Glossary

Short definitions for the L4 architecture set. Normative behaviour lives in 00-kernel.md and the numbered docs. Architecture names: section 1.1.

Table: 46 rows by term

Term	Meaning
Abstain	Terminal: insufficient case to decide; always traced
Action footprint	Assets, shared resources, crew/role, material, time window (start, end, lag) claimed by a candidate or open card
AL0–AL5	Autonomy levels (direction; fast-loop stages 1–3 = AL1–AL3) — section 6
As-known-at	PSM / ledger snapshot using recorded time so late corrections do not rewrite what L4 knew
AutonomyPolicy	Signed grants, envelopes, expiry (direction; L5 owns engine — section 5.6)
Builder read	Bulk/list read for the PSM builder; not an agent tool; cannot write
Case library	Episodic store of traces joined with L5 outcomes; authority when it disagrees with Hindsight
ClosureState	Eleven code states on the live card (direction; as built: stamped_l5_domain/cards/states.py) — section 5.9
Condition key	Stable id for “this plant condition”; one open card per key
DecisionCase	One run unit: intake + snapshot + obligations + candidates + terminal
DecisionTrace	Always-on record: observed, context, action, policy, approval, outcome (and seam decisions)
Discovery	L4-originated candidate (scanner / pattern / hypothesis), not an L3 Finding
Emit	Terminal: send one Prescription draft to L5 (as built: card proposal)
Evidence	Layer contract for detector output (direction; as built: Finding finding.json 1.2.0) — section 5.2
Evidence ledger	Typed rows (measured / advisory / model partitions) frozen into the trace
Evidence tier	Contract tier on claims: measured / confirmed / modeled / unknown; quantity labels per D13
Exploration card	Opt-in card marked exploration=true to test soft-gate blocks
Finding	As-built L3 detector output admitted to L4 (finding.json 1.2.0)
Gate id	Stable id of the hard or soft gate that blocked a candidate
Grounded-hypothesis lane	Owner opt-in path for LLM hypotheses that still pass L3 grounding + dual-family + kernel
Hard gate	Never tunable, never backlog, never explored
Hold	L4-internal portfolio outcome; staff-visible; not sent to L5
Hindsight	Memory product: plant bank + dialogue banks; advisory except where case library overrides outcomes
Jev seam	Decision slot with LLM structured output today and a logged record so a classifier (Jev) can later beat it
Kernel	Frozen normative rules in 00-kernel.md
Lockfile	Release pin of registry versions, kernel version, model pins
Opportunity ledger	Store of every blocked candidate with gate id and later outcome if known
Plant Box	Plant-side computer for the fast loop (direction; D4)
Portfolio	Dedupe, conflict, attention, supersede among candidates and open cards
Prescription	What to do, why, who, check plan (direction; as built: prescription.json 1.0.0 / card-proposal) — section 5.3
Proof floor	Minimum evidence/structure required before emit (asset bound, verification path, L3 condition test for discoveries)
PSM	Plant Situation Model — derived per-plant cache in the L4 store
Release lockfile	See lockfile
Shadow	Traced, never sent to L5 (uncertified detectors, ungrounded hypotheses, demoted patterns)
Site pack	Versioned, owner-reviewed plant configuration including topology
Soft gate	Threshold in registry; calibrated from opportunity ledger + exploration
Supersede	Terminal: replace prior L4 proposal before owner acceptance
Withhold	Terminal: do not send; reason recorded
Working ledger	Per-run ledger frozen into the trace, then discarded
WriteRequest	Plant Box write path request (direction; closure/action-intent.json retired) — section 5.8
Zoom read	Allowlisted typed read requested by a model; code executes and appends rows
OE knowledge corpus	Versioned literature + sparse method ontology; retrieved as advisory rows only — see 23-oe-knowledge-corpus.md
Shift sweep	Once-per-shift whole-plant discovery pass — 08-discovery.md
Work queue	Durable per-plant scheduler for Findings, sweeps, Ask — 25-work-queue-and-concurrency.md
Kill switch	Control-plane stop of new leases + CardSink — 28-commissioning-and-controls.md
Safe-start	Checklist before emit_enabled — 28-commissioning-and-controls.md

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v1 slice vs later#

Glossary terms are stable for l4-kernel.v1. New terms arrive with ADRs or registry packs; this file updates in the same commit as the doc that introduces them.