# What's a Pattern? We use the term *Pattern* to refer to design patterns, which are general, reusable solutions to commonly occurring problems within given contexts. One can think of them as formalized best (and worst) practices that can be used to solve (or cause) common problems within the domain they describe. The patterns that are described on Atlas Patterns relate to the domain of digital collaboration tools, and often mentioning Jira and Confluence because they're the tools we at Atlancers work with the most. Source: The above description is somewhat paraphrased from . --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://www.atlaspatterns.com/whats-a-pattern.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.