TFW Glossary¶

Terms route to their one normative owner. Procedures, field schemas, refusal algorithms, and incident histories live at the linked authority or durable history source.

Coordination¶

Activation¶

Meaning: Authorization for one exact /tfw-* workflow, task/phase, role unit and lineage source. Provisioning, a role prompt, a title or a wait result is not activation. Authority: conventions.md, Coordination.

Continuation¶

Meaning: Resumption by the same working unit under the same immutable authority and routing spine. Authority: conventions.md, Coordination.

Routing spine¶

Meaning: The seven status fields binding lower-role recipient, upward route, authority and operating selection. Validation belongs to the status contract. Authority: conventions.md, Task Statuses, and .tfw/templates/status.md.

Current selection¶

Meaning: Status alone carries the effective launch, dialogue, owner-context topology and reporting choice. selection_ref binds an immutable actual human coordination_selected event or the verified baseline; pending events grant nothing. Authority: conventions.md, Task Statuses, and .tfw/templates/journal/event.md.

Task Coordinator¶

Meaning: The actual Coordinator unit that carries task purpose, owner decisions, dependencies, ready-phase launch and safe successor selection. In a one-phase task it runs the local cycle directly. It owns the owner upward route, never another Role Lock's artifact. Authority: conventions.md, Coordination.

Phase Coordinator¶

Meaning: A distinct Coordinator unit bounded to one phase of long work. It owns that phase's TS, worker gates, independent review route and durable phase return to the task Coordinator named in upstream_route; it does not own task strategy or sibling phases. Authority: conventions.md, Coordination.

Successor Coordinator¶

Meaning: An exact replacement unit activated at a safe checkpoint, after reconstructing task authority and open work from durable files. The old route remains effective until acknowledgement and an authorized route switch. Authority: conventions.md, Coordination.

gate_answer¶

Meaning: An immutable authority-owned event that answers a blocked workflow question and cites status, blocked role artifact, and exact HL/TS authority. Authority: conventions.md, Coordination, and .tfw/templates/journal/event.md.

Artifact Types¶

HL (High Level)¶

Meaning: The task's meaning, outcome, boundaries, and approved contract baseline. Authority: conventions.md, HL (High Level), and .tfw/templates/HL.md.

RES (Research Report)¶

Meaning: The cumulative structured investigation record produced by the Researcher. Authority: conventions.md, RES (Research Report), and .tfw/templates/RES.md.

TS (Task Spec)¶

Meaning: The self-contained executable order for one task or phase. Authority: conventions.md, TS (Task Spec), and .tfw/templates/TS.md.

RF (Result File)¶

Meaning: The Executor's authoritative record of delivered results, verification, evidence, and observations. Authority: conventions.md, RF (Result File), and .tfw/templates/RF.md.

ONB (Onboarding Report)¶

Meaning: The Executor's pre-work record of understanding, questions, recommendations, risks, and inconsistencies. Authority: conventions.md, ONB (Onboarding Report), and .tfw/templates/ONB.md.

REVIEW (Review Report)¶

Meaning: The Reviewer-locked record of ordered VALUE, ASSURANCE and TRACE assessment, classified item routes and Candidate effects, and one aggregate verdict after independent verification. Authority: conventions.md, REVIEW (Review Report), and .tfw/templates/REVIEW.md.

KNOWLEDGE.md¶

Meaning: The stable ordinary-file entry for architecture/reference, preserved legacy topics/D rows and independent qualified records; no maintained counts or inventory. Authority: conventions.md, Knowledge Infrastructure.

RELEASE.md¶

Meaning: Project-specific release context and checks used by the release workflow. Authority: .tfw/workflows/release.md, TFW Release.

Update receipt¶

Meaning: An immutable record of one upstream update attempt, including its pinned source, authority, semantic effects, preservation references, verification, and next action. It is not the receiver's state registry. Authority: .tfw/templates/update_receipt.md, .tfw/workflows/update.md.

Incidental trace¶

Meaning: A selected evidence or coordination trace outside the direct VALUE selector. It is admitted only by exact path, producer identity, and a stated semantic effect; it cannot widen scope or grant authority. Authority: conventions.md.

Selected stable uncommitted sibling trace¶

Meaning: A named trace in a related task or phase that has not yet committed, but whose exact path, producer, relationship, and semantic contribution are fixed by the governing artifact. It may be read or referenced without requiring the sibling to reach DONE. Authority: conventions.md.

Contract and Purpose Defence¶

HL Contract¶

Meaning: Owner approval freezes HL §§1, 3–7 while leaving only the declared free sections editable. Authority: conventions.md, HL Contract.

Contract Baseline¶

Meaning: The approved HL revision against which later purpose and amendment decisions are judged. Authority: conventions.md, Contract Baseline.

Frozen Section¶

Meaning: An approved declarative HL claim that no role may change outside the amendment protocol. Authority: conventions.md, HL Contract rules 3–5.

Amendment¶

Meaning: An evidence-, cost-, and impact-backed proposal for an owner ruling on a frozen claim. Authority: conventions.md, HL Contract rules 10–12.

Amendment Log¶

Meaning: HL §12's append-only record of amendment proposals, owner verdicts, and resulting state. Authority: .tfw/templates/HL.md §12.

Project North Star¶

Meaning: The highest-priority statement of what the project builds, why, and what it deliberately does not build. Authority: conventions.md, Project North Star.

Purpose Check¶

Meaning: The Reviewer's independent comparison of the delivered result with the North Star and frozen contract baseline. Authority: .tfw/templates/review/judge.md, Purpose Check.

not fit for purpose¶

Meaning: A Purpose Check result stating that green local criteria still fail the approved intended outcome. Authority: .tfw/templates/review/judge.md, Purpose Check.

Deferral confession¶

Meaning: An explicit statement that the contract remains unmet when a material gap is deliberately deferred. Authority: .tfw/templates/review/judge.md, Purpose Check.

Knowledge Terms¶

Fact Candidate¶

Meaning: An unverified observation whose value depends on human knowledge and may be promoted only through consolidation. Authority: .tfw/workflows/knowledge.md, Step 2 — Gather.

Strategic Insight¶

Meaning: Human-sourced domain knowledge captured with implications during planning, research, or execution. Authority: .tfw/templates/{HL,RES,RF}.md, each Strategic Insights section.

Value Flow¶

Meaning: HL §3.2's input-to-transformation-to-outcome view of how the proposed result creates value. Authority: .tfw/templates/HL.md §3.2.

Result Visualization¶

Meaning: HL §3.1's concrete preview of the completed result. Authority: .tfw/templates/HL.md §3.1.

Findings Map¶

Meaning: RES's analytical visualization of relationships among findings, causes, or alternatives. Authority: .tfw/templates/RES.md, Findings Map.

Per-template Naming¶

Meaning: One cognitive mode keeps one section name, while distinct modes use distinct names. Authority: conventions.md, Artifact-owned semantic sections.

Evidence Terms¶

Evidence¶

Meaning: Observation of completed work in its intended environment, distinct from synthetic verification output. Authority: conventions.md, Artifact-owned semantic sections.

Evidence Plan¶

Meaning: The TS per-criterion prescription of environment, action, and observable success. Authority: .tfw/templates/TS.md §5.

Evidence Collection¶

Meaning: The Executor activity alongside implementation and the Build/compile check, before the Pre-RF template check that records each AC using the evidence vocabulary. Authority: .tfw/workflows/handoff.md, Step 2 — Implement and prove.

Evidence Audit¶

Meaning: The Reviewer's independent check that EV claims resolve and agree with the delivered result. Authority: .tfw/templates/review/verify.md, Evidence Verification.

Evidence Status Vocabulary¶

Meaning: The closed EV result set VERIFIED, DEFERRED, BLOCKED, and N/A. Authority: .tfw/templates/evidence/EV.md, Evidence Table.

Commit Attribution¶

Meaning: The structured first-line prefix that makes an AI-authored commit searchable without classifying unmarked commits. Authority: conventions.md, Commit Attribution.

Task Naming¶

Local Daily Task¶

Meaning: An optional bounded one-worker application of existing Goal, Value, Context, Boundaries, Task and selected Trace meanings outside the formal Full task corpus. It is not a cadence, risk grade, edition or formal lifecycle status. Existing project record forms prevail; new-project records use an immutable dated folder and a Daily-owned task.md. A local check does not assert human acceptance or a Full review verdict. Authority: conventions.md, Formal Full task scope and local Daily work, and the optional canonical skill.

Meaning: A current task uses the full approved {PREFIX}_{YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS}_{ABBR} directory name as its identifier. Authority: conventions.md, Identifier, and tfw.task_prefix.

Status Flow¶

Meaning: The closed task/phase lifecycle from TODO through execution, review, optional knowledge capture, and a terminal outcome. Authority: conventions.md, Task Statuses, and .tfw/templates/status.md.

UNDECLARED¶

Meaning: A non-selectable migration value preserving a legacy status outside the closed vocabulary until an owner resolves it by a two-act transition. Authority: conventions.md, Task Statuses.

KNW (Knowledge Capture)¶

Meaning: The post-review stage for applicable documentation, knowledge qualification and checked final effects before closure. Authority: conventions.md, Closing and record recovery.

Revision¶

Meaning: A repair round whose individual findings retain their class, route and Candidate effect; the highest required authority sequences only the next act and selects either the existing approved TS plus ruled live REVIEW or the highest approved TS sibling, while ONB/RF/EV append. Authority: conventions.md, The 🔄 REVISE route, and Artifact file naming.

Citation bar¶

Meaning: A returning item must cite the affected approved claim or authority and state the fact, oracle, harm and material consequence; a breach or citation alone is insufficient. Authority: conventions.md, REVISE, and .tfw/templates/REVIEW.md §5.

Rung¶

Meaning: The authority and owner needed to complete one material finding. It does not reclassify other items or move their Candidate. Authority: conventions.md, Role Lock Protocol.

Concept Taxonomy¶

Level	Question	Owner
Purpose	Why and for whom?	Project North Star / HL
Architecture	Which durable structure?	HL / KNOWLEDGE decisions
Convention	Which shared rule?	`conventions.md`
Implementation	How in this scope?	TS / code / RF

Roles¶

User (Human)¶

Meaning: The accountable stakeholder who approves scope, frozen claims, and human-only decisions. Authority: conventions.md, Role Lock Protocol.

Coordinator (AI)¶

Meaning: The planning role that writes HL/TS and rules review dispositions without implementing. Authority: .tfw/workflows/plan.md, ROLE LOCK: COORDINATOR.

Researcher (AI)¶

Meaning: The investigation role that writes RES and research stage files without changing the contract. Authority: .tfw/workflows/research/base.md, ROLE LOCK: RESEARCHER.

Executor (AI)¶

Meaning: The delivery role that writes ONB, implementation, evidence, and RF only inside an approved TS. Authority: .tfw/workflows/handoff.md, ROLE LOCK: EXECUTOR.

Reviewer (AI — coordinator under the reviewer Role Lock)¶

Meaning: The independent verification role that writes review artifacts and never implementation or governing HL/TS. Authority: .tfw/workflows/review.md, ROLE LOCK: REVIEWER.

Principal¶

Meaning: Optional stable project-local participant attribution; it never grants activation or authority. Authority: conventions.md, Declared participants and principals.

Initiation Chain¶

Meaning: Human-rooted working-unit delegation path. Authority: conventions.md, HL Contract rule 8.

Execution Gates¶

Acceptance Criteria (TS)¶

Meaning: Observable conditions that define whether the scoped result is acceptable. Authority: .tfw/templates/TS.md §5.

Technical Guidance (TS)¶

Meaning: Non-normative implementation advice subordinate to acceptance criteria. Authority: .tfw/templates/TS.md §6.

Definition of Failure (TS)¶

Meaning: Explicit outcomes that invalidate delivery even if individual checks appear green. Authority: .tfw/templates/TS.md §7.

Principles Check¶

Meaning: The TS mapping from each frozen design principle to an enforcement site and gate. Authority: .tfw/templates/TS.md §3.

AC Dependency Annotation¶

Meaning: [depends: AC-X] forbids starting a dependent criterion until its prerequisite is verified. Authority: .tfw/templates/TS.md §5 and handoff.md Implement.

Execution Loop¶

Meaning: The Executor implements and verifies each prerequisite AC before any annotated dependent AC proceeds. Authority: .tfw/workflows/handoff.md, Step 2 — Implement and prove.

Pre-TS dependency check¶

Meaning: Planning must inspect the latest dependency RF before specifying a later phase. Authority: .tfw/workflows/plan.md, Write TS — preserve Executor freedom; obtain approval.

Pre-RF template check¶

Meaning: Before writing RF, the Executor opens .tfw/templates/RF.md and reads every section heading. Authority: .tfw/workflows/handoff.md, Step 3 — RF and stop.

Session Naming¶

Meaning: A non-authoritative navigation title bound to a resolved task/phase. Authority: conventions.md, Session identity; workflows own the application checkpoint.

Phase Dependencies¶

Meaning: HL §4's graph and table state predecessor, shared-file, and parallel-execution relationships. Authority: .tfw/templates/HL.md §4.

RESEARCH¶

Meaning: The optional Researcher-locked investigation stage between HL framing and executable TS. Authority: .tfw/workflows/research/base.md, Core Algorithm.

Pass (Research)¶

Meaning: A bounded analytical lens inside a stage; passes do not create separate lifecycle state. Authority: .tfw/templates/research/*.md.

Iteration (Research)¶

Meaning: One complete Briefing→Gather→Extract→Challenge→RES cycle preserved in its own directory. Authority: research/base.md, Resume & Iteration Detection.

iterations.yaml¶

Meaning: Coordinator-owned research control state declaring prepared iterations and their completion without owning task lifecycle. Authority: .tfw/workflows/plan.md, Research; .tfw/workflows/research/base.md consumes but never creates or edits it.

min_iterations¶

Meaning: The minimum completed research cycles required before the Researcher may close. Authority: tfw.research.min_iterations in .tfw/project_config.yaml.

Read-only research scope¶

Meaning: A Researcher activation that permits research traces while keeping implementation and governing artifacts read-only. Authority: research/base.md, Role Lock and Activation and routing checkpoint.

Research — Dimensional Analysis¶

Meaning: Research method mapping design dimensions and testing configurations before selection. Authority: .tfw/workflows/research/base.md, Step 5 — Run Stages (Gather → Extract → Challenge).

Dimension (Research)¶

Meaning: An independent design axis with explicit alternatives. Authority: Gather.

Alternative (Research)¶

Meaning: One candidate value for a research dimension. Authority: Gather.

Configuration Space (Research)¶

Meaning: The combinations induced by selected alternatives across dimensions. Authority: Extract.

Consistency Check (Research)¶

Meaning: The explicit test that removes configurations whose alternatives conflict. Authority: Challenge.

Surviving Configuration (Research)¶

Meaning: The configuration remaining after consistency and evidence challenge. Authority: Challenge.

Phase¶

Meaning: A scope-bounded unit of a multi-phase task with its own HL→TS→ONB→RF→REVIEW path and local lifecycle. Authority: conventions.md, Multi-phase folder structure.

Step¶

Meaning: One ordered action in a workflow. It has no independent lifecycle. Authority: conventions.md, Design Rules.

Stage¶

Meaning: One named cognitive subprocedure, such as Gather/Extract/Challenge or Map/Verify/Judge. It may own a trace or checkpoint; it is not a task phase. Authority: the owning Research or Review workflow.

Gate¶

Meaning: A named condition governing continuation; it does not itself imply a message, owner approval or pause. Authority: conventions.md, canonical Gate definition in Coordination; the owning workflow states its actual action.

Check / Self-check¶

Meaning: The current role verifies a condition and continues on success or follows the specified repair/blocking route on failure. Authority: Coordination.

Decision gate / WAIT¶

Meaning: A missing required decision blocks its named act until valid durable authority resolves it. Authority: Coordination.

Role return¶

Meaning: Reachable owned result plus its required durable state/event, ending the current role act. Authority: Coordination.

Signal / Command¶

Meaning: A signal refers to a record; a command invokes a workflow subject to independent authority validation. Neither grants authority. Authority: the closed message catalogue.

Mandatory Saint-Exupéry check¶

Meaning: Before presenting HL/TS, remove unnecessary control while preserving named value, necessary proof and freedom; revise a material failure before presentation. Authority: Plan.

Multi-phase Handoff¶

Meaning: Each phase's Coordinator launches its authorized roles; dependent planning uses the preceding RF. Authority: plan.md, Coordination Selection Gate and Write TS — preserve Executor freedom; obtain approval.

Worktree Protocol¶

Meaning: Concurrent-mutation isolation contract. Authority: conventions.md, Worktrees for concurrent mutation.

Landing Commit¶

Meaning: Cross-session deliverable-attribution commit. Authority: conventions.md, Landing a deliverable across sessions.

Scope Budget¶

Meaning: Logical touched VALUE files and touched text LOC over a phase's declared value-bearing surface. Soft configured triggers prompt decomposition; the owner multiplier limits prospective Coordinator authority against the immutable approved plan. Authority: conventions.md, Scope Budgets (per Phase) owns classification, accounting and rulings.

Topic File¶

Meaning: A knowledge/{category}.md store of verified project facts for one category. Authority: conventions.md, Knowledge Infrastructure.

Knowledge Gate¶

Meaning: Retired global pending-count mechanism, retained only in historical sources. Current material obligations are checked at selected handover, use and close. Authority: conventions.md, Knowledge handover and Current knowledge use.

Consolidation¶

Meaning: Source-bound qualification and completed dispositions for explicitly selected human knowledge; no global batch, markers or state writes. Authority: .tfw/workflows/knowledge.md, Steps 2–4.

Qualified Record¶

Meaning: An independently addressable source-bound claim/decision with intent, scope, grounds, disposition, producer, qualifier and real acceptance authority. Presence is not acceptance. Authority: conventions.md, Knowledge qualification.

Knowledge Handover¶

Meaning: An actual producing-role return preserving available material context or a justified absence/unavailable/retention outcome; missing or owed material remains open. Authority: conventions.md, Knowledge handover.

Current Knowledge Use¶

Meaning: Apply relevant legacy/record claims only after source/scope/disposition and incoming successor/correction/equivalence/conflict checks. Newer time does not resolve conflicting authority. Authority: conventions.md, Current knowledge use.

Project Values (PV)¶

PV is the ordered decision context below, not a fact inventory. New records join the semantic priority of their corresponding legacy source. Apply Current knowledge use to relevant records and incoming relations; role duties follow the table.

PV Index (scan order)¶

Priority	Source	What it contains
0	Project North Star — designated README sections; otherwise master HL §1 at its contract baseline	What the project builds, why, and deliberately does not build
1	`.tfw/README.md` `Methodology values` and `Success Criteria`	How TFW work is practiced and what observable success means
2	`knowledge/philosophy.md`	Validated principles and design rationale
3	`KNOWLEDGE.md` §1	Architecture Decisions
4	`conventions.md` `HL (High Level)`, `Design Rules`, and `Anti-patterns (prohibited)`	Contract, design, naming, and prohibitions
5	`knowledge/convention.md`	Agreed standards and patterns
6	`knowledge/process.md`	Process facts and workflow patterns
7	Other `knowledge/*.md`	Domain, constraint, stakeholder, environment, and risk facts

Priorities 0 and 1 remain distinct semantic items even when one file contains both.

Coordinator: scan P0–P4 and relevant P5–P7; write HL §7.2 with the exact item, link, and application.
Reviewer: independently scan P0–P4 and relevant P5–P7; verify resolution, existence, semantic match, and relevance in verify.md.
Executor: read HL §7.2 citations; confirm their use and add newly relevant items in ONB §7.
Researcher: read HL §7.2 citations and cross-reference relevant findings in RES.

Authority: conventions.md, .tfw/workflows/{plan,review}.md, and .tfw/templates/ONB.md §7.

Config Sync Registry¶

Meaning: The config workflow's closed map from each project setting to exact inline readers and generated adapter copies. Authority: .tfw/workflows/config.md, Config Sync Registry.

Tool Adapter¶

Meaning: A vendor discovery root and /tfw-* command receivers routing to the tool-agnostic core. Authority: conventions.md for runtime behavior; .tfw/adapters/manifest.yaml for tooling-only copy/check metadata.

status.md¶

Meaning: The only authority for one task or phase's current lifecycle, owner, and routing spine. Authority: conventions.md, Task control files, and .tfw/templates/status.md.

journal/¶

Meaning: A task-local append-only set of immutable coordination events whose timestamped filenames are their identities. Authority: conventions.md, Task control files, and .tfw/templates/journal/event.md.

Task discovery¶

Meaning: Direct resolution of a selected whole task identifier through configured containers to its task-local state and artifacts. Optional read-only projections are disposable and never gate a transition. Authority: conventions.md, Discovery.

team/¶

Meaning: Declared human and accountable agent-principal profiles, never per-session identities. Machine bindings remain outside project state. Authority: conventions.md, Declared participants and principals.

Historical Lookup¶

Debt Registry — retired; see tasks/DEBT-SNAPSHOT.md.

Task Board — retired; see tasks/BOARD-SNAPSHOT.md.

Portfolio index — retired; current Full keeps no shared task cache or freshness duty. See D69, D73, D75, and D76.

Disposition¶

Meaning: A review item becomes paid by a named phase, promoted to an existing task, or ruled not material; if payment is future, the same act must order that phase in a round with the item's cited condition, or paid is deferral. Authority: .tfw/templates/REVIEW.md §5 and conventions.md, Role Lock Protocol. Each item retains its class, route and Candidate effect. A non-material TRACE item remains a visible observation or finite current-carrier repair; it neither moves the Candidate nor restarts product execution. Any pending owed item keeps close open.

project_config.yaml¶

Meaning: Project-owned TFW configuration for identifiers, containers, commands, templates, budgets, and knowledge behavior. Authority: .tfw/project_config.yaml and .tfw/templates/project_config.yaml.

VERSION¶

Meaning: The installed framework semantic version. Authority: .tfw/VERSION.

CHANGELOG.md¶

Meaning: The versioned history of framework additions, changes, fixes, and removals. Authority: .tfw/CHANGELOG.md.

Compilable Contract¶

Meaning: The deterministic build-time specification for compiling TFW artifacts. Authority: compilable_contract.md.

Reference Format¶

Meaning: Standard cross-artifact citations resolved into links by the build. Authority: compilable_contract.md, Reference Format.

Source Manifest¶

Meaning: The ordered project-file inputs used by compilation utilities. Authority: compilable_contract.md, Source Manifest.

Project-Specific Terms¶

A receiving project may replace this section with local terms; no canonical workflow requires it.

Standard /tfw-economics is installed/updated by default with selected adapters through the manifest and core workflow. It connects results to unique resources, uses sourced conditional API prices and preserves task-owned used quote/report epochs. Public provider/month observations live at ~/.tfw/rates, fresh for the exact model/profile for less than 30 days; lookup uses working first-party tools. Daily remains optional; four formal roles and existing authority/acceptance/source routes remain. Old optional/custom installations follow the core migration guide before connected writes. Neither API equivalents nor cache freshness prove subscription charges, historical unchanged prices, ROI or native cross-host behavior.