# Glossary

> The terms used across the ACOG documentation and console, from active and auto mode to wire shape and workload identity.

Product: AI Cost Optimizer Gateway (ACOG). Web version: https://tessarac.com/docs/acog/reference/glossary. Last updated: 2026-10-16.

**Active.** An organization whose savings are switched on. Compare *pass-through*.

**Application.** A name for the traffic one of your systems sends. Requests are attributed to the application of the service key they use.

**Auto mode.** Routing a `model: "auto"` request to the cheapest model strong enough for it.

**Batch tier.** A provider's discounted, slower API for requests that can wait.

**BYOK (bring your own key).** ACOG calls providers only with your organization's own accounts and credentials.

**Channel.** The platform a connection uses: `direct`, `bedrock`, `vertex`, `azure` or `custom`.

**Compatible endpoints.** `/v1/chat/completions`, `/v1/messages`, `/v1/embeddings`, `/v1/models` and `/responses`: the OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible API, which works with any connected model.

**Connection.** Credentials and settings for one platform and model family in your organization.

**Declared model.** A model a connection says it serves. Requests are routed by declared model.

**Default connection, default model.** The connection that serves `auto` (with auto mode off) and the models it declares; the model it uses for `auto`.

**Disposition.** How a request was served: exact cache, semantic cache, dedup, optimized, batch or pass-through.

**Gainshare.** On the hosted service, the share of measured savings you pay.

**Gateway key.** An `acog_…` key that authenticates requests to the gateway and the management API.

**Install identity.** On a self-hosted installation, a keyless connection that uses the identity the installation already runs as.

**Issuer.** The OpenID Connect identity ACOG runs for each organization, which your Google Cloud project or Anthropic organization trusts for keyless connections.

**Keyless connection.** A Vertex AI or Anthropic connection that stores no credential and authenticates with workload identity federation.

**Native routes.** `/anthropic`, `/openai`, `/vertex`, `/bedrock`, `/azure` and `/custom`: each provider's own API, forwarded without translation.

**Pass-through.** An organization whose requests are forwarded unchanged at full price, with no savings and no charge.

**Provider prompt caching.** A provider billing repeated prompt prefixes at a lower rate. ACOG adds the markers that turn it on.

**Response cache.** Answering an identical request from a stored response.

**Semantic cache.** Answering a near-identical prompt from a stored answer, above a similarity threshold.

**Service key.** A gateway key for an application rather than a person.

**Translation.** Converting a request and its response between the OpenAI, Anthropic and Gemini APIs.

**Wire shape.** The API format of a request or response: OpenAI Chat Completions, Anthropic Messages or Gemini.

**Workload identity federation.** Trusting an external identity's short-lived tokens instead of a stored key. Google Cloud and Anthropic both support it.