, sources, runs, and approval behavior.
Run Mode
The focused run surface for an agent. When the agent is public, Run Mode gives people a public link to run or review the agent without accessing the full builder interface.
A technique where the AI retrieves relevant information from your documents before generating a response. This allows agents to reference specific pages, sections, and data points from your sources.How it works:
Your documents are indexed when uploaded
When the agent runs, it searches for relevant sections
Retrieved content is used to inform the agent’s decisions
The agent cites specific sources and page numbers
Example: Agent extracts pricing from “Q4 Price List.pdf” page 3, paragraph 2, and cites it in the quote.
Bounding Box Citation
The exact location within a PDF where information was found. Bounding boxes show the specific paragraph, table, or section the agent referenced, highlighted with a rectangular box.Why it matters: You can verify the agent didn’t hallucinate by seeing exactly what it read.
OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
Technology that extracts text from images and scanned PDFs. Decisional automatically applies OCR to scanned documents so agents can read them.Best practices:
Use 300 DPI or higher for scans
Ensure good contrast (black text on white background)
Avoid skewed or rotated pages
SpreadJS
The professional-grade spreadsheet engine powering Decisional worksheets. SpreadJS provides full Excel compatibility including formulas, charts, conditional formatting, and more.
Agentic Reasoning
The ability of AI agents to think through problems, handle edge cases, and adapt to new situations - not just follow rigid rules. Agentic reasoning allows Decisional agents to handle complex workflows that traditional automation can’t.Example: If a product is out of stock, the agent suggests alternatives instead of failing.
Semantic Search
Search based on meaning, not just keywords. When your agent searches sources, it finds conceptually relevant information even if exact words don’t match.Example: Searching for “price” will also find “cost”, “fee”, “rate”, etc.
The data your agent receives to process. This typically comes from worksheet rows, API calls, email triggers, or form submissions.Example: Customer name, product, and quantity from a “Quote Requests” spreadsheet.
Output Data
The results your agent produces. This can be written to worksheets, sent via integrations, or returned to another system.Example: Generated quote with calculated prices, discounts, and total.
Instructions
Natural language description of what your agent should do. Instructions are written like you’re training a new team member.Example:
You are an Invoice Processing Agent.Extract key details from uploaded invoices and add them to the tracking spreadsheet.
Human-in-the-Loop
A workflow pattern where the agent pauses for manual review before proceeding. Useful for high-stakes decisions.Example: “If quote exceeds $50,000, flag for manager approval before sending.”
Bypass Approvals
An approval mode where eligible approval prompts continue automatically instead of waiting for a human click. Blocked tools remain blocked.Example: A stable internal report agent can bypass approvals for routine updates after it has been tested.
Gate Node
A workflow node that pauses execution for a human decision before the workflow continues.Example: Require a manager to approve the final contract summary before the agent sends it.
Batch Processing
Processing multiple items in a single run. Agents can process entire worksheets or lists of items efficiently.Example: Generate 100 quotes from 100 customer requests in one run.
Error Handling
How your agent responds to problems. Good agents log errors, continue processing remaining items, and notify you of issues.Example: If one invoice fails to process, log it to an “Errors” sheet and continue with the rest.
A single tab within a worksheet (workbook). You can have multiple sheets for organizing data (e.g., “Requests”, “Outputs”, “Errors”, “Reference Data”).
Cell
A single box in a spreadsheet, identified by column letter and row number (e.g., A1, B5, Z100).
Formula
An Excel-style calculation (e.g., =SUM(A1:A10), =VLOOKUP(B2, Prices!A:B, 2, FALSE)). Agents understand and respect formulas.
Named Range
A friendly name for a group of cells (e.g., “CustomerNames” for cells B2:B100). Makes formulas more readable.
Data Validation
Rules that constrain what can be entered in cells (e.g., dropdown lists, number ranges, date ranges). Helps ensure data quality.
Conditional Formatting
Automatic cell formatting based on values (e.g., highlight cells red if value > 1000). Useful for visual alerts.
A secure authorization method used by integrations. When you connect Gmail, HubSpot, etc., you’re using OAuth to grant Decisional permission to access those services on your behalf.
Webhook
A callback URL that triggers your agent when an external event occurs. Webhooks enable real-time automation.Example: When a form is submitted on your website, it sends a webhook to trigger your agent.
API (Application Programming Interface)
A way for software to talk to other software. Decisional provides an API for programmatic access, and agents can call external APIs.
API Key
A secret token that authenticates API requests. Keep your API keys secure - they grant full access to your workspace.
Endpoint
A specific API URL that performs an action (e.g., /agents/create, /runs/list). Each endpoint has a specific purpose.
REST API
A standard way of building APIs using HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE). Decisional’s API is RESTful.
Simple text format where each line is a row and commas separate columns. No formatting, formulas, or multiple sheets.When to use: Basic data export/import, no formatting needed
XLSX (Excel Workbook)
Modern Excel format supporting multiple sheets, formulas, charts, formatting, and more.When to use: Full-featured spreadsheets with formulas and formatting
XLS (Legacy Excel)
Older Excel format (pre-2007). Still supported but XLSX is preferred.
PDF (Portable Document Format)
Static document format. Decisional can extract text and data from PDFs using RAG and OCR.Best for: Contracts, invoices, reports, policies
DOCX (Word Document)
Microsoft Word format. Good for policies, procedures, and template documents.