Terminology
Purpose #
The vocabulary used throughout the wiki and the design docs, organised by concern.
Architecture #
| Term | Definition | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Layer 1 / 2 / 3 | Core+utilities / extensions / CLI shell. Strict downward dependency. | concepts/three-layer-architecture.md |
| Sibling | Two packages at the same layer that may not import each other (adapters ↔ stack packs). | .docs/ARCHITECTURE.md §1 |
ProjectContext |
Immutable record passed to almost every adapter / stack-pack method. | .docs/ARCHITECTURE.md §7 |
DetectContext |
Lighter context for detect() — read-only filesystem only. |
.docs/docs/specs/stack-pack-contract.md §7.1 |
| Staging directory | <projectRoot>/.aido-staging/ for atomic file writes. |
.docs/ARCHITECTURE.md §11.3 |
AidoError |
Envelope class with machine-readable code, message, optional details, hint. |
error-codes.md |
Extensions #
| Term | Definition | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Adapter | Package implementing the Adapter contract for one AI CLI runtime. |
adapter-contract.md |
| Stack pack | Package implementing the StackPack contract for one tech stack. |
stack-pack-contract.md |
| Adapter manifest | Static identity + capability declarations + declared conformance. | adapter-contract.md |
| Stack-pack manifest | Static identity, languages, detection signals, composesWith. |
stack-pack-contract.md |
| Engine directory | .claude/, .codex/, or .copilot/. |
glossary |
| Agent rules file | CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, or .github/copilot-instructions.md. |
glossary |
EmittedFile |
{ path, content, mode? } — what adapter emit methods return. |
.docs/docs/specs/adapter-contract.md §6.1 |
ShellCommand |
Adapter-returned shell command for the CLI to execute. | .docs/docs/specs/adapter-contract.md §6.2 |
SkillTemplate |
Skill metadata + content provided by core or a stack pack. | adapter-contract.md, ADR-0013 |
| Verb | intake, implement-task, orchestrator-next — user-triggered workflow command. |
adapter-contract.md |
| Role | One of 7: researcher, architect, planner, builder, tester-reviewer, maintainer, frontend-browser-tester. | adapter-contract.md |
| Capability profile | read-only, docs-only-write, scope-limited-write. |
.docs/docs/specs/adapter-contract.md §9 |
Workflow content #
| Term | Definition | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Kit content (v4) | The emitted body of skills/agents/hooks/commands/styles/schemas. | concepts/kit-content-v4.md |
| Base skills | The 18 v4 core skills shipped by @aidokit/base-skills. |
getting-started/project-overview.md |
| Watchdog | Hook scripts / validators emitted by Adapter.emitWatchdog. |
adapter-contract.md |
| Blocker | An artefact at agent-artifacts/blockers/blocker-<id>.md written when a stop condition fires. |
.docs/docs/specs/adapter-contract.md §10 |
| Brownfield | Project that has existing code, docs, or PRDs at aidokit init time. |
glossary |
MCP catalog #
| Term | Definition | Source |
|---|---|---|
| MCP | Model Context Protocol server. | https://modelcontextprotocol.io |
| Trigger | Predicate string evaluated by the catalog's evaluator (OR-only). | .docs/docs/specs/mcp-catalog.md §7 |
securitySensitive |
Hard, non-bypassable confirmation gate. | concepts/mcp-catalog.md |
| Custom MCP | MCP added via aidokit mcp add --custom-url <url>; always treated as sensitive. |
mcp-catalog-reference.md |
Conformance #
| Term | Definition | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Conformance level | Minimum, Standard, Strict. |
concepts/conformance-levels.md |
| Declared vs verified | Manifest declares; harness verifies. | concepts/conformance-levels.md |
| Conformance harness | runAdapterConformance / runStackPackConformance from @aidokit/core. |
conformance-reference.md |
| Conformance snapshot | .aido/conformance-snapshot.json captured at install for drift detection. |
.docs/docs/specs/conformance-levels.md §10.2 |
| Dogfood gate | Byte-compare invariant against this repo's hand-built .claude/. |
concepts/dogfood-gate.md |
Security #
| Term | Definition | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Capability declaration | Adapter manifest's writesPaths / runsShellCommands / networkCalls. |
.docs/docs/specs/security-model.md §8 |
| Trust tier | Official / Verified / Community / Unverified. | .docs/docs/specs/conformance-levels.md §12.2 |
| Audit log | <projectRoot>/.aido/state.json records every MCP install + sync history. |
.docs/docs/specs/security-model.md §10.3 |
Distribution #
| Term | Definition | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Changeset | A .changeset/*.md file describing a version bump for one or more packages. |
concepts/release-and-distribution.md |
| Dist-tag | alpha (pre-1.0), beta (optional at v0.5), latest (v1.0+). |
.docs/docs/architecture/decisions/0004-distribution.md §3 |
| Provenance | npm provenance attestation; required for @aidokit/* from v1.0. |
.docs/docs/architecture/decisions/0004-distribution.md §5 |
Related Pages #
- ../getting-started/glossary.md — alphabetical glossary