Glossary

Two kinds of term are mixed together below: general vocabulary, and words that mean something particular at VerveSheets. Where the two differ, the VerveSheets meaning is the one stated.

A

API key — the credential identifying your account. It is a bearer credential: whoever holds it can spend your credits. See authentication.

Authentication — proving who you are. Here that is the API key, and nothing else.

Authorization — what you are allowed to do once identified. Determined by your plan and by any restrictions on the key. Worth keeping distinct from authentication: the two fail for different reasons and are fixed in different places.

Add-in — the VerveSheets extension itself, installed against your Google or Microsoft account rather than a single file. Also called an add-on in Google Sheets.

Autocomplete — the suggestion list your spreadsheet shows while you type a function name. Source names and arguments appear there, so nothing has to be memorised.

B

Billing cycle — the month your allowance is counted over. It runs from your signup date on the free plan and from your subscription date on a paid one, not from the first of the month.

Batched call — one request that resolves many rows. What a range argument becomes in Google Sheets, and what the sidebar's Values fill does on any selection. Cheaper and faster than one formula per row.

C

Concurrency — how many of your requests may be in flight at the same moment. A separate limit from the per-minute rate; see rate limits.

Credit — the unit of usage. Most calls cost one credit and some cost more; each reference page states its own. Failed calls are not billed.

Custom function — a spreadsheet function provided by an add-in rather than built in. =VERVE() is one. It behaves like any other function: it recalculates, it nests, and it can be dragged.

D

Dashboard — dashboard.vervesheets.com, where keys, usage and billing live.

Data point — one value inside a response, addressed by a dot path like location.country. What the "field" argument picks, and what the sidebar lists for each source.

Deprecation — announcing that something will be removed while it still works. Deprecated things keep functioning until a stated date.

E

#ERR — the text a cell holds when a lookup fails, followed by the reason. Text rather than a real spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot display a custom message on one. See errors.

Error handling — deciding what happens on each failure. The distinction that matters is which failures are worth retrying and which are identical on the next attempt. See errors.

F–G

Free plan — a real plan that renews monthly, not a trial that expires. It is also the test environment, since every source behaves identically on every plan.

"field" — the reserved argument name that picks one data point out of a response. Omit it and the whole response spills as a two-column table. See formulas.

Fill — writing answers into a selection. The sidebar's Values mode does it in one batched request; a dragged formula does it one row at a time.

H

HTTPS — HTTP over TLS. Every call made on your behalf uses it; nothing travels in the clear.

I–J

Idempotent — safe to repeat with the same result. The lookups here are, in the sense that repeating one returns the same answer — but each repeat still costs a credit, so idempotent does not mean free.

L–M

Latency — how long a call takes. Varies by source — a lookup answers far faster than something that renders a page — and each reference page shows its own typical figure.

O–P

OAuth — a framework for delegated access. You sign in once and the client holds a token, so no key is written into a config file or a workbook.

Parameter — an input a source needs, required or optional. The reference page for each source lists them with types and constraints.

Plan — your subscription level. It sets your monthly allowance, rate limit, concurrency and which features are available:

Premium field — a response field included on higher plans. Premium fields are absent rather than null on plans without them.

A cell that asked for one reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than showing a value that is not the one you asked for.

Primary key — the account's main API key, as distinct from a sub-key.

Q–R

Quota — your monthly credit allowance. Exhausting it looks like a rate limit and is not one; see rate limits.

Range fill — passing a range where a single value would go, so every row resolves. In Google Sheets that is one batched call that spills down the column. See formulas.

Recalculation — a spreadsheet re-running a formula. Each recalculation of =VERVE() is a fresh lookup, and a fresh charge — which is why static data belongs in a Values fill.

Rate limit — the ceiling on calls per minute, set by your plan. Distinct from your quota: the rate limit resets every minute, the quota every billing cycle. See rate limits.

Reference page — the per-source page carrying parameters, response fields, credit cost, latency and examples. The authoritative description of any source.

Rotation — replacing your API key with a new one. Instant, with no grace period, so every system holding the old key stops working at once. See key rotation.

S

Schema — the formal description of a source's inputs and outputs. What the platform validates against, and what everything generated — reference pages, tool definitions, argument autocomplete — is generated from.

Sidebar — the panel the add-in opens beside your sheet: browse sources, insert formulas, fill selections. See the sidebar.

Spill — a formula whose output occupies more than one cell. =VERVE("source") with no "field" spills a two-column table; a range argument spills a column of answers.

Source — one thing you can read from, and the unit everything else is counted in. It has its own inputs, data points, credit cost and reference page.

Sub-key — an additional credential billing to the same account, individually scopable and revocable. The right credential for a per-environment, per-client or per-agent integration. See sub-keys.

T–U

Throttling — limiting call rate to protect a service. When you are throttled, waiting is the whole fix.

TLS — the encryption underneath HTTPS. All traffic uses it.

V–X

Versioning — keeping old behaviour working while new behaviour ships.

=VERVE() — the one function this whole product is. =VERVE.CALL() in Excel. See formulas.

Values fill — writing answers as static cells rather than live formulas. One batched request, nothing recurring. See the sidebar.

Workspace — one account's view of the dashboard. You always have your own, and joining a team gives you access to theirs. See workspaces.

Next

Quickstart puts most of these into one working example, and the FAQ answers the questions that come after it.