The terms are a SOW and the execution is a run, in both languages
Proposed
Context
adr-063 split an Encargo into two layers: the terms a human owns, and the disposable execution an agent owns. The vocabulary it gave the second layer, Work Order (Orden de Trabajo, OT), means the first one to anyone who reads it. In industry and in maintenance software a work order is the document that authorises a job; in Spanish, «emitir una OT» creates the document that orders the work. Every surface built after adr-063 followed that ordinary sense: the signed files, the verbs `form *-work-order`, the mode `plan-to-work-order`, the form `new_work_order`, the field `predecessor_wo` and adr-122's own title all use "work order" for the terms, while the glossary used it for the execution. The principal, who approved the model, read it backwards — "first it is a WO, and once signed it is a SOW" — and that reading is the natural one.
The execution already had a name: `ontoref run start` opens it, `run status` reads it, adr-066 speaks of runs throughout. The lexicon had decided its rendering in advance: `run` is rendered «ejecución» only when it names nothing, and a run with an id and a log is an entity that keeps its name.
The Spanish word for the terms had the opposite problem. «Pliego» is faithful, and it is the vocabulary of public procurement: a developer meets it in a tender, never in their own work.
Decision
The terms layer of an Encargo is a **SOW** and the execution layer is a **run**, in English and in Spanish. An Encargo is one SOW plus its runs. The SOW is the same document from draft to signed; the signature ratifies it and does not turn it into anything else. A run is one execution under a signed SOW: disposable and contained, owned by the agent, carrying its deliverable, its witness's receipt and a contained verdict.
Both words are kept in Spanish ('Keep in the rendering registry): `run` because it is an identifier and an entity, `SOW` because no Spanish word carries it without dragging another register in. «Ejecución» remains the ordinary word for any execution and the gloss of `run`. «Pliego» and «Orden de Trabajo» are declared denied renderings with their reasons, so the vocabulary says why they are not used rather than leaving the choice to memory.
"Work order", "Orden de Trabajo" and "OT" name no layer. The glossary carries no term, alias or note for them: what is not the vocabulary is not described as if it were.
Names a person or an agent types follow the vocabulary: the verbs are `form *-sow`, the mode is `plan-to-sow`, the forms are `new_sow` and `subagent_run`, the template is `sow.ncl.j2`, the field is `predecessor_sow`.
The mode, the forms and the template are renamed without an alias, as migration 0078 renamed a verb head: an alias that outlives its reason is how the old name comes back. A signed SOW that is still live and names one of their old paths in a contract is changed the governed way — by a signed successor — because an alias resolves a name and never a path.
The verbs keep their previous names as aliases declared in reflection/aliases.ncl (adr-115), with a reason that can be checked: code outside ontoref still calls them from inside the scope of a signed SOW, and removing the name first would break that project's gate before it can sign its change. The migration that ships the rename reports every remaining caller; when none remains, a later migration retires the aliases. `predecessor_wo` stays accepted beside `predecessor_sow`, exactly one of the two, because signed SOWs carry it.
A signed SOW is stored as `<level>/.governance/wo-<slug>.ncl` beside its `.minisig`. That is a file convention, stated where a reader meets it (the SOW schema, the glossary definition, the delivery modes), not a third name: the file holds a SOW. One level, specdossier/code, names its SOW files `sow-<slug>.ncl`, a divergence its principal accepted on 2026-09-27: ontoref's tools read it (they need the file name to equal the id, not a prefix), while the receipts allowlist governed-delivery prescribes (`!wo-*.jsonl`) and readers that glob `wo-*` do not see it. Changing the convention means renaming signed files and signing them again, and it is a separate decision.
Constraints
- Hard Every signature under `.governance/` has its signed file beside it under the name it verifies with; a signed file is not renamed or rewritten without a new signature.
- Soft The glossary defines `statement-of-work` and `run`, and no term id or alias is `work-order`, `wo` or `ot`.
- Soft No mode, form or template under `.ontoref/reflection/` has `work order` in its file name.
Alternatives considered
- Keep Work Order / Orden de Trabajo for the execution and reinforce the glossary — rejected: The glossary was already right and every other surface contradicted it. The word carries the document's sense in both languages, and reinforcing the definition leaves the misreading as the default.
- Render the terms as «Pliego» and the execution as «ejecución» in Spanish — rejected: «Pliego» is institutional vocabulary a developer does not use; «ejecución» would name both any execution and this governed entity, which the lexicon's rule for `run` exists to prevent.
- Keep the old name in the glossary as a retired term or as an alias of the new ones — rejected: The old word names two layers depending on who reads it, so any single alias target is wrong for half its readers, and a retired entry keeps the word in the vocabulary it is leaving.
- Rename the signed `wo-*.ncl` files to `sow-*.ncl` as part of this decision — rejected: Possible — a renamed file keeps a valid signature, and the signed name in the trusted comment needs a new signature (measured) — but about 25 places in the tooling locate a SOW by its file name, 70 of 104 signed SOWs name `wo-` paths inside their own contracts, and the cost buys coherence rather than clarity. Left as a separate decision; stating the convention closes the confusion.
Anti-patterns
- Naming an Act with a Word That Means the Document — A layer that is an execution is named with a word whose ordinary sense, in the languages its readers speak, is the document that authorises the execution. The glossary holds the strict sense, every surface built afterwards follows the ordinary one, and the two layers exchange names without anyone deciding it.
- Keeping the Old Word in the Vocabulary to Explain the New One — A renamed concept keeps its old name as an alias, a retired entry or a 'formerly called' line, so the vocabulary goes on teaching the word it is leaving and the reader who meets it has two names to choose from.
- Renaming Signed Evidence Without Signing It Again — Signed files are renamed or rewritten so their labels match a new vocabulary, orphaning signatures or leaving the signed name inside the signature out of step with the file.
Perspectives