Core concepts
Nine words explain the whole product. Learn them once — every page in these docs uses them the same way.
Wingman keeps its vocabulary small and stable. When another page says agent, topic, or workspace, it means exactly what this page says — other docs link back here instead of redefining terms.
The nine terms
| Term | What it is | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
| Agent | An assistant packaged with instructions, tools, documents, and model defaults. Agents make repeat work consistent instead of rebuilding context every time. | The agent picker in Chat; Agent Profile to inspect or edit one. |
| Topic & thread | A topic is one conversation with its own history, title, and share link. A thread branches a focused follow-up off a topic without losing the original. | The topic sidebar in Chat; Start New Topic in the composer. |
| Group | Several agent roles collaborating in one conversation, with per-member threads when one specialist needs a focused follow-up. | Group chats in the Chat tab. |
| Knowledge | Indexed sources — files, documents, and repositories Wingman can search and cite. You add it deliberately. | The Library in Chat; the Knowledge Base in Agent Dev. |
| Memory | Preferences and durable context Wingman learns from working with you. You can inspect, tune, or clear it. | Settings → Memory. |
| Workspace | The folder or .code-workspace file Agent Dev works inside. Agents see the files, terminals, and hardware of the open workspace — and nothing outside it. | Wingman Home → Open Folder or Open Workspace. |
| Provider | The engine behind an agent. In Agent Dev it is your installed, signed-in Claude Code, Codex, or Kimi CLI; in Chat it is the model behind the conversation. | The Agent Dev panel; the model badge in the Chat composer. |
| Run mode | How much freedom a run has: which runtime is active, and whether tool calls pause for your approval (Manual, Allow List, Auto Approve). | The Agent Dev panel controls; the tools panel in Chat. |
| Hosted MCP | The connective tissue: one hosted endpoint that puts Wingman tools and knowledge inside Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and any other MCP client. | Connect AI tools on Wingman Home; the MCP & Skills tab. |
Knowledge vs memory
How the terms map to surfaces
The terms map cleanly onto the surfaces. Agents, topics, groups, and knowledge live in Chat. Workspaces, providers, and run modes live in Agent Dev on the desktop. Hosted MCP connects everything else — your AI CLIs reach the same knowledge and tools through it. One account ties all of it together.
Go deeper where you work: agents and groups in the Chat tab, approval policies and sandbox modes in the Agent Dev tab, and the full connection story in MCP & Skills.