---
title: Concept clusters
description: >-
  Every platform concept, grouped into five clusters. Each cluster answers one
  question about how work moves through the platform.
tags:
  - concepts
  - orientation
  - glossary
---

The platform has a handful of concepts, and they fit on one page once grouped. Each of the five clusters below answers a single question — where you work, what you run, how it executes, what you get back, and how work is organized. Read them in order the first time; after that, use this page as a map.

> **Names used in these docs**

> **Ivy Biosciences** is the company. **.bloom*** is the platform you work in — everything below lives inside it, reached through Ivy and the .bloom* studio. **Ivy** is the agent: it plans the run, picks and chains the tools, runs them, cites the results, and asks you when it needs a decision. The **`ivybloom`** CLI is a scriptable surface onto the same backend, and doubles as an MCP server for coding agents. **pleach** is the runtime underneath; its SDK narrative lives at [getpleach.com](https://getpleach.com). When a page says "the platform," it means .bloom*.

## Surfaces — where you work

Chat is one way to start a run; curl, the CLI and an MCP client reach the same runtime. The three surfaces below share one job history for signed-in users, and they differ in how you drive them, not in what they can do. The [API](/docs/api) and [MCP server](/docs/mcp) are the programmatic doors to the same tools.

| Concept | What it is | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| **Ivy** | The conversational surface. Type a natural-language goal; Ivy selects and chains tools. | [Chat](/docs/chat) |
| **.bloom* studio** | The project-based surface. A file explorer, job dashboard, and canvas give you direct control over parameters and layout. | [Studio](/docs/studio) |
| **ivybloom CLI** | The scriptable surface for batch processing, CI/CD, and reproducible pipelines. | [CLI](/docs/cli) |

## Work units — what you run

A **tool** is the atom. A **workflow** documents a multi-tool sequence you run step by step; in chat, the orchestrator reads your goal and chains the tools for you, so there is no separate pipeline to pick.

| Concept | What it is | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| **Tool** | A single computational capability — ESMFold, DiffDock, REINVENT4. Runs as a job or an instant lookup, returns structured results, renders as a card. | [Workflows](/docs/workflows) |
| **Workflow** | A guided, documented multi-tool pipeline — prerequisites, steps, expected outputs, best practices. You run each step. | [Workflows](/docs/workflows) |

**Above the tool sits the capability** — the outcome you want. Most capabilities are served by *several interchangeable tools*: ESMFold, AlphaFold, and ESM3 all produce a protein structure; they differ in speed, coverage, and input, not in the goal. Think in capabilities first and let the tool follow. [What you can achieve](/docs/capabilities) lists them and when to pick which.

## Execution — how a run happens

Running a tool creates a **job**. Many jobs at once form a **batch**. A finished job emits **artifacts**.

| Concept | What it is | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| **Job** | One tool invocation with inputs. Moves through `queued → running → completed` (or `failed` / `cancelled`). | [Job lifecycle](/docs/getting-started) |
| **Batch** | Many jobs submitted together. The API and `ivybloom jobs batch submit` both cap a batch at 100 jobs; split a larger library across batches. | [CLI batch](/docs/cli) |
| **Artifact** | The files a completed job produces — PDB, SDF, CSV, PNG — downloadable and exportable. | [Canvas export](/docs/chat/canvas) |

## Results — what you get back

A single job's result renders as a **canvas card**. A **passport** aggregates results from many tools into one profile.

| Concept | What it is | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| **Canvas card** | The interactive result of one job. Expands through four tiers — text, preview, interactive visualization, floating window. | [Canvas](/docs/chat/canvas) |
| **Passport** | A multi-source aggregated report. Five types — compound, target, safety, literature, therapeutic area — each pulling from several tools. | [Passports](/docs/passports) |

## Organization — how work is grouped

A **campaign** groups related chats. A **session** holds the state of one conversation. A **checkpoint** snapshots that state so you can roll back.

| Concept | What it is | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| **Campaign** | A project-level grouping of related chats that share an objective, with aggregated job history and canvas. | [Campaigns](/docs/chat/campaigns) |
| **Session** | The persistent container for one multi-turn conversation — messages, tool calls, pending and completed jobs. | [Harness sessions](/docs/api/sessions-manage) |
| **Checkpoint** | An immutable snapshot of session state at a lifecycle event. Roll back to discard everything after it. | [Checkpoints](/docs/api/sessions-checkpoints) |

## The scientific arc

The clusters describe the machinery. The science runs along one arc — from a disease or target down to an optimized lead. Each leg maps to a tool chain.

> **Choosing between close cousins**

> Some concepts overlap — tool vs. workflow, canvas card vs. passport, campaign vs. session. [Decisions](/docs/decisions) walks each pair. To match a scientific goal to a tool, see [Which tool?](/docs/which-tool).