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Glossary

Short, precise definitions used across the ecosystem. The goal is to prevent semantic drift.

Each entry includes:

  • Meaning: one line
  • Not: what it is not
  • Defined in: the contract page that is authoritative for the term

This page is not a tutorial. If you need rationale or examples, follow the contract link.

Event​

Meaning: An atomic record of something that happened at a point in time, represented as a single JSON object in an append-only stream.
Not: A session, a summary, or a document chunk.
Defined in: Bus contracts: Event.

Session​

Meaning: A time window grouping of related events, with explicit boundaries and pointers back to source event IDs.
Not: A conversation, a topic, or a cluster label by itself.
Defined in: Bus contracts: Session.

Unit​

Meaning: A normalized, schema-validated payload produced by a pipeline stage as a stable intermediate representation for downstream work.
Not: A raw input, an ad hoc dict, or a UI-only object.
Defined in: Canonical unit model.

Chunk​

Meaning: A document-centric unit representing a span of a source document (pages, sections, offsets) with stable provenance metadata.
Not: A chat message event or a digest memo.
Defined in: Bus contracts: Chunk.

Summary​

Meaning: A derived representation that compresses one or more source units while preserving provenance links and schema versioning.
Not: A digest, a bag, or a free-form note without provenance.
Defined in: Bus contracts: Summary.

Digest​

Meaning: A packaged synthesis artifact produced from summaries and selection rules, intended for human consumption and downstream publishing.
Not: The summary bus itself, or raw model output.
Defined in: Bus contracts: Digest.

Bag​

Meaning: A curated collection of related summaries or units assembled by explicit selection rules and emitted as a digest subtype.
Not: A database table, a generic folder of markdown, or an untracked aggregation.
Defined in: Digest contract: Bag types and selection rules.

Artifact​

Meaning: Any materialized output of a pipeline run that is intended to be consumed downstream, including indexes, manifests, snapshots, and published markdown.
Not: Temporary scratch files or intermediate debug outputs without run records.
Defined in: Artifact contract: Outputs and naming.

Manifest​

Meaning: A small integrity and bookkeeping record that describes a produced batch or snapshot, including counts, hashes, schema versions, and pointers to payload files.
Not: A run record, an index, or a config file.
Defined in: Manifest contract.

Run record​

Meaning: The canonical audit log of a pipeline run, capturing inputs, outputs, status, errors, versions, and validation results.
Not: Application logs, notebooks, or ad hoc print statements.
Defined in: Run record contract and error taxonomy.

Seam​

Meaning: A defined integration boundary where downstream consumers are allowed to read upstream outputs only via specified endpoints and manifests.
Not: Importing upstream internal modules, or reading upstream raw inputs directly.
Defined in: Seams and integration rules.

Bus​

Meaning: A shared, contract-defined stream or directory of artifacts that multiple modules read and write through stable conventions.
Not: A message queue requirement, or a shared database schema you mutate freely.
Defined in: Bus overview and seam rules.

Publisher​

Meaning: A component that materializes consumable outputs from an ordered stream of units or digests, typically as snapshots, tiles, and indexes with atomic promotion.
Not: A producer of raw events or a summarizer.
Defined in: Publishing contract: Snapshots and tiles.

Source adapter​

Meaning: A boundary module that converts an external source format into canonical units on a bus, enforcing schema validation and idempotency.
Not: A consumer that enriches or republishes existing bus artifacts.
Defined in: Source adapters: Inputs, outputs, and validation.