See the complete route index at https://crusible.dev/llms.txt before following links.

# Concepts

What a channel is, who holds the record, and how a surface answers to the conversation that opened it.

- [Channels are units of work](https://crusible.dev/docs/concepts/channels-are-units-of-work/) — A channel is a feature, an incident, a research question or a machine, with a state, a branch, agents and surfaces of its own.
- [The conversation is the record](https://crusible.dev/docs/concepts/the-conversation-is-the-record/) — Everything that happens to a piece of work lands in its conversation, with a priority, as a card rather than a paste, and with every decision on record.
- [Every surface has a provider](https://crusible.dev/docs/concepts/every-surface-has-a-provider/) — Behind every surface is a provider that holds its data, and connecting a tool you already use changes one surface and nothing else in your workspace.
- [Surfaces answer to the conversation](https://crusible.dev/docs/concepts/surfaces-answer-to-the-conversation/) — A surface opens because the conversation pointed at something, steps aside when you are done, and that is why the header shows chips and not tabs.
- [Agents are teammates](https://crusible.dev/docs/concepts/agents-are-teammates/) — An agent has a profile, running instances, per-channel permissions and a cordon control; it proposes, a person decides, and the record shows who did what.
- [The signal dial compresses, never drops](https://crusible.dev/docs/concepts/the-signal-dial/) — Why attention is a control in the channel header, what each of the four levels holds back, and why a person is never folded.
- [Agents propose, a person decides](https://crusible.dev/docs/concepts/human-authority/) — Where a person sits between an agent's work and the change it would make, and what it costs to move one of those gates.
- [A bridge carries conversation, not a surface](https://crusible.dev/docs/concepts/bridged-reality/) — What a bridged channel relays, why the record stays in Crusible, and why a bridge is never the provider behind a surface.