Decisions
Close-cousin concepts, side by side — pick the right surface, work unit, and organizational container for the task in front of you.
Several platform concepts sit close enough to blur. This page puts each pair side by side so you can choose without guessing. If you are still learning the vocabulary, read Concept clusters first.
Chat vs. Studio vs. CLI
All three reach the same backend and share one job history. Choose by how you want to drive the work.
| Chat | Studio | CLI | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Driven by | Conversation | Files and forms | Commands and scripts |
| Tool selection | Orchestrator picks and chains | You choose per job | You specify per command |
| Best for | Exploration, one-off jobs, 3D viewing | Project organization, parameter control, multi-window layouts | Batch runs, CI/CD, reproducible pipelines |
| Start here | Chat | Studio | CLI |
Tool vs. Workflow vs. Automatic chaining
Same tools underneath; the difference is how much the platform chains for you.
| Tool | Workflow | Automatic chaining | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | One capability, run once | A documented multi-tool sequence | Your goal, read for intent and turned into a chain of tools |
| Who chains the steps | You | You, following the guide | The orchestrator, per request |
| Parameters | Full control | Full control per step | Defaults, unless you name them |
| Start here | Which tool? | Workflows | How the orchestrator picks tools |
Let the orchestrator chain automatically when you want the standard sequence with default settings, you are exploring a new target or compound for the first time, or you want a quick end-to-end analysis without tuning parameters. Describe the goal in chat; you do not pick a pipeline.
Run tools individually when you need non-default parameters at a specific step, you want to inspect intermediate results before continuing, or you want to branch the pipeline.
Job vs. Batch
| Job | Batch | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | One tool invocation | Many jobs submitted together |
| Limit | Draws down your monthly credits | 100 jobs per submission, on the web and in the CLI |
| Use when | Running or iterating on a single analysis | Screening a library or sweeping parameters |
Canvas card vs. Passport
Both render on the canvas; they differ in how many tools feed them.
| Canvas card | Passport | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | One job's result | Several tools, aggregated |
| Shape | Tiered result — text, preview, interactive, window | Multi-section profile with a completeness score |
| Use when | You want the output of a single tool | You want a compound, target, safety, literature, or therapeutic-area profile in one view |
| Start here | Canvas | Passports |
Campaign vs. Session
Both hold more than one turn, but they live at different layers.
| Campaign | Session | |
|---|---|---|
| Layer | Your organization — a project | The runtime — one conversation's state |
| Groups | Multiple chats sharing an objective | Messages, tool calls, jobs, checkpoints for one chat |
| You use it to | Organize related work and compare results | Persist, sync, and roll back a conversation |
| Start here | Campaigns | Harness sessions |
Still deciding where to start?
For a scientific goal, go to Which tool?. For the whole platform in 90 seconds, go to Overview.
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