Cortex platform
Cortex is a platform for building AI products and automation around an organization's real work. It gives developers APIs for projects, threads, messages, agents, workflows, skills, attachments, artifacts, context, channels, and connectors.
What Cortex provides
Cortex provides the core building blocks needed to create AI experiences that are connected to an organization, not just a standalone model prompt.
| Capability | What it lets you build |
|---|---|
| Projects | Organize related threads, attachments, runs, artifacts, and team work into durable groupings that keep initiatives easy to find and manage. |
| Threads | Create durable work history with threads, messages, attachments, run state, generated outputs, and the context needed to continue work later. |
| Messages | Capture user, assistant, system, and tool communication as structured records that preserve intent, context, responses, and execution history. |
| Agents | Package specialized behavior into reusable AI workers with their own instructions, configuration, tools, context rules, and execution patterns. |
| Workflows | Build repeatable multi-step processes that coordinate agents, tools, connector actions, dependencies, approvals, state, and final outputs. |
| Skills | Package reusable instructions, tool needs, and behavior hints that policies or planners can attach to a run when the work calls for specialized behavior. |
| Attachments | Let users upload, attach, reference, analyze, transform, and download files as part of conversations, agent runs, and workflow execution. |
| Artifacts | Return generated reports, previews, files, structured data, and other outputs that applications can display, store, or download. |
| Context | Build AI experiences that understand users, departments, branding, prompts, model selections, permissions, and organization-specific settings. |
| Channels | Bring Cortex into the places where teams already work, including chat, email, web apps, terminal workflows, and embedded product experiences. |
| Connectors | Connect Cortex to external systems such as storage, communication tools, business apps, databases, and internal services used by the organization. |
How work moves through Cortex
Most Cortex integrations follow the same path: a request enters through a channel, Cortex assembles the right context, execution begins, and the result is streamed back and stored.
- 01
Request enters through a channel
A user starts work from chat, email, web, terminal, or an embedded product experience.
- 02
Cortex continues the thread
The request is attached to durable thread history so work can be resumed later.
- 03
Context is assembled
Cortex includes organization context, attachments, connector data, and previous messages.
- 04
Execution begins
A run, agent, or workflow starts and can use tools, models, approvals, and state.
- 05
Connectors do work
Cortex can read from or act on external systems through configured connectors.
- 06
Events stream back
Progress, model output, tool activity, and generated artifacts stream to the client.
- 07
Output is delivered and stored
The user receives the result and Cortex stores it in the thread history.
Integration surfaces
| Surface | Use it for |
|---|---|
| HTTP API | Product integrations, backend services, automation, dashboards, and custom applications. |
| Streaming API | Real-time chat responses, progress updates, tool activity, and run lifecycle events. |
| Cortex CLI | Terminal access to the platform API for development, testing, and automation. |
| SDKs | Typed client libraries for common application environments. |
| Developer dashboard | API keys, request logs, usage, apps, and developer account controls. |