Glossary

Bica uses one name for each idea, in the app and in these docs. Each term links to the page that explains it.

Term	What it means
Account	One sign-in to a provider. A plan can have several, which take turns as each nears its limits.
Active	The sidebar tab with what’s in play: sessions that need you, are running, or changed in the last few minutes.
Archive	Hiding a finished session from the list, keeping everything. Undo, or a new prompt, brings it back.
Assistant mode	A session that runs for months, keeping what lasts in memory files.
Board	The hub’s Threads list of the sessions it follows.
Chat	A session with no project, in its own new folder under ~/.bica/chats.
Child session	A session another session started. Its parent hears each run it ends.
Command palette	The ⌘K search box for going anywhere and doing anything.
Compact	Having a model summarize the older part of a session, so the next prompt is smaller.
Context	What the model rereads on each turn: its instructions, the conversation, and tool output.
Context chip	The chip in a session’s top bar that shows how full the context window is.
Context window	How much context a model can read at once.
Default model	The model new sessions start with.
Detach	Taking a child session or terminal from its parent, so it’s yours alone.
Dictation	Recording speech on the phone and writing it into the composer.
Effort	How hard a model thinks. Picked per session, next to the model.
Exa	The service behind the agent’s web search and fetch, turned on with its key.
Fast model	A small, cheap model that titles sessions and writes commit messages.
Fork	A new session with another session’s history up to a chosen reply.
Hub	The one session that coordinates the others and does no work itself.
Kept file	A file listed in the sidebar with Keep open, until you unpin it.
Main folder	A project’s own folder, as opposed to its worktrees.
Memory files	Markdown files, starting from MEMORY.md, where a long-lived session keeps what lasts.
Needs you	Sessions waiting for an answer, unread, or failed.
Night run	A session held for tonight, which runs alone and ends with a morning report.
Note	A prompt from Bica itself, such as a child session’s finished run.
Parent	The session that started a child session and leads it.
Parked	The sidebar section for workspaces with nothing open.
Project	A folder you added for agents to work in, usually a git repo, with its worktrees.
Project instructions	The AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md files Bica gives every session.
Prompt cache	The provider’s copy of the context so far, cheap to reread until it expires.
Provider	Where models come from, connected by a plan sign-in or an API key.
Prune	Shrinking old tool output to a short note, without a model call. The transcript keeps it.
Queue	Holding a prompt while a run works, so it starts the next run. ⌘Enter, or Queue under the send button’s chevron.
Run	The agent working from a prompt until it replies, stops, or fails.
Session	One conversation with an agent, in one workspace.
Side panel	The column on the right, with the Files and Git tabs.
Sidebar	The column on the left, with the hub, projects, workspaces, and their sessions.
Skill	A folder of instructions for one task, which the agent reads when it fits.
Stage on view	A setting that stages a changed file once you’ve opened its diff.
Status	Where a session stands: Running, Retrying, Waiting for you, Unread, Failed, or Idle.
Steer	Sending while the agent works, so the prompt joins the current run after the step in progress.
Tailnet	Your private Tailscale network, the safe way to reach Bica from other devices.
Terminal	A shell in a workspace that you and the agents share.
Transcript	What a session shows: prompts, replies, thinking, and tool calls.
Voice call	Talking to a session out loud, with the call panel in the composer’s place.
Watch	The hub following a session it didn’t start, hearing each run it ends.
Workspace	The folder a session or terminal works in: a project’s main folder or one of its worktrees.
Workspace page	A workspace’s own page: its sessions, changes, and commits, or a file or diff full size.
Worktree	A git worktree of a project: its own folder and branch, usually one per feature.