# Concepts

The objects you work with as a developer are organized around the workspace. Before you call anything, understand the object hierarchy and a few easily confused concept pairs.

## Workspaces and the object hierarchy

A [workspace](../../guides/ai-studio/resource-center/workspace.md) is the main governance boundary for resources; it holds members, roles, data, workflows, and compute resources. You usually obtain and use object IDs along this hierarchy:

```text
Workspace
├─ Members (linked to user accounts) and roles
├─ Catalog → database → table or volume → file
├─ Connector → import task → import run
├─ Workflow → workflow job → artifacts and data lineage
├─ Knowledge base → knowledge sources and semantic configuration
├─ Agent → session or automation task → agent artifacts
└─ Compute instances, data publications, and data subscriptions
```

## Easily confused concepts

**Direct model calls and model-service configuration.** When an application needs model output, use the [Genesis API or a compatible SDK](../quickstart/genesis/index.md). When a workflow, knowledge base, or agent needs a model, [configure LLM model services](../sdk/ai-studio/guides/provider-backend-router.md) in AI Studio. This configuration lets AI Studio select model services for internal use; it does not create a model-calling address that can replace the Genesis service address. To change the selection rules, see [Configure model routing](../sdk/ai-studio/guides/model-routing.md).

**Definitions and run instances.** A [workflow](../../guides/ai-studio/processing/workflow.md) definition, an import task, and an automation task are long-lived objects; a workflow job, an import run, and an agent task are run instances produced on each trigger. Saving or deploying only updates the definition — it does not mean anything has run. A successful submission does not mean execution finished: save the run instance ID and query its status and result. Deleting a definition or task does not roll back data already written.

**User accounts and workspace members.** A user account is the platform-level login identity; a workspace member is that account's membership in a workspace, with a role and tags (see [User Management](../../guides/ai-studio/permissions/users.md)). Removing a workspace member only ends that workspace relationship — it does not delete the platform account.

**Data publications and data subscriptions.** With [Data sharing](../../guides/ai-studio/resource-center/share-data.md), one workspace publishes a database for others; another workspace then sets up access to it (see [Data subscriptions](../../guides/ai-studio/resource-center/subscribe.md)). Deleting a subscription does not delete the source data; before deleting a publication, check existing subscriptions and downstream dependencies.

## Next steps

- Choose how to call: see [Choose an API, SDK, or CLI](choose-api-sdk-cli.md)
- Make your first call: see [Quickstarts](../quickstart/index.md)