# Nexus key concepts

Pinecone Nexus compiles your data into queryable knowledge that AI agents reach through a single interface. This page defines the core concepts and how they fit together, from the sources you bring in to the answers agents get back. For a high-level diagram of how they connect, see [How Nexus works](/guides/the-knowledge-engine-how-it-works).

## Sources

Sources are your data, wherever it lives: docs and wikis, databases, APIs and SaaS, object storage, event streams, and code repos. Upload files directly, pull from a public Hugging Face or GitHub repository URL, or connect a Box or Google Drive account through a _connector_. Import and manage sources from a context's **Sources** tab, using **+ Add source**.

## Workspace

A workspace is the top-level container you work in. It holds your contexts and the tasks that build and query them. It's backed by a Pinecone project, which provides identity and access and is the tenancy boundary. You can have more than one workspace, each with a name that's unique within its Pinecone project.

## Context

A context is the unit of knowledge: _Sources → Manifest → Knowledge_. The manifest turns sources into knowledge. You create one context per dataset, and a query reads one or more. A context holds up to 10 GB across 100,000 files, with each file up to 250 MB.

## Manifest

A manifest is the JSON plan that turns a context's sources into knowledge, so you configure a context instead of writing code. It defines what to chunk, embed, and distill into artifacts, and curation runs it. Shape it when you set up a context, or edit it later from the context's **Manifest** tab. [More on context design](/guides/the-knowledge-engine-context-design).

## Tasks and workflows

A _task_ runs a _workflow_ in a sandbox. **Import** ingests and cleans sources, **Curate** builds artifacts per the manifest, **Explore** suggests a manifest from your sources, and **Optimize** self-tunes the manifest from real query traffic. **Search** answers a query via KnowQL. Each workflow may ensemble multiple models as needed. Watch curation and query spend under **Activity**.

## Artifacts (the knowledge)

Artifacts are the condensed knowledge that curation produces. Each artifact has a _type_ (its classification, shown in the console) and a _kind_ (a config within the type), plus a scope and provenance, and can be linked to others by typed edges into a knowledge graph. Browse them by type on a context's **Knowledge** tab. [See the artifact reference](/guides/the-knowledge-engine-context-design#artifact-kinds).

## Query

A query is a question asked against one or more curated contexts, and it's the single interface into Pinecone Nexus. Nexus plans its own retrieval and answers with citations. Query a single context from its **Query this context** box, or drive it from your own code via the [Nexus API](/guides/reference-introduction). See the [quickstart](/guides/get-started-nexus-quickstart#3-query-your-context).

## KnowQL

KnowQL is the declarative query language agents use to query Nexus. A KnowQL query names a `scope` (the contexts to read) and an `ask` (the question), plus an optional typed `shape` for structured output. Nexus plans and runs its own retrieval, then returns a grounded, cited answer.

## Sessions

A session is a multi-turn conversation. A single query is one turn: a question in, an answer out. A session keeps state across turns, so follow-up questions resolve against what came before, and it can draw on more than one context at once. Start a session from **Sessions** in the sidebar, or from a context's **Query** tab.

## Related pages

- [Account management](./account-management-index.md)
- [Admin](./admin-2-index.md)
- [Admin](./admin-index.md)
- [APIs](./apis-index.md)
- [Architecture](./architecture-index.md)
- [Assistants](./assistants-index.md)
- [Bring Your Own Cloud](./bring-your-own-cloud-index.md)
- [Build an assistant](./build-an-assistant-index.md)
- [Build an integration](./build-an-integration-index.md)
- [Changelog](./changelog-index.md)

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