# Core concepts > The ideas Continual is built on, each in a few sentences, with a link to its full page. Continual is built on a few ideas. Read them once and the rest of the docs will make sense. Some are still being built; those say **Coming**. ## Continual Continual is the AI-native operating system for business. It keeps a **business world model**: one live model of your customers, work, and money, with the rules for who may change what. Agents and your team work on it together, and the whole system learns from every outcome. The aim is **business superintelligence** that runs and grows your business with your team, around the clock. [Why Continual](/docs/why-continual) explains where it is going, and [how it fits together](/docs/concepts) shows the whole model on one page. ## Where you work | On the rail | What you do there | | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Continual** | Talk to Continual's agent, and work through your **To-dos** | | **Feed** | **Coming:** keep up with the business, in stories Continual writes | | **Metrics** | See how the business is doing, and open any number to its records | | **Records** | Browse every record, app by app | | **Library** | **Coming:** your sites and files | ## Records Everything your business knows is a record, such as a company, a deal, or an invoice. An **Object**, such as a deal, changes whenever the facts change. A **Document**, such as an invoice, starts as a draft and is finalized by its own Action, such as **Issue invoice**; after that, it never changes. Many records have a **status**, such as a deal's Qualified or Won. [Records](/docs/concepts/records) ## Actions Every change is an **Action**, such as **Send quote**, whoever makes it: a person, Continual's agent, or an integration. So every change passes the same checks, and every change is recorded. [Records](/docs/concepts/records#every-change-is-an-action) ## Ledgers A **ledger** keeps a running tally as entries that are only ever added. Finance keeps the general ledger in double entry: issuing an invoice debits what the customer owes and credits revenue. Every record type with a status also keeps a ledger that counts its records as they move. [Ledgers and money](/docs/concepts/ledgers) ## Metrics and goals A **metric** is a named sum of a ledger, such as pipeline or win rate, so every number opens to the records behind it. **Coming:** a **goal** adds a target and an owner, and tells Continual what to pursue. [Metrics and goals](/docs/concepts/metrics) ## People and access Everyone who acts is an **actor**: a **member**, or a **service account** such as Continual's agent. A **role** given at a place, such as the organization or a project, reaches the records under it. Continual's agent always works on behalf of someone, with their access, capped by its own authority. **Coming:** teams, legal entities, and managers, kept as three separate structures. [People and access](/docs/concepts/members) ## Approvals Some changes wait for review. Every actor, agent or person, has **authority limits**: how much it may do on its own. By default, Continual asks before it finalizes, sends, pays, or deletes. **Controls** are business rules for everyone, such as large invoices needing review. A held change is an **approval**, and a reviewer with enough authority decides it. [Approvals](/docs/concepts/approvals) ## Continual's agent Each person has one Continual, with one memory. You talk to it in **threads**: your main thread, and one for each to-do. Your messages wake it, and so do timers and watches it sets for you. [Continual's agent](/docs/concepts/continual) ## To-dos A **to-do** asks one person to act on one record, such as "Call Northstar back". Your open to-dos wait under **To-dos**, and each opens in its own thread. [To-dos](/docs/concepts/to-dos) ## Posts and Activity A **post** is anything written for others: a message in a thread, a comment on a record, a reaction, and **Coming**, a story in the Feed. Every record keeps its story on its **Activity** tab: what changed, who changed it, for whom, and why. [Posts and the Feed](/docs/concepts/posts-and-feed), [Activity](/docs/concepts/activity) ## Apps An **app** brings the records, Actions, roles, and metrics for one area of the business, such as Sales, Finance, or Projects. Every app works on the same records, so an invoice and the deal behind it name the same customer. [Apps](/docs/apps) ## Next steps The whole model on one page. Sign up and send Continual its first message. Every word Continual uses, defined.