> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.antlect.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Core concepts

> Projects, queries, threads, research briefs, and artifacts: how Antlect organises your work, and how they map to the platform layers.

Antlect is organised around a small number of concepts that compose together. Understanding them makes everything else in the platform predictable.

These are the concepts you work with inside the [Decision Intelligence Terminal](/platform/decision-intelligence-terminal), the top layer of the [platform architecture](/platform/overview). If you have read about Antlect on the website, this table connects the two vocabularies:

| On antlect.com           | In the app, and in these docs                    |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------ |
| Discovery Terminal       | Running a query in a thread                      |
| Knowledge Management     | History and Library                              |
| Research Brief           | A report, written in the report editor           |
| Descriptive Digital Twin | Graph mode, and the entities behind every result |
| Trusted Data Foundation  | The data coverage behind an answer               |

## Projects

A **project** is the top-level container for an investigation. It holds every query you run, every thread of analysis, and every report you write on a topic. Projects are private to you and appear in your sidebar for quick switching.

Use one project per line of enquiry: for example, one project for a sector scan and a separate one for a due-diligence deep dive.

## Queries

A **query** is a research question posed in plain language. When you run a query, Antlect analyses it across its knowledge of researchers, institutions, funding, publications, patents, and clinical trials.

Queries can be **tuned** before running:

* **Dimension**: the primary entity type you want the answer organised around (people, institutions, funding bodies).
* **Metrics**: how results are ranked and measured (publication output, citation impact, funding volume, collaboration breadth).

## Threads

Every query runs inside a **thread**: a live, inspectable trace of the analysis. The thread panel shows each step as it executes, with timing, and keeps the full history of runs in the project so you can revisit how an answer was produced.

## Results

A completed query produces a structured **result set** with multiple views:

| View         | What it shows                                                              |
| ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Summary      | A synthesised answer: the key entities, relationships, and findings        |
| Publications | The publication record underlying the answer                               |
| Patents      | Related patent activity                                                    |
| Graph mode   | The same entities as an interactive [network graph](/guides/network-graph) |

## Artifacts

Individual findings inside a result (a ranked table, a chart, an entity profile) are **artifacts**. Artifacts can be selected and saved to the [Library](/guides/history-library) or placed directly into a report, so a finding you generated once stays reusable.

## Mind maps

A **mind map** structures an investigation visually, branching entities, questions, and findings alongside your threads and briefs in the same project. Maps save as editable data, so you reopen one and keep working rather than looking at a static picture.

## Research briefs

A **research brief** is the deliverable, and what the app calls a report. The editor is a full rich-text environment with headings, tables, task lists, images, links, and [interactive chart blocks](/guides/charts). Briefs live inside their project, autosave as you write, and export to PDF.

## How they fit together

```
Project
├── Threads (live query runs, step-by-step traces)
│    └── Queries → Results (Summary / Publications / Patents / Graph)
│         └── Artifacts (saved findings)
└── Research briefs (rich-text documents with charts, exported to PDF)
```

<Tip>
  A good rhythm: run queries in threads until the picture is clear, save the artifacts that matter, then assemble them into a brief at the end.
</Tip>