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Early access — Prefix sets and collection slugs evolve with the product; your workspace may still show legacy IDs (BET-*) while docs standardize on work packages language. Join the Product Brain Community when terminology and UI disagree.
Read The Chain for the story. This page is the lookup reference.

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Chain

The Chain is the workspace source of truth: typed entries, relations, history, and governance—shared by the app, pb, MCP, and (eventually) the public REST API.

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Workspace

A workspace is an isolated container: its Chain, members, keys, and settings do not leak into other tenants. Humans pick a workspace in the UI; agents select it implicitly through the API key.

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Entries

Entries are durable knowledge units. Every entry has:
  • A human-readable ID with a type prefix (examples below).
  • Title / name and rich data fields depending on collection.
  • Status (lifecycle) and often workflow state for governed collections.
  • Collection membership (defines schema and rules).
  • Relations to other entries and a version / history trail.

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Entry types (prefix cheat sheet)

Prefixes map to collections in typical workspaces. Exact slugs can vary—use pb collections list or MCP entries when in doubt.
Human vs agent: you say “capture a tension about mobile auth.” Your agent chooses capture text and collection classification; you confirm before commit when required.

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Lifecycle (simplified)

  1. Draft — safe to iterate; not treated as committed truth.
  2. Committed / active — governed promotion succeeded; consumers should trust it for orientation.
  3. Deprecated / archived — superseded or retired; still visible for history unless hidden by policy.
Workflow states (e.g. shaped, building, shipped for work packages) layer on top—see MCP entries action=update docs in the generated reference.

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Relations (semantic graph)

Relations are typed directed edges. Examples:
  • A standard governs a work package.
  • An insight informs a decision.
  • A decision / work package resolves a tension.
We do not enumerate every relation type here—use MCP relations and the generated reference for exhaustive lists.

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thinkingLayer and timelines (advanced)

Entries can carry thinking layer metadata (strategy vs execution vs governance signals) and participate in timeline views. UIs may still label these differently—ask your agent to entries action=get when you need ground truth.

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doneWhen and buildContract (work packages)

Shaped work packages often embed done when criteria and build contracts so humans and agents share acceptance tests. Field names live in entry data—inspect a real BET-* / WP-* entry in your workspace.

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Sessions

Sessions trace agent work: what was read, captured, or committed while a task ran. Start before writes, close after.

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Governance (pointer)

Governance mode (e.g. open vs consensus) changes whether commits create proposals. Deep dive: coming soon as a dedicated doc; until then see FAQ and in-app settings.

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Surfaces

A small Product Brain Chain graph showing connected entries and relationships.