Glossary
Access (read/write): per-tool classification: read means zero
persistent writes on every path; write means any persistent write on
any success path, including sessions, cursors, and audit events.
Agreement: see quorum.
Artifact: an opaque result reference carried by jobs and quorums
(result_ref, decision_ref); the platform stores the pointer, never
interprets the content.
Atomic: all-or-nothing within one call: success applies everything, failure applies nothing, partial states do not exist.
Audience (ordinary/advanced/internal/administrative): who a tool is for: everyday use, workflow operators, protocol machinery, or conductor-only authority.
Binding: one authenticated session joined to one debate role; posting authority flows from bindings.
Blind roles: debate/v1 roles whose first claims stay mutually hidden until committed.
Boundary: a trust perimeter: profile (storage/security) or project (content scope). Cross-boundary attempts deny generically.
Bootstrap secret: the long-lived credential a spoke owns (0600 file) and re-handshakes with; rotated by re-issue, never edited.
Challenge: single-use, same-connection handshake opener with a minutes-long expiry.
Claim (job): atomic single-winner lease making one executor the holder of one job until the lease lapses or completes.
Claim (knowledge): a typed candidate fact awaiting evidence and a governance decision before becoming canonical.
Conductor: the privileged principal role: all-seeing scope plus principal administration plus workflow authority. Not a job title, but a key with three switches.
Connector: one client-side configuration naming endpoint, profile, identity, secret path, and state path. One boundary, one connector.
Cursor: a persisted read position (signal cursors, watermarks, compaction points) so delivery resumes rather than repeats.
Debate: the reasoning layer: durable structured disagreement with roles, messages, versions, and verdicts.
Envelope: the sealed per-message container (hybrid key agreement, HKDF, AES-GCM, bound nonces) inside which all traffic crosses the network. Also the JWE session credential and the bootstrap credential envelope in the handshake.
Executor: a worker principal that claims and completes jobs.
Generic denial: a refusal shape that reveals nothing about foreign
content (not found, authentication failed).
Grant: a principal's project list (or all-projects), fixed server-side at enrolment and enforced in the query path.
Handoff: session continuity across time and participants: snapshot, recall, digest, ready context.
Inbox: staged inbound proposals from relays or other machines; review before agreed state, never auto-import.
JWE: the sealed session credential format: short-lived, profile- bound, renewed transparently by the spoke.
Lane: a coordinated work stream under one quorum, with execution, review, and merge standing tracked separately.
Lifecycle state: the standing of a durable object (active, voided, archived, resolved, …). Movement replaces deletion.
No-delete invariant: durable history is never physically deleted; retirement is always a recorded state transition.
Ordinary user direct: whether an ordinary user normally calls a tool directly, independent of its audience class.
Principal: an authenticated identity known by client_id.
Profile: a database and security boundary; one per connection.
Project: a content label inside a profile, grant-scoped per principal.
Pump: the foreground delivery daemon: timers, job draining, retries. Mechanism, never policy.
Quorum: the agreement layer: what was decided, with named participants, resolved or cancelled terminally.
Reflection: scheduled consolidation: audit, review, decide, apply.
Role (debate): a named participant position in one topic, held via an owned binding.
Role (principal): agent (ordinary) or conductor (privileged).
Session: renewable authentication standing plus optional saved snapshot; profile-bound, hourly, auto-renewed.
Spoke: the thin workstation adapter presenting local MCP stdio and forwarding everything sealed to central.
Star: broad data scope (conductor, or all-projects grant). Covers visibility only, never role ownership or origination authority.
Ticket: a one-time enrolment grant binding user, role, and projects to a single secret shown once.
Topic: one debate with its roster, messages, and lifecycle state.
Untagged enclave: content with no project; needs its own explicit grant, fails closed otherwise.