Glossary
One-sentence definitions for the terms that show up across Using Snapshot, the developer API, and the Core concepts section. Each entry notes where the term lives in Regulatory Snapshot and links to the most canonical page. Terms tagged (API) are developer-facing.
A
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| AML / KYC | Anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer — one of the default regulatory areas in the scan wizard. See Jurisdictions and topics. |
| API key (API) | The canonical name for the regsn_live_<32 base62 chars> artefact you generate and revoke from the developer dashboard. On the wire it is sent as a bearer token in the Authorization: Bearer … header. The terms “API key” (the credential you hold) and “bearer token” (the header value) refer to the same string in different contexts; “bearer key” is a synonym used in some older copy. See Authentication. |
| Area | A broad policy domain (Banking, Capital Markets, AML / KYC, ESG, …) — one of the two big knobs on a scan, alongside jurisdiction. See Jurisdictions and topics. |
| Audio briefing | A spoken-word export of the executive narrative, produced in Studio in single-voice or two-host formats across seven languages. See Studio. |
B
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Bearer key (API) | A synonym for API key — see that entry. Older copy refers to the credential as a “bearer key”; the canonical artefact name is now API key, and the wire-format name is bearer token. |
| Briefing tab | The dashboard tab that renders the executive narrative as readable prose, with an inline Listen affordance. See Reading the dashboard. |
C
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Change overlay | The record of what is new, updated, unchanged, or removed in a snapshot relative to the most recent comparable previous snapshot. See Changes between scans. |
| Cost estimate | The live per-scan cost projection on the wizard’s summary rail, scaling with jurisdictions, areas, horizon, engine, and model. See Your first scan. |
| Custom area | A free-text regulatory area added to a scan when none of the ten built-in areas captures what you need. Visually distinguished in the wizard. See Jurisdictions and topics. |
| Custom jurisdiction | A free-text jurisdiction added to a scan when none of the eleven built-ins fits — e.g. South Africa, UAE, ASEAN. See Jurisdictions and topics. |
D
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Deck | A PowerPoint slide deck export from Studio. Available in a standard built-in template or a longer, narrative-rich detailed variant. See Studio. |
| Detail panel | The slide-in overlay that appears when you click a heatmap cell, country on the map, or event on the timeline — lists all items behind the selection. See Reading the dashboard. |
| Drift (API) | The API field name for the change overlay (GET /v1/snapshots/{id}/drift). The product-facing language is “changes”; the API name has been kept stable for backwards compatibility. See Changes between scans. |
E
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Executive narrative | The long-form prose briefing produced by the analysis — opens with Bottom Line Up Front, walks priorities, closes with Trend Analysis, Key Deadlines, and a Watch List. See What is a snapshot?. |
| Executive summary | The structured digest — a one-line bottom line and a list of priorities. Distinct from the narrative, which is unstructured prose. See What is a snapshot?. |
| Export | A downloadable artifact generated from a snapshot — tearsheet, infographic, audio briefing, slide deck, video, or PDF. See Studio (product) and Exports (API). |
F
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Fingerprint (API) | A SHA-256 hash over the canonical scan request body — the same input fingerprint always corresponds to the same scan output. Surfaced as _meta.inputFingerprint on the snapshot. See Scans. |
H
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Heatmap | The Overview tab’s grid view — areas as rows, jurisdictions as columns, cell colour scaled by impact × likelihood. See Reading the dashboard. |
| Horizon | The forward window over which a scan looks — 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, or 36 months. See Jurisdictions and topics. |
I
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ident | The eight-character identifier stamped on a scan when it runs, embedded into every Studio artifact filename produced from it. Searchable in My Snapshots. See Studio. |
| Idempotency key (API) | An opaque client-supplied string sent on POST /v1/scans and POST /v1/exports that makes retries safe — same key + same body returns the cached response for 24 hours. See Idempotency. |
| Impact | The analysis’s call on how much an item matters for in-scope firms — High, Medium, or Low. Combined with likelihood to drive heatmap colour. See Reading the dashboard. |
| Infographic | A single dense editorial-poster image generated in Studio, available in a portfolio of fifteen visual styles. See Studio. |
| Item | One regulatory development inside a snapshot — a consultation, proposal, rule, or deadline, sitting at the intersection of one jurisdiction and one area. See What is a snapshot?. |
J
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | A country, region, or supranational regulator cluster — one of the two big knobs on a scan. Eleven built-in jurisdictions plus custom additions. See Jurisdictions and topics. |
L
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Likelihood | The analysis’s confidence that an item is real and on the trajectory described — Confirmed, Likely, Possible, or Uncertain. See Reading the dashboard. |
M
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| My Snapshots | The dashboard tab listing your saved scans, with starring, re-run affordances, and search by ident. See Reading the dashboard. |
P
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| PDF snapshot | A full PDF export of the snapshot, suitable for archival or formal distribution. See Studio. |
| Priority | One entry in the executive summary’s ordered list — typically three to five per scan. See What is a snapshot?. |
| Problem detail (API) | The RFC 9457 error envelope returned on every non-2xx response, with type, title, status, code, detail, and request_id. See Errors. |
R
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Rate limit (API) | A per-key request budget bucketed by category (reads, scans, exports, key management). Returns IETF RateLimit-* headers on every response. See Rate limits. |
| Recurring scan | A scan you re-run on a cadence to track change over time. Can be triggered manually from My Snapshots or scheduled via Settings. See What’s changed since last scan. |
| Region preset | A one-click bundle of jurisdictions in the scan wizard — G7, EMEA, APAC, Americas, EU+, Global Major. See Jurisdictions and topics. |
| Request ID (API) | The X-Request-Id header returned on every API response, useful for support correlation. See Errors. |
S
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Scan | A single execution of the research pipeline against a configuration of jurisdictions, areas, and horizon. Produces a snapshot. See Scans and snapshots. |
| Scan toast | The corner-of-the-dashboard live progress indicator that runs while a scan is in flight. See Your first scan. |
| Scheduled scan | A scan configuration set to run automatically on a cadence — weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. See Settings. |
| Scope (API) | The permission boundary of an API key — currently a single scope encompassing all /v1 operations on the owning account. See Authentication. |
| SDK (API) | One of the official client libraries — regsn for Python and @regsn/api for JavaScript / TypeScript — that wrap the /v1 HTTP surface with typed methods, automatic retries, and idempotency-key generation. See Python SDK and JavaScript SDK. |
| Snapshot | The structured output of one scan — items, trends, executive summary, executive narrative, and (on recurring scans) a change overlay. The central data model. See What is a snapshot?. |
| Source | The primary URL behind a regulatory item, surfaced as a View source link on every item card. See Reading the dashboard. |
| SSE stream (API) | Server-Sent Events progress stream for a running scan at GET /v1/scans/{id}/stream. Not rate-limited. See Scans. |
| Status | The lifecycle stage of an item — Proposed, Consultation, Final Rule, Implementation Phase, Effective. Distinct from impact and likelihood. See Reading the dashboard. |
| Studio | The dashboard surface where finished scans become shareable artifacts — tearsheets, infographics, audio briefings, slide decks, video, PDFs. See Studio. |
T
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Tearsheet | A single-page executive summary export — either a fast text-only Clean Overview or a richer Detailed Tearsheet with a visual style. See Studio. |
| Time horizon | See Horizon. |
| Timeline tab | The dashboard’s calendar view — a horizontal Gantt with one swimlane per jurisdiction and every dated event placed on its expected date. See Reading the dashboard. |
| Topic | A specific theme inside a regulatory area — narrower than an area, broader than a single rule. Injected into a scan via the custom-area field. See Jurisdictions and topics. |
| Translation | An additional-language version of the executive narrative and item content, cached on the snapshot after the first switch into that language. Seven languages supported. See Reading the dashboard. |
| Trend | A typed observation about a cross-cutting pattern in a snapshot — convergence, divergence, emerging, acceleration, or interconnected. See What is a snapshot?. |
U
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Usage (API) | Request and cost telemetry for an account, available at GET /v1/usage with per-day, per-endpoint, or per-key grouping. See Usage. |
V
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| View source | The link on every item card to the regulator’s primary document — the canonical reference for what is in the item summary. See Reading the dashboard. |
| Voice | The synthesised narrator used for audio briefings. Defaults to Alice for English; native voices available for each supported language. See Studio. |
W
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| What’s Changed panel | The card on the Overview tab summarising changes against the previous comparable scan — scan-wide counts, material changes called out, and a short prose summary. See What’s changed since last scan. |
| Wizard | The three-step scan configuration form: Jurisdictions, Areas, Horizon (plus an Advanced drawer). See Your first scan. |