> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://microstrate-1133-notifications-prefs.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Core Concepts

> Understand the fundamental building blocks of the QuivaWorks platform

## Overview

QuivaWorks is built around a small set of core concepts that work together to create an intelligent AI platform for teams. Understanding these will help you build effective assistants, design automations, and get the most out of the platform.

## Assistants

**Assistants** are the heart of QuivaWorks — AI collaborators configured for specific tasks, roles, or domains. Unlike general-purpose AI, QuivaWorks assistants retain context, access your systems, and improve through intentional refinement.

### Team vs. Personal Assistants

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Team Assistants" icon="users">
    Accessible to everyone in your account. Use for standardised workflows, shared tools, and company-wide resources.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Personal Assistants" icon="user">
    Private to the creator only. Use for individual work, experiments, or personal use cases.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

### Configuration Layers

Every assistant has two configuration layers that merge at runtime:

* **Team Settings** — Shared instructions, knowledge, integrations, and context variables for the entire team
* **Personal Settings** — Individual configurations that layer on top of team settings without affecting others

**Account-Level Settings** sit above both and apply to all your assistants when enable in each assistants settings:

| Setting                 | Purpose                                                   |
| ----------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Global Instructions** | Default instructions applied to all assistant invocations |
| **Global Knowledge**    | Company-wide knowledge sources, enabled per assistant     |
| **Branding**            | Customise the look and feel of the interface              |

### Assistant Configuration

Each assistant is configured across four areas:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Instructions" icon="scroll">
    Define the assistant's role, personality, tone, and responsibilities
  </Card>

  <Card title="Knowledge" icon="book">
    Give the assistant access to your documentation and context
  </Card>

  <Card title="Integrations" icon="plug">
    Connect to your systems via MCP protocol
  </Card>

  <Card title="Context Variables" icon="sliders">
    Configure environment-specific parameters
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Card title="Learn more about Assistants" icon="sparkles" href="/assistants/overview">
  Dive deeper into creating and configuring assistants →
</Card>

***

## Flows

**Flows** are automated sequences of steps that execute in response to a trigger. Think of a flow as a recipe for automation — triggers start the process, steps perform actions, and variable mappings pass data between steps.

### Flow Structure

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Triggers" icon="bolt">
    Start flows via webhooks, schedules, HTTP requests, emails, file uploads, or stream events
  </Card>

  <Card title="Steps" icon="list-check">
    Run assistants, make decisions, transform data, call APIs, loop over items, or wait for human input
  </Card>

  <Card title="Functions" icon="code">
    Utility operations for key-value storage, object storage, streams, and data manipulation
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

Flows support conditional branching, parallel execution, nested flows, and human-in-the-loop approval gates.

<Card title="Learn more about Flows" icon="diagram-project" href="/flows/overview">
  Explore triggers, steps, and flow configuration →
</Card>

***

## Integrations & MCP

**Model Context Protocol (MCP)** is an open standard that connects assistants and flows to external systems, tools, and data sources.

### What MCP Enables

* **Pre-built integrations** — Connect to popular business tools out of the box
* **Auto-generation Custom integrations** — Create MCP servers automatically from OpenAPI specifications to build your own for proprietary systems and internal APIs
* **Enhanced specs** — OpenAPI specs with embedded agent instructions are supported

### Built-in Tools

Every assistant comes with a set of built-in tools available out of the box:

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Research & Content">
    * **Web Search** — Recent news and general web results
    * **Content Fetching** — Retrieve and parse URLs as markdown
    * **Document Analysis** — Search and analyse knowledge base documents
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Data & Computation">
    * **Math Evaluation** — Solve mathematical expressions
    * **JSON Extraction** — Extract values using JSONPath
    * **Regular Expressions** — Pattern matching using Go RE2 syntax
    * **Date/Time Parsing** — Parse and format with timezone support
    * **Data Encoding/Decoding** — Convert data using various schemes
    * **Cryptographic Hashing** — Industry-standard hash generation
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Task Management">
    * **Task Management** — Create and manage structured task lists
    * **Escalation** — Route requests to human supervisors when needed
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

### Sub-Agents

For tool-heavy workflows, QuivaWorks automatically uses sub-agents to prevent context window overload. The context window is split across multiple tool calls, each handled by a dedicated sub-agent, with results consolidated back to the main assistant.

***

## Learning System

Assistants improve through **intentional refinement** — not automatic adjustment. You stay in control of when and how your assistants evolve.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Vote on Interactions">
    Use thumbs up/down to flag what works and what doesn't in real conversations
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review Insights">
    The Learning tab consolidates feedback into actionable patterns from successful interactions
  </Step>

  <Step title="Refine Behaviour">
    Update instructions, knowledge, or settings based on what you've learned
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Info>
  QuivaWorks uses intentional refinement by design. Assistants don't change automatically — you decide when and how to update them based on the insights surfaced.
</Info>

<Card title="Learn more about Learning" icon="brain" href="/assistants/learning">
  See how to improve assistants through feedback and insights →
</Card>

***

## Collaboration

QuivaWorks is built for teams. Any assistant session can be shared with teammates in real-time — no separate tools or context-switching required.

* **@Mentions** — Type `@` in any session to invite team members instantly
* **Shared With Me** — A dedicated sidebar section showing all sessions shared with you
* **Unread Badges** — Track new messages across all shared sessions
* **Smart Notifications** — Get alerts when teammates complete tasks or reply
* **Multi-Tab Conversations** — Run multiple assistant sessions simultaneously; assistants continue working while you switch tabs

<Card title="Learn more about Collaboration" icon="handshake" href="/get-started/collaboration">
  See how to share sessions and work with your team →
</Card>

***

## How It All Works Together

<Steps>
  <Step title="Create an Assistant">
    Configure instructions, knowledge, and integrations for your use case. Set team settings for shared standards and personal settings for individual customisation.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Work Together">
    Use the assistant in sessions. Share with teammates using `@`, track updates with unread badges, and collaborate in real-time.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Automate with Flows">
    Build flows to trigger assistants automatically — on a schedule, via webhook, from an email, or any other trigger.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Improve Over Time">
    Vote on interactions, review the Learning tab, and intentionally refine your assistants based on the insights surfaced.
  </Step>
</Steps>

***

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Create Your First Assistant" icon="sparkles" href="/assistants/creating-first-assistant">
    Build an assistant tailored to your use case
  </Card>

  <Card title="Explore Flows" icon="diagram-project" href="/flows/overview">
    Automate tasks with triggers and steps
  </Card>

  <Card title="Team Collaboration" icon="users" href="/get-started/collaboration">
    Share sessions and work together in real-time
  </Card>

  <Card title="API Reference" icon="code" href="/api-reference">
    Integrate QuivaWorks programmatically
  </Card>
</CardGroup>