Glossary

Bridlewise uses ordinary words for specific things. This page keeps the meanings sharp so a claim can be read precisely. Where a term has a cheaper synonym, the cheaper synonym is usually hiding a distinction.

The run

The run is the unit of work. Everything else is either a part of it, a boundary around it, or a record of it.

Term	Definition
Run	One executable unit of work with an owner, a stream, a claim, and a record. A run executes once. Reopening its stream attaches to the recorded execution; it does not start a second one.
Beat	One typed, ordered record in a run’s stream: a model turn, tool call, file effect, check, finding, or decision. The beat is the smallest thing the cockpit renders and the smallest thing the ledger keeps.
Causal edge	The recorded relation between a beat and the beat it caused: tool input to output, edit to diff, check to delta, detection to response. The edge is why the stream is a record rather than a log.
Tool call	A model’s request to invoke a registered tool with typed arguments. It is a proposal until the pre-dispatch gate admits it and the executor runs it.
File effect	A recorded change to the project’s filesystem: create, update, or delete, with the target and a reviewable diff. File effects go through the transactional editor and can be rolled back.
Check delta	The before-and-after state of a check, not just its final result. A check that did not move is still evidence; a delta without its prior state is a rumor.
Finding	A recorded observation that something is wrong, suspicious, or worth attention, with its source and derivation. A finding is not a decision; it is an input to one.
Receipt	The JSON document returned by `preflight`: config hashes, capability decisions, and the readiness stage. A receipt records integrity. It is not a certificate of readiness.
Provenance	The chain from a claim to the artifact that supports it and the command that reproduces it. Provenance is a path, not a badge.

The boundary

The boundary is where the harness decides what may happen. A refusal is a first-class result, not an error to be smoothed over.

Term	Definition
Refusal	A typed “no” returned before an effect. A refusal names the missing capability, failed gate, or unsafe condition. It is not an empty success and not a silent fallback.
Typed blocker	A refusal with a stable code and a stated remedy, such as `provider_not_configured` or the deliberate `git_commit` governance blocker. The type is part of the contract.
Admission	The governance act that moves a capability from “implemented” to “allowed,” on evidence. The preview’s interactive capabilities are pre-admission: implemented, exercised, and still denied by the root policy.
Preflight	The read-only integrity check that prints the receipt. It verifies configuration, hashes, and capability decisions. It does not run a model or touch a repository.
`harnessReady`	The top-level readiness boolean in the preflight receipt. It is `false` in the developer preview. A healthy integrity check and a ready product are different claims.
Safety floor	The non-configurable part of the root policy that configuration cannot lower: keep-out paths, the minimum allow-set, and invariants a confined process must respect. A process’s temporary root must lie outside it.
Guardian	The frozen C binary that applies a Linux Landlock ruleset to itself and then `exec`s the payload. The restriction is inherited and irrevocable. The guardian confines filesystem access; it is not a VM or a firewall.
Landlock	A Linux kernel security module that restricts a process’s filesystem access with a ruleset. It is Linux-only, path-based, and not a network, syscall, or user-namespace boundary.
Capability decision	The `allow` or `deny` recorded for one capability in the preflight receipt. In the preview, `preflight` is allowed; model invocation, repository mutation, process execution, and network egress are denied.

The record

The record is what remains after the process exits. It has owners, limits, and a redaction policy.

Term	Definition
Timeline	The ordered, append-only record of typed events for a run, with a local hash chain per record. It is the application’s record, not a signed, externally anchored compliance log.
Ledger	The durable store and query surface behind the timeline: the local database, `harness timeline`, and `scripts/trace.ts`. The ledger keeps what happened; the chat is one projection of it.
Redaction	The single adapter that removes recognized secrets and personal data before content leaves for a provider and before it is displayed. It is pattern- and classification-based risk reduction, not a data-loss-prevention product.
Provider adapter	The boundary that speaks a model provider’s protocol — here, OpenAI Responses or Chat Completions — with a configured base URL, key, and model ids. An unconfigured adapter refuses; it does not fall back to a bundled provider.
MCP	Model Context Protocol: a way to attach external tools and resources over stdio, Streamable HTTP, or WebSocket. An MCP server is third-party code; stdio servers can be placed under the guardian, but the server’s own behavior is not audited by this project.
Frozen record	A record under a frozen root whose bytes are pinned by a manifest. History is exempt from link and regeneration judgment; a deliberate change is accepted explicitly, with a reason.

The floor

The development floor is where the product is tested, measured, decided, and projected. It is public, but it is not a second product.

Term	Definition
Harness	The whole local system: cockpit, loopback server, engine, guardian, shared contracts, and the record they produce. “Harness” is not a synonym for “model” or “chat.”
Block	One server capability declaration that projects its route, input schema, client binding, and UI contract. One declaration, one owner; the projections follow.
Development floor	The verification half of the repository on `main`: the prevention suite, unit and integration tests, benchmarks, curated design records, and the decision log. It is where claims are checked before they are promoted.
Corpus	The external 4.1 GB `engine/large-codebases` fixture root used by the full engine suite. The raw cache is not published; the floor pins a public subset manifest, and `npm run corpus:fetch` materialises the files the corpus-backed tests read. The complete corpus-backed suite still needs the host prerequisites.
Decision record	One file per decision, with an id, status, implementation state, and a generated index. A decision record is the durable answer to “why is it like this?” — not a meeting note.
Projection	A surface derived from one declaration or source: a route, schema, client binding, or UI from a block; the public product tree from the development floor. A projection is not a second owner of the fact.
Promotion	The gate that builds a candidate product tree from the development floor, runs the checks, commits the exact tree, and fast-forwards `main`. It is maintainer tooling, not a public release process.
Preview	A developer preview: runnable, inspectable, and explicitly not production-ready. The preview makes no compatibility, support, or safety promise beyond what its evidence shows.
Evidence	An artifact or observation someone else can inspect or rerun: a CI log, a checksum, a test receipt, a code-scanning alert, a recorded run. A claim without evidence is a hypothesis.
Workspace	An isolated worktree created by `harness workspace` for a bounded change, with its own gates and merge path. A Codespace is a development environment, not a harness workspace.

A note on usage

Use run for the unit, beat for the part, record for the whole, and evidence for the part someone else can check. Avoid “session” when you mean run, “log” when you mean ledger, and “sandbox” when you mean Landlock. The distinctions are the product.

The reading map puts these terms in order. The GitHub map shows where the record leaves a trace. The evidence page shows how to check it.