Glossary

Plain-language definitions for the terms you will meet across these docs — from callback-first and write mode to included minutes, Mirror Mode, and the compliance vocabulary reviewers look for.

At a glance

One place for the vocabulary used throughout the docs, in plain language.
Grouped by topic: platform, workflow, billing, trust, and dental-specific terms.
Each term links onward to the guide that covers it in depth.

Platform & channels

AI front desk: The SpiderLabs product: an AI receptionist that answers, captures, and follows up on calls and chats for appointment-driven businesses — so a missed contact never becomes a lost customer.
Appointment-driven business: Any business where booked time is the revenue — dental and medical practices, med spas, law firms, home services, salons, restaurants taking reservations. Callback-first coverage works for all of them; dental is the deepest, production-proven vertical.
Mirror Mode: The provider-neutral way your dashboard works: your team sees SpiderLabs and your own business — never the underlying voice or AI vendors — and access to patient content is audited. A trust benefit, not something you configure.
Provider-neutral: Everything your staff and customers see carries SpiderLabs and your brand, with no third-party vendor names or links surfaced. Transcripts and recordings are served through audited SpiderLabs access.
Intent: The reason for a call, tagged automatically — booking, hours, a service question, billing, and so on. Intents roll up in Analytics to show what people call about most.

Booking & workflow

Callback-first: The default launch posture for every business. The AI handles the conversation and intake, and anything needing a human — including appointment requests — becomes a callback your staff confirm. Your front desk keeps final control of the calendar.
Callback: A follow-up item the receptionist creates when a caller leaves a message, needs a person, or a call ends unresolved. Callbacks are prioritized and worked from the queue.
Write mode (direct booking): When the receptionist books an appointment straight into your connected schedule during the call, instead of capturing a request. Proven today with Open Dental, and enabled only after a booking test passes. See Booking modes.
Requested appointment / Needs confirmation: A booking the receptionist captured that still needs a staff member or your schedule to finalize. In callback-first mode every booking is requested by design; in write mode it is the safety net when a schedule is briefly unreachable.
Launch gates: The checklist every business passes before taking a single live call: signed agreement, executed BAA, a passing test call, a passing test booking, working staff notifications, and a verified dashboard. Nothing goes live until every gate is green — see Getting started.

Plans & billing

Included minutes: The monthly pool of AI voice minutes built into your base plan. For most businesses it covers normal call volume. See Plans & billing.
Usage meter: The live view in your dashboard of how many included minutes you have used this cycle and how many remain — so there are no end-of-month surprises.
Overage: The flat, disclosed per-minute rate charged only if a busy month takes you past your included minutes. Agreed in your order form before you sign — never a surprise tier.

Trust & compliance

PHI (protected health information): Health information tied to an identifiable person — the sensitive data a healthcare front desk handles. SpiderLabs treats it under strict, minimum-necessary handling and a signed BAA.
BAA (Business Associate Agreement): The HIPAA contract that governs how SpiderLabs handles patient data on your behalf. An executed BAA is required before a practice goes live — see Security & compliance and HIPAA & BAA.
Audited access: Reading a transcript or playing a recording is a logged event, recorded with who viewed it and when — so there is an accountable trail over patient content.
Tenant isolation: Each business is a separate tenant, and its data is kept separate from every other account. One business cannot see another’s calls, patients, or appointments.
Live-PHI activation gate: The point at which live patient-PHI traffic is switched on for a new customer — only after the BAA is executed and the compliant data environment is active and verified. Until then a business launches in callback-first mode. See Security & compliance.

Dental-specific

Open Dental: The dental practice-management system SpiderLabs integrates with most deeply. When connected, the receptionist can read your schedule and, after a booking test, write appointments into it. See Connecting Open Dental.
CustomerKey: The practice-specific key that authorizes SpiderLabs to work with your Open Dental data. We generate it; you paste it into Open Dental’s API setup and enable it.
eConnector: A small Open Dental service running at your office that carries the API connection to your practice. If bookings suddenly stop, keeping it running and updated is the first thing to check.

Keep exploring

Booking modesCallback-first (Mirror Mode), where your staff confirm each time, versus direct write-to-schedule mode — proven today with Open Dental — and what a "requested" appointment means.Security & complianceWhat a compliance reviewer needs: the BAA process, audited access to patient data, our data-handling posture, and the live-PHI activation gate.FAQAnswers to the most common questions from the businesses we serve, partners, and compliance reviewers.

Platform & channels

AI front desk

The SpiderLabs product: an AI receptionist that answers, captures, and follows up on calls and chats for appointment-driven businesses — so a missed contact never becomes a lost customer.

Appointment-driven business

Any business where booked time is the revenue — dental and medical practices, med spas, law firms, home services, salons, restaurants taking reservations. Callback-first coverage works for all of them; dental is the deepest, production-proven vertical.

Mirror Mode

The provider-neutral way your dashboard works: your team sees SpiderLabs and your own business — never the underlying voice or AI vendors — and access to patient content is audited. A trust benefit, not something you configure.

Provider-neutral

Everything your staff and customers see carries SpiderLabs and your brand, with no third-party vendor names or links surfaced. Transcripts and recordings are served through audited SpiderLabs access.

Intent

The reason for a call, tagged automatically — booking, hours, a service question, billing, and so on. Intents roll up in Analytics to show what people call about most.

Booking & workflow

Callback-first

The default launch posture for every business. The AI handles the conversation and intake, and anything needing a human — including appointment requests — becomes a callback your staff confirm. Your front desk keeps final control of the calendar.

Callback

A follow-up item the receptionist creates when a caller leaves a message, needs a person, or a call ends unresolved. Callbacks are prioritized and worked from the queue.

Write mode (direct booking)

When the receptionist books an appointment straight into your connected schedule during the call, instead of capturing a request. Proven today with Open Dental, and enabled only after a booking test passes. See Booking modes.

Requested appointment / Needs confirmation

A booking the receptionist captured that still needs a staff member or your schedule to finalize. In callback-first mode every booking is requested by design; in write mode it is the safety net when a schedule is briefly unreachable.

Launch gates

The checklist every business passes before taking a single live call: signed agreement, executed BAA, a passing test call, a passing test booking, working staff notifications, and a verified dashboard. Nothing goes live until every gate is green — see Getting started.

Plans & billing

Included minutes

The monthly pool of AI voice minutes built into your base plan. For most businesses it covers normal call volume. See Plans & billing.

Usage meter

The live view in your dashboard of how many included minutes you have used this cycle and how many remain — so there are no end-of-month surprises.

Overage

The flat, disclosed per-minute rate charged only if a busy month takes you past your included minutes. Agreed in your order form before you sign — never a surprise tier.

Trust & compliance

PHI (protected health information)

Health information tied to an identifiable person — the sensitive data a healthcare front desk handles. SpiderLabs treats it under strict, minimum-necessary handling and a signed BAA.

BAA (Business Associate Agreement)

The HIPAA contract that governs how SpiderLabs handles patient data on your behalf. An executed BAA is required before a practice goes live — see Security & compliance and HIPAA & BAA.

Audited access

Reading a transcript or playing a recording is a logged event, recorded with who viewed it and when — so there is an accountable trail over patient content.

Tenant isolation

Each business is a separate tenant, and its data is kept separate from every other account. One business cannot see another’s calls, patients, or appointments.

Live-PHI activation gate

The point at which live patient-PHI traffic is switched on for a new customer — only after the BAA is executed and the compliant data environment is active and verified. Until then a business launches in callback-first mode. See Security & compliance.

Dental-specific

Open Dental

The dental practice-management system SpiderLabs integrates with most deeply. When connected, the receptionist can read your schedule and, after a booking test, write appointments into it. See Connecting Open Dental.

CustomerKey

The practice-specific key that authorizes SpiderLabs to work with your Open Dental data. We generate it; you paste it into Open Dental’s API setup and enable it.

eConnector

A small Open Dental service running at your office that carries the API connection to your practice. If bookings suddenly stop, keeping it running and updated is the first thing to check.