Definitive GlossaryDefinitions your whole company can trust.
Definitive Glossary turns the terms on your Confluence pages into hover definitions. Owners approve them, reviews happen on schedule, and every change is on record. No browser extension needed.
Incident response runbook
When a Sev1 is declared, our SLA commits us to a first response within 15 minutes, and the on-call engineer opens a bridge.
If customer PII may be affected, notify Legal under the DPA.
Features
A glossary with governance built in
Anyone can propose a term. Your glossary editors decide what's official. Every page shows the approved definition.
Approved, not crowd-sourced
Draft, approved and deprecated statuses. Only the editors you choose can approve, deprecate or delete terms.
Hover definitions, no extension
One click links terms and their aliases on a page. It works in Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox with nothing to install.
Space glossaries
A team's space can override a company-wide definition. Everyone else keeps seeing the global one.
Link a whole space
Add definitions to every page in a space in one run. Headings, code and existing links are left alone.
Review reminders
Every term has an owner and a review date. A daily review queue @mentions owners when a definition is due.
Audit trail and CSV
See who changed what and when. Import your existing glossary from a spreadsheet and export it any time.
One place for every term
See status, ownership and reviews at a glance
The Glossary page shows your whole vocabulary in one place, with search, filters and a history for every term.
- Review due flags definitions that need a fresh look.
- Aliases ("service level agreement" → SLA) link automatically.
- Change a definition once and every page shows the new one immediately.
| Term | Definition | Status | Review by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CABchange advisory board | The group that reviews and approves production changes. | ApprovedReview due | Sep 15 |
| on-call | Support agent covering the #support-urgent queue. | ApprovedSupport | n/a |
| SLAservice level agreement | Response and resolution times we commit to customers. | Approved | Dec 31 |
| error budget | The unreliability an SLO allows over a period. | Draft | n/a |
| Sev0 | Retired severity level. Use Sev1. | Deprecated | n/a |
How it works
Up and running in minutes
No admin scripts and no browser plugins, just three steps inside Confluence.
Build your glossary
Add terms under Apps → Glossary or import a CSV. Choose your glossary editors in Confluence settings.
Link your pages
On any page, choose ••• → Apps → Glossary links → Link. Editors can link every page in a space at once.
Keep it current
Owners get review reminders and every edit is recorded. Update a definition and every page reflects it.
Works in Jira too
The same definitions on every Jira work item
Connect Jira and every work item gets a Glossary panel. It lists the glossary terms in the work item's summary and description, with their approved definitions. There's nothing to set up per project.
- One glossary. Terms are managed and approved in Confluence. Jira shows the same definitions.
- Permissions respected. A space's own terms only show to people who can see that space.
- Search it from Jira. Open the whole glossary from Jira's Apps menu, or choose "Explain glossary terms" on any work item.
Checkout outage: Sev1 follow-ups
During Tuesday's Sev1, the on-call engineer answered 6 minutes outside the SLA first-response target.
The RCA found the failover runbook was out of date.
Glossary terms
Sev1
A critical incident: customer-facing outage or data risk with no workaround.
on-call
company-wide The engineer who responds to pages during a shift.
SUPPORT The agent covering the urgent support queue.
SLA
The response and resolution times we commit to a customer.
Security
Your glossary never leaves Atlassian
Definitive Glossary runs entirely on Atlassian's Forge platform and is eligible for the Runs on Atlassian program. Your data stays in Atlassian's cloud with your site. The app makes no outside connections, and we can't see your content.
Compared with AI definitions
Why not just let AI define it?
AI definitions help you guess what jargon means. Definitive Glossary holds the definitions your organization has actually approved.
| Definitive Glossary | AI definitions | |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides the definition | Your glossary editors | Anyone, or the AI |
| Owners and review dates | Yes | No |
| Audit trail of changes | Yes | No |
| Definitions expire | Never | After a period without edits |
| Works with AI turned off | Yes | No |
Pricing
Simple pricing, billed by Atlassian
Try it free from the Marketplace. See the listing for current per-user prices.
Small teams
- Every feature
- Unlimited terms
- Email support
Growing teams
- Every feature
- Priority support
- Free trial from the Marketplace
FAQ
Questions, answered
Does my data leave Atlassian?
No. Definitive Glossary runs entirely on Atlassian's Forge platform ("Runs on Atlassian"). Your glossary is stored in Atlassian's cloud with your site, and the app makes no outside connections.
Do readers need to install anything?
No. Definitions are part of the page, so they work in every browser and for every reader, with no extension.
Does it change my pages?
Linking inserts small glossary markers and saves one normal page version. You can undo it any time with "Remove glossary links" or from page history. Page search keeps working.
Can we import our existing glossary?
Yes. Upload a CSV with columns for term, definition, aliases, status and space, and export everything the same way. Switching apps? CSV exports from Smart Terms, VECTORS Glossary and Bordant Glossary import as they are. See the CSV format.
Does it work in Jira?
Yes. Definitive Glossary is installed in Confluence, where you manage the glossary, and can also be added to Jira on the same site. Each Jira work item then has a Glossary panel with the definitions of the terms it mentions, and Jira's Apps menu has a searchable Glossary page. Jira only reads the glossary; terms are added and approved in Confluence.
What happens if we uninstall?
Export your glossary to CSV first. Linked pages stay readable. Remove the links before uninstalling if you want the plain text back.
Make every definition official.
Free for up to 10 users. Install from the Atlassian Marketplace in two clicks.