Glossary

Term	Definition
Artifact	Captured input/output from a non-deterministic call (LLM, API, file read). Stored and hashed for replay.
Command	Declarative instruction returned by a step. Interpreted by your runner, not by the kernel.
Computed	State derived from step outputs. Updated via shallow merge on each commit.
Diff	Comparison between original output and recomputed output.
Effective	Read-only merge of computed + overlay: { ...computed, ...overlay }. What the system acts on.
Event	Audit record emitted by a step. Append-only.
Output	In-memory result of a step: { output, events, commands? }. Exists during a run; artifacts persist after.
Overlay	Human overrides applied on top of computed state. Overlay always wins.
Recompute	Re-run a step with new adapters and compare the diff.
Recompute Status	Classification of a recompute result: clean, value_changed, or schema_violation.
Replay	Reproduce a past run exactly using stored artifacts.
Schema Violation	A schema mismatch detected during recompute output validation. Observational – does not gate the result.
Snapshot	Stored bundle of artifacts, metadata, and step output used for replay/recompute.
Step	A deterministic function that returns { output, events, commands? }.
Workflow	Named set of steps plus a version; provides stable identity and type-safe wiring.

Data flow

run → output (memory) → artifacts (stored) → snapshot (bundle)