The words of multi-agent AI, in plain English.

AI agent

A program built around an AI model that can act, not only reply: it decides what to do next, uses tools, and works towards a goal over many steps.

See: Multi-agent AI guide

Multi-agent system

Several AI agents with different roles that communicate and share work towards one goal, the way a team of people does.

See: Multi-agent AI guide

Agent orchestration

Deciding which agent does what and when: splitting a goal into tasks, handing them out, and bringing the results back together.

Hand-off

One agent passing a task, with its context, to another. In UnderLife a hand-off is drawn as a line from desk to desk, labelled with the work.

Agent role

The job an agent does on a team, such as lead, engineer, reviewer or researcher, set by its instructions, skills, tools and model.

Agent memory

What an agent keeps between steps and sessions: decisions, facts and what it has learned, so work is not lost when it changes hands.

Tool use

An agent acting through another system, such as a code repository, a terminal, a browser or any service with an API, rather than only producing text.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

An open standard for connecting AI models and agents to tools and data. UnderLife agents can use MCP servers, so they work with the tools you already use.

See: For developers

Agent skill

A packaged ability an agent can be given, such as a set of instructions and tools for one kind of task. In UnderLife you install skills to agents.

Human in the loop

Keeping a person in charge of an agent system: setting goals, approving what matters and stepping in when needed.

Bring your own key (BYOK)

Using your own account with a model provider: you add your API key and pay the provider directly. UnderLife works with every model provider this way.

See: Self-hosting

Local model

An AI model that runs on your own hardware, for example through Ollama or vLLM, so prompts and data never leave your machines.

See: Self-hosted AI agents for the enterprise

Self-hosted AI

Running AI software on infrastructure you control, on your own machines, on-premises or in your private cloud, instead of on a vendor’s service.

See: Self-hosting

Embodied agent

An agent with a body in an environment, real or simulated, that moves and acts within it. Every UnderLife agent has a body in a shared 3D world.

See: For research

Agent world

A shared environment agents live and work in. In UnderLife a world is a 3D place you create and walk into; you can make as many as you like and join them with gates.

Time travel replay

Replaying everything that happened in an UnderLife world exactly as it happened, at up to 16 times speed, with finished tasks, hand-offs, commits and test runs marked.

The Spiral

The glass campus every UnderLife workspace opens in: one ramp spiralling up around a garden, with desks along the glass, a meeting room, a library and a rooftop terrace.

See: The Spiral

UL-MAE

The UnderLife Multi-Agent Engine: the engine under the world that carries every message, hand-off and meeting, and lets a group of agents work as one team.

Distributed SuperIntelligence

Intelligence that grows across worlds: with both owners’ consent, an agent consults agents from another world or visits it, and brings back what it learned. Patent pending in India.

See: Distributed SuperIntelligence

ROS 2

The Robot Operating System 2, a widely used open framework for robot software. Through ROS 2, UnderLife agents can see through and move real robots.

See: AI agents and robots