Why it exists
Ask three people what a lead is and you get three answers, all reasonable, none the same. Terrain > Dictionary is where that gets settled once. Every number on a board, in a report or sent to an advertising platform should trace back to a term defined here. Relay reads terms with allowed values as its controlled vocabularies, and Lens semantic models can link their metrics and fields to agreed terms; see How Terrain Works.
The dictionary belongs to one property. Anyone with access to the property can read it, add drafts and propose changes.
Kinds of term
| Kind | Use it for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Measure | Something you count | Residential Lead |
| Field | Something you group or filter by. Can list its allowed values | business_type, utm_medium |
| Concept | A shared idea with no number of its own | Commercial pages |
Lifecycle
| Status | What it means | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Not agreed yet. Nothing should report against a draft | Anyone can edit it and click Send For Review |
| In review | Waiting on the owner | The owner clicks Agree (it becomes version 1) or Send Back To Draft |
| Agreed | Version 1 or later | Edits become proposed changes. Nothing changes until the owner clicks Agree Change, which saves the next version |
| Retired | No longer in use, kept so the same argument is not had again | Shows why, and which term replaces it |
Every agreed version is kept in the term's History, so a report built on version 3 can always be read back. An agreed term can be retired but never deleted, because reports may depend on it. A term that was never agreed can be deleted.
Who can do what
The owner is the one person who agrees a term. They are chosen when the term is added.
| Action | Who |
|---|---|
| Add a draft, edit a draft, send it for review | Anyone with access to the property |
| Agree a term, Send Back To Draft, Agree Change, Turn Down a change | The owner |
| Propose a change to an agreed term | Anyone |
| Withdraw a proposed change | The person who proposed it |
| Hand the term to another owner, change the next review date | The owner |
| Retire an agreed term | The owner |
| Move an agreed term to another parent | The owner |
| Move or delete a term that was never agreed | The owner, or the person who added it |
| Settle a question | The person asked, the person who asked, or the owner |
Variants, not copies
When a team needs a term counted slightly differently, you do not write a second definition. You add a variant that inherits everything from its parent and changes only what differs, for example the same lead with paid video included. Two near-identical definitions drift apart within a quarter; a parent and a one-line difference cannot.
- A variant's page marks each filter and rule as inherited, changed here, or added here, with the parent's value shown alongside.
- Variants are one level deep, and only measures and fields can have variants; concepts cannot.
- A variant can only be agreed once its parent is agreed. When the parent later changes, the variant shows Parent changed until its owner checks it and clicks Still Correct.
Waiting on you
The top of the dictionary lists what is waiting on you, with how long it has waited:
| Item | Appears when |
|---|---|
| Approve | A term you own was sent for review |
| Review change | A change was proposed to a term you own or watch, or a parent changed under a variant you own |
| Review due | A term you own has passed its next review date. A term's review is set six months out when it is agreed, unless the owner chose a date |
| Answer | Someone asked you a question on a term |
Nothing on this list changes on its own. An item stays until you agree it, answer it, or hand the term to someone else. Email about these events is optional; see Terrain Settings.
Filters and rules are a record
A term's filters ("which rows are included") and rules ("how it is counted") say what the business means. They do not run anything. Lens runs the query, which means a board can be checked against what was agreed rather than silently becoming the definition.
TagPipes monitors, configures and reports. It does not determine legal compliance and does not provide legal advice. Output is informational and reflects observed state at the time of observation. Confirm any regulatory interpretation with your counsel.