Terms¶
What the recurring words in these docs mean, for a reader new to ai-dlc. The architecture shows how the parts fit.
| Term | Meaning here |
|---|---|
| Workflow plugin | plugins/ai-dlc-workflow/: the optional Claude Code plugin (with a Codex form) carrying the workflow guidance as a skill, ten more skills and three hooks. Off by default; a team harness decides where it is on. See Workflow plugin. |
| Team harness | A git repository of the native files a team's agents run with, pinned by hangar's harness.lock. It pins the workflow plugin as plugin:ai-dlc-workflow@<marketplace>. ai-dlc publishes into it but does not define it. |
| Managed section | The block between <!-- ai-dlc:begin <digest> --> and <!-- ai-dlc:end --> in an adopted repository's AGENTS.md, rendered by ai-dlc agents render and guarded by .ai-dlc/agent-ownership.json. |
| Profile | A versioned ai-dlc-profile.toml in a private Git repository: portable modules, client settings and named credentials. |
| Machine binding | One machine's own paths, account selections and credential environment-variable names; never shared. |
| Enrollment | Binding a machine to a profile at a pinned revision (ai-dlc machine enroll); machine sync moves it. |
| Provisioning | Installing a profile's modules and client configuration on a machine (ai-dlc setup plan, then ai-dlc setup apply). |
| Work record | .ai-dlc/work/<id>.toml: reviewed scope bound to a tracker item, branch, specification and pull request. |
| Receipt | The JSON ai-dlc project check writes for a commit: each required check's outcome. work finish needs a passing one for the merge commit. |
| Finish gates | specification-current, pr-merged and ci-green; work finish closes the ticket only when all pass. |
| Tracker writes | [work] tracker_writes: lifecycle (default) or finish-only, where hangar intake owns starting work. |
| Documentation gate | ai-dlc docs gate: every changed catalogued document has a current reviewed disposition and no new objective defect. |
| Knowledge note | Markdown with the frontmatter in contracts/knowledge-note.schema.json; used by learnings and decision records. |
| Frozen | Kept working and open to bug fixes, but closed to new features (ADR 0001's frozen list). |
| Tower | The suite's governance plane: policy decisions, approvals and receipts. ADR 0001 calls it by its earlier name, the governed workspace. |
"Capabilities"¶
The word means eight different things in this repository. Use the specific term in the first column instead of a bare "capability"; the files and options keep their current names (#203 tracks any rename).
| Say | What it is | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Project role or feature | A choice made at project creation or adoption: the six roles (specs, tracker, knowledge, scm, deploy, agent-client) and the optional features backend and frontend |
--capability on project init and project adopt; the Copier question capabilities in project-templates/copier.yml; CAPABILITIES and OPTIONAL_CAPABILITIES in setup/templates.py |
| Tracker lifecycle operations | What a tracker adapter declares it can do (an in-progress state, close), answered through the provider contract's capabilities operation |
contracts/capabilities.*.schema.json; Tracker capabilities and connection |
| Execution target properties | Filesystem, network, hooks and persistence of each project setup --target |
targets/capabilities.toml (local, github-actions) |
| Client hook floor | The hooks each agent client supports and its minimum version | agents/capabilities.toml |
| Feature pack | The optional frontend and backend scaffolding with their checks | OpenSpec specs frontend-capability-pack and backend-capability-pack |
| OpenSpec capability | One specification directory under openspec/specs/ (47 today); the freeze stops new ones outside the in-scope list |
openspec/specs/<name>/spec.md |
| Component contract | How a selected role resolves to installation modules and provider guidance | modules/components.json; OpenSpec component-capability-contract |
| Plain English | "Something the product can do" in prose | Prefer "feature" |