Docs/Semantic Layer/Business Glossary

Business Glossary

Teach Orion your company's language — acronyms, internal names, and metric aliases — so it interprets questions and answers the way your team speaks.

WeaverLuminaryUpdated June 2026 · 6 min read

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In this section

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Tip

What it is — A workspace-wide list of business terms and their definitions that Orion reads to understand company-specific language: acronyms, internal product names, and metric aliases.
When to use it — When Orion misreads a term your team uses every day (an acronym, an internal nickname, or a metric whose meaning differs from the industry default).
Where to find it — Context Studio → Knowledge group → Business Glossary.
Who can use it — Anyone can read it; Weaver and Luminary can add, edit, and delete terms.

The Business Glossary is where you tell Orion what your words mean. Every team has its own shorthand — "MRR", "active customer", "the East book" — and Orion cannot guess what those mean from the data alone. By recording each term and its definition here, you give Orion a shared vocabulary so it interprets your questions correctly and answers using language your team recognizes.

This is a live, in-app feature backed by the workspace_glossary table. It is scoped to your workspace, so every term you add applies only to your team's Orion.

Overview

The Business Glossary lives in Context Studio, the intelligence layer for your semantic model and Orion. Inside Context Studio, the left navigation has a Knowledge group; the Business Glossary is the first entry, alongside the Knowledge Graph.

Each term is a small record with three meaningful parts:

Term — the word or acronym as your team writes it (for example, MRR).
Definition — the plain-English meaning Orion should use (for example, "Monthly Recurring Revenue — sum of all active subscription revenue").
Domain (optional) — a single domain this definition applies to. Leave it blank and the term is global, applying everywhere.

Terms are listed alphabetically by term. Each row shows the term in bold, a badge if it is scoped to a domain, the definition, and inline edit and delete controls. The section header tells you how many terms exist and reminds you that "Orion uses these to understand your company's language."

When to use it

Add a glossary term whenever Orion's interpretation of a word does not match yours. The most common cases:

Acronyms — Orion has no way to know that "LTV" means "Lifetime Value" in your business. Spell it out.
Internal names — a product, region, or team that only your company calls by a particular nickname.
Metric aliases — a word that maps to a specific metric in your model, so a question like "what was churn last month?" resolves to the metric you mean.
Non-standard definitions — a term whose meaning at your company differs from the industry default (for example, "churn" counting only voluntary cancellations, not payment failures).

If a term already means exactly what the industry standard says and Orion already answers correctly, you do not need to add it.

Concepts

Term	What it means
Term	The word or acronym exactly as your team writes it. This is what Orion looks for when reading a question.
Definition	The meaning Orion should attach to the term. Write it the way you would explain it to a new teammate.
Domain	An optional scope. A term left blank is global (applies everywhere). A term tied to a domain applies only when Orion is answering within that domain.
Global term	A glossary term with no domain set. It is the default meaning everywhere.
Domain-scoped term	A glossary term tied to one domain. When Orion answers in that domain, the domain-scoped definition overrides the global one.
Created-by attribution	Each term records who created it, so the team can see who owns a given definition.

Getting started

Prerequisites

You are signed in as a Weaver or Luminary to add, edit, or delete terms. (A Tracer or Lens can view the glossary but not change it.)
To scope a term to a domain, that domain must already exist in your workspace — the domain picker is populated from your Orion skills, so domains appear automatically once skills are defined.

How to open it

Open Context Studio from the main navigation.
In the left navigation, find the Knowledge group.
Click Business Glossary.

Step-by-step

Open the Business Glossary

Go to Context Studio, then Knowledge → Business Glossary. The header shows the current term count and the + Add term button.

Add a term

Click + Add term. An inline form appears with a Term field, a domain dropdown, and a Definition box.

Enter the term and definition

Type the term in the Term field (for example, MRR) and write its meaning in the Definition box (for example, "Monthly Recurring Revenue — sum of all active subscription revenue"). Both fields are required.

Choose a scope (optional)

Leave the domain dropdown on All domains to make the term global, or pick a single domain if the term means something different there. A domain-scoped definition overrides the global one when Orion answers within that domain.

Save

Click Save. The term is added and the list re-sorts alphabetically. Orion picks it up for future questions — no rebuild or publish step is needed.

Edit or delete later

Use the inline edit (pencil) control on any row to change a term, its definition, or its scope, then click Update. Use the delete (trash) control to remove a term; you will be asked to confirm.

Examples

Suppose your team uses "MRR" constantly, but for the Finance domain "active" means something stricter. You would add a global definition for the acronym and a domain-scoped definition for the nuanced term.

A global acronym definition:

Term:        MRR
Domain:      All domains
Definition:  Monthly Recurring Revenue — sum of all active subscription revenue.

A non-standard, domain-scoped definition:

Term:        Active customer
Domain:      Finance
Definition:  A customer with at least one paid invoice in the trailing 30 days.
             Trials and comped accounts do not count.

With both in place, when Orion answers a general question it uses the broad meaning of "active customer," but when it answers within the Finance domain it uses the stricter, domain-scoped definition instead — because a domain-scoped term overrides the global term in that domain.

Best practices

Spell out every acronym your team uses in questions. Acronyms are the single most valuable thing to capture, because Orion cannot expand them on its own.
Write definitions for a newcomer. A good definition reads like an explanation you would give a new teammate on day one.
Use domain scope only when the meaning genuinely differs. If a term means the same thing everywhere, leave it global so you maintain one definition instead of many.
Capture non-standard meanings explicitly. When your definition departs from the industry default, say so in the definition text (for example, "Churn = voluntary cancellations only, not payment failures").
Keep one term per concept. Avoid duplicate global terms for the same word; use a single global definition plus domain overrides where needed.
Revisit definitions as the business evolves. Edit terms inline whenever a metric's meaning or an internal name changes.

Tips

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Include acronyms first — for example, "LTV = Lifetime Value — total revenue from a customer over all orders." Then add any term whose meaning differs from the industry standard, such as "Churn = voluntary cancellations only, not payment failures." Remember that domain-scoped terms override global terms when Orion answers within that domain, so reach for scoping only when a word truly means two different things in two parts of the business.

Common mistakes

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Warning

Leaving the term or definition blank. Both fields are required; saving with either one empty does nothing and the form stays open.
Scoping to a domain that does not change the meaning. A domain-scoped term creates a second definition to maintain. Only scope when the term genuinely means something different in that domain.
Expecting Lens or Tracer users to edit the glossary. Only Weaver and Luminary can add, edit, or delete terms. Other roles can view but not change them.
Confusing this with the docs-site glossary. The page you can edit in the app is the in-product Business Glossary that teaches Orion. The reference list at Glossary is documentation that defines Celiq's own terms — it is not editable and does not affect Orion.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
The + Add term button is missing, or Save fails	You are signed in as a Tracer or Lens	Writing to the glossary requires Weaver or Luminary. Ask a Weaver or Luminary to add the term, or have an admin adjust your role.
You click Save and nothing happens	The Term or Definition field is empty	Both are required. Fill in both fields, then Save.
"Could not save the term. Please try again." appears	The save request failed	Check your connection and retry. If it persists, the term may have been removed by someone else — reopen the glossary to refresh the list.
Editing a term returns a "Not found" state	The term was deleted in another session, or belongs to a different workspace	Refresh the Business Glossary to reload the current list, then re-add the term if it is gone.
The domain dropdown only shows All domains	No Orion domains/skills exist yet in the workspace	Define domain skills first; the dropdown is populated from your Orion skills, so domains appear once they exist.
Orion still uses the wrong meaning in one domain	A global term is in force where you expected an override	Add a domain-scoped version of the term for that domain — the domain-scoped definition overrides the global one there.

Orion — the AI layer that reads your glossary when interpreting questions.
Knowledge Graph — the other entry in the Context Studio Knowledge group.
Semantic Layer overview — how terms, metrics, and domains fit together.
Glossary — the docs-site reference of Celiq's own terms (distinct from this in-app feature).