Glossary

The names helping.io uses for the things you work with, and what each one means.

Every name below is the one name this platform uses for that thing, on this site, in the apps, and on the wire. The list is generated from the term registry, so a name here is the name everywhere.

API key: A secret that starts with sk_ and identifies your organization to the API. Shown once when created; rotate the key if it is lost.
Conversation: The history the server keeps for a series of responses. Created for you by a plain call, or explicitly, and named on a response by its id.
credits: Prepaid balance that requests are billed against at the real cost of the model calls they make.
Default rate limit: The request rate limit an organization has unless a different one is set for it. The rate-limit headers carry the live values.
end_user_blocked: Error code for a response the model provider refused because it refuses requests for the end user named by the request's safety_identifier or user.
helpingio:tool_calls_dropped: Response field: on a response that runs under a max_tool_calls (sent with the request that started the turn), how many tool calls were cut, which were neither returned nor run. Absent when nothing was cut.
helpingio:unreadable: List field naming the items on a page that are stored but could not be read. The other items are returned as usual.
helpingio:warnings: Response field: a list of the request fields the response accepted and did not apply (type unsupported) or applied in place of another (type compatibility), each with its param and a message. Absent when there is nothing to report.
item_unreadable: Error code for an item that is stored but could not be read.
JSON Schema: The standard for describing the shape of JSON data; used for input and output shapes and for structured output. Always written as the two words.
Launch Plan: The name of the helping.io plan.
Max output tokens: The most tokens a single turn may produce.
Model: A language model you can select, named provider/model, for example anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.
organization: The account that owns API keys and billing. Every request runs on behalf of one organization.
plan: What an organization pays each month to use helping.io. Requests also need credits, which are bought separately from the plan.
provider: The company whose model serves a request; the first half of a model id.
Reasoning: How much thinking a model does before answering; the available settings depend on the model.
response: The object POST /v1/responses creates and GET /v1/responses/{id} returns: the model's output, its status, and usage.
Responses API: The OpenAI Responses API wire format, which the Open Responses specification follows and helping.io's /v1 implements.
Revoke: Disable a key immediately without deleting its record.
Rotate: Replace a key's secret with a new one; the old secret stops working, at once or after a grace period of up to 7 days.
spend budget: An allowance in credits set for one scope (your organization, a member, or an API key); a request that would exceed it is refused with scope_budget_exceeded.
Tools your API calls declare: Function tools sent in a request's tools array, executed by your code when the model calls them.