Key concepts — ontoref
The words this project uses, and what they mean
This glossary is not written here. It is projected from .ontoref/ontology/glossary.ncl — the same file «ontoref describe term» answers from in the terminal. Change a definition once, and it changes in both.
- .domains-ontoref/
- The consumer-side container a bonded project carries: one subfolder per bonded domain (`.domains-ontoref/
/`). Each subfolder holds a REQUIRED `bonds.ncl` (a BondSet) and an OPTIONAL implementation spine (federated `ontology/schemas/`, `reflection/modes/`). Multi-domain membership is just multiple subfolders — never derived from the manifest's scalar `repo_kind` (carrier-only). Detected by `domain.nu :: project-domains` as kind `bonded_dir`; it supersedes the deprecated flat marker `.{domain}.ontoref/`, and both are recognized during the 0047 migration window.related: Bond, Domain (repo_kind CLI extension), Ontoref node - Ambient affordances
- Structural properties that make an environment legible and actionable without anyone giving instructions: you can see what can be done just by looking. Kept in English in Spanish prose — there is no settled Spanish form, and inventing one would grow a seventh vocabulary where the registry exists to prevent exactly that. Its ontoref correlate is [[arnesabilidad]], with one difference: affordances describe an environment a harness finds; harnessability, a subject that declares itself.related: Harnessability, GuideLearn more →
- Bond
- A typed relation between projects (and their domains) within the ontoref framework — distinct from a `link`, which is a generic node reference (the `ln`/Link schema). A bond carries an AXIS: governance (the project is an ontoref-node in a domain's DAG) or dependency (the project inhabits an ontoref-plane with peer nodes). A dependency bond is typed with a DDD Context-Map kind (CustomerSupplier, Partnership, OpenHostService, Conformist, SharedKernel, AnticorruptionLayer) and may be `mutual`. Every bond resolves against the domain roots of both endpoints — their definitions, attributes, states and capabilities — never on the edge itself. Bonding is orthogonal to ontoref project management: a project may bond to the framework whether or not ontoref governs its development.related: Ontoref node, Ontoref plane, Domain (repo_kind CLI extension)
- Bond axis
- The eje a bond runs along — one of two. GOVERNANCE: who governs whom, an acyclic DAG resolved with Delegate / Override / Compose. DEPENDENCY: who needs whom, a plane that permits cycles, typed with a DDD dependency-edge and optionally `mutual`. A single bond carries exactly one axis; a project relates to a domain along both by declaring two bonds. The word is `axis` / `eje`, NEVER "dimension" — that is reserved for the project FSM dimensions (state.ncl).related: Bond, Ontoref node, Ontoref plane
- DAG-Formalized Knowledge
- Project axiom: all project knowledge — concepts, tensions, decisions, state — is formalized as directed acyclic graphs. Enables transversal queries, impact analysis and ecosystem-level visibility. The 'dao-formalized' spelling that occasionally appears in conversation is folklore for the same axiom.related: on+re
- Dependency edge
- The typed arista of a DEPENDENCY-axis bond, classified with a DDD Context-Map kind: CustomerSupplier, Partnership, OpenHostService, Conformist, SharedKernel, AnticorruptionLayer. DDD is borrowed ONLY here — as the dependency-edge type enum — never as the overall frame (that stays native ontoref: nodes / edges / axes / planes). The enum grows by witnessed evidence, never speculation (enforcement-vs-emergence). A `mutual` dependency-edge (Partnership) is the 2-cycle that constitutes an ontoref-plane. Governance is NOT typed this way — it uses resolution (Delegate / Override / Compose).related: Bond, Ontoref plane
- Domain (repo_kind CLI extension)
- A repo_kind-activated CLI extension under code/domains/{id}/: a project's repo_kind turns on its domain, giving project-type-aware commands (e.g. DD7pasos→knowledge-works, DevWorkspace→provisioning). ALL code/domains/* are domains. `schema_cmd` names WHERE a domain's schema lives (in ontoref vs the implementing project) — it is a schema-location field, NOT federation.related: Door (marketing funnel entry), Projection (constellation member)Learn more →
- Door (marketing funnel entry)
- One of the outward funnel entries projected from spine.ncl (ADR-057/064): developer / infrastructure / authoring / personal. A door is an AUDIENCE-facing routing hook that carries a content `tag` (e.g. developer, knowledge-works) and routes to real content, never argues the core. ADR-064 fixes FOUR doors — an axis distinct from the FIVE domains and the ONE convergence membrane.related: Domain (repo_kind CLI extension), Projection (positioning reveal)Learn more →
- Encargo (work commission)
- Umbrella for the governance unit that constrains an agent by checking the deliverable against explicit terms instead of trusting the operator. An Encargo = one SOW (the terms) + its Work Orders (the executions). Two atomic rules make it a habit: (1) no scope + contract, no start; (2) no witness, no done. Each element kills a specific failure: minimal scope kills drift, falsifiable contract kills unverified prose, witness kills "trust my word", external ownership kills the fox-built-the-henhouse, contained verdict kills the propagation of broken code.related: Statement of Work (SOW), Work Order (WO), Verified witness, GateLearn more →
- Gate
- Typed prerequisites and policies controlling FSM state transitions in a project. Lives at `.ontology/gate.ncl`. Each dimension declares the conditions a transition must satisfy (catalysts present, blockers cleared); the reflection layer evaluates the gate before allowing a state change.related: on+re
- Glossary Extension Pattern
- Three-level inheritance for vocabulary: a protocol seed at reflection/defaults/glossary.ncl shipped with ontoref; project terms appended in .ontology/glossary.ncl::project_terms via d.seed_terms @ project_terms; optional domain splits in .ontology/glossary/
.ncl when a project grows past ~30 terms. No merge, no copy of the seed into projects — inheritance through import. Local edits to the protocol seed are forbidden; redefining a protocol id locally is caught by the drift hook. Link local terms to protocol ones via related_terms to weave the lexicon across levels.related: on+re, Ondaod, PAP, DAG-Formalized Knowledge - Guide
- Feedforward control in a coding-agent harness: what steers the model BEFORE it writes — architecture docs, convention files, skills. In ontoref a guide is not a file the agent must remember to read: it is what the subject SERVES when queried (`describe`, `qa`, discipline views), so the steering survives the session and the harness swap. A guide you have to remember is not a guide; it is a sign by the road.related: Sensor, HarnessLearn more →
- Hard / Soft severity
- The typed severity of an ADR constraint. `'Hard` BINDS — a violation breaks. `'Soft` IS AUDITED — it is reported and does not block. Severity says how much the rule obliges; it does not say whether anyone checks it, and that gap is the whole of the 95-of-212 figure this project keeps about itself. The values are written in English because they name the TYPE's value, not an adjective.related: SensorLearn more →
- Harness
- The wrapper that runs the model: context, tools, loop. An agent is model + harness. The harness steers with guides and corrects with sensors. Ontoref is NOT a harness and must never be described as one: it is what a harness QUERIES — the typed, witnessed subject that outlives any one harness and survives the swap to the next.related: Sensor, Guide, HarnessabilityLearn more →
- Harnessability
- A property of a PROJECT, not of its harness: how much any harness can learn about the project BY ASKING, with nobody having explained it first. It is measured by what the project declares and serves, never by how well a particular harness happens to be configured. Coined here (2026-07-23) as the correlate of Böckeler's «ambient affordances», with the axis moved from the environment to the subject: affordances describe an environment a harness FINDS; harnessability describes a subject that DECLARES itself and can generate its own answer.related: Harness, Ambient affordances, SensorLearn more →
- Linkage state
- The FSM state a bonded project occupies: None (not bonded), Linked (a dependency bond — inhabits a plane), Node (a governance bond — a governed node in a domain's DAG), or Managed (ontoref governs the project's development). Transitions are `onboard` (climb: None→Linked/Node→Managed), `update` (retype a same-tier bond), and `offboard` (descend: Managed→Node→None). Bonding is orthogonal to management: a project reaches Linked or Node WITHOUT Managed — a bond needs no `.ontoref/` spine.related: Bond, Ontoref node, Ontoref plane
- Ondaod
- Ontoref Dao Discipline. Before architectural analysis or ADR drafting, read the named tensions in core.ncl, identify which the question engages, and describe the synthesis state and direction of motion — do not collapse the Spiral by picking one pole. Two-layer canonical content via the installed CLI: `ontoref qa show ontoref-dao-discipline --format json` for the protocol baseline, and `ontoref qa show
-dao-discipline --format json` for project-specific extensions.related: Spiral, Synthesis, Yin/Yang Collapse, adr? - Ontoref node
- A project seen along the GOVERNANCE axis of a bond: a governed member of a domain's graph. The governance axis is a DAG (acyclic, hierarchical): a domain (level N) governs its instances/implementations (level N+1) with Delegate / Override / Compose semantics (ADR-018, ADR-045). Being a node states who governs and is governed — not who depends on whom (that is the ontoref-plane). Hexagonal reflection: a domain exposes ports (a catalog `provides`) that a node's implementations adapt.related: Bond, Ontoref plane, Domain (repo_kind CLI extension)
- Ontoref plane
- The coexistence surface a project inhabits along the DEPENDENCY axis of a bond. Unlike the governance DAG, the dependency graph permits cycles: a `mutual` bond (DDD Partnership — "no deploy without service, no service without deploy") is a 2-cycle that CONSTITUTES a plane, where neither node governs the other yet each requires the other to exist. The constitutive, mutual case is where the value lives (plane-habitability); a one-way dependency (CustomerSupplier) is a degenerate plane.related: Bond, Ontoref node
- PAP
- Project's Architecture Principles. The active set of invariants, patterns and rules that define how a specific project is built — drawn from its axioms, accepted ADRs and named practices. Saying something is anti-PAP means it is completely against the project's established architecture.related: anti-PAP, adr?
- Projection (constellation member)
- In the constellation member taxonomy (ADR-062), a member category: one source whose frontier lives INSIDE the build, never its own git repo. A Projection is materialised into each surface that needs it (e.g. assets, examples, docs), synced not cloned — the repo driver is a publication boundary, and a Projection has none of its own. Contrast Primary (owns a boundary → own repo) and Addon (declared edge to a Primary).related: Projection (positioning reveal), Domain (repo_kind CLI extension)Learn more →
- Projection (positioning reveal)
- In the reveal architecture (ADR-057), the act of PROJECTING the positioning graph (spine.ncl + generator) onto the outward site: doors generated from a structured contract, a drift fixed by re-running the projection, never by hand-editing the served copy. "The window becomes a projection of a described state, not a construction site." A rendering discipline, not a member category.related: Projection (constellation member)Learn more →
- Sensor
- Feedback control in a coding-agent harness: the check that fires AFTER the model generates, correcting what a guide could not prevent. Böckeler splits sensors into COMPUTATIONAL (deterministic, cheap, milliseconds — linters, tests, structural checks) and INFERENTIAL (an LLM judging semantics: richer, slower, probabilistic). Ontoref adopts the term whole and adds one axis the canon does not carry: a sensor DECLARES WHAT IT LOOKED AT, and its verdict is witnessed. A green check that declares no scope is not a sensor — it is a harness lying by omission. Severity is typed, not chosen: `Hard` is legal only where the question is binary; a sensor watching a named tension may report drift and direction, never failure (ADR-050).related: Guide, Harness, Harnessability, Hard / Soft severityLearn more →
- Spiral
- Resolution mode of a Yin/Yang tension where neither pole wins and the system oscillates between them with synthesis emerging from the motion itself. In core.ncl, nodes carry `pole = 'Spiral` when they ARE the tension rather than a position within it. Spirals do not collapse — collapsing one is an antipattern (see colapso-yin-yang).related: Synthesis, Yin/Yang Collapse, Ondaod
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- The terms layer of an Encargo: scope (minimal context + one-sentence objective), a falsifiable contract (a machine check, schema or constraint), and the validation mode ('Machine | 'Adversarial, signed or not). Owned by the human, outside the agent's editable surface — this ownership boundary is what resolves the fox-and-henhouse. One SOW authorizes many Work Orders. Spanish term "Pliego" (as in pliego de prescripciones); the Rust type is `Sow`.related: Encargo (work commission), Work Order (WO), Verified witnessLearn more →
- Synthesis
- Resolution of a Spiral tension by giving each pole its own plane of operation instead of choosing one. Both poles remain active, applied to different aspects. Synthesis is the productive answer to a Spiral; collapse is the regressive one.related: Spiral, Yin/Yang Collapse, Ondaod
- Verified witness
- A content-addressed, Ed25519-signed receipt of an act, deposited at the witness-as-axis seam. It proves *that* a check ran and what it returned — structure, never truthfulness (ADR-050). Necessary but not sufficient as a gate: a witness is post-hoc evidence that X happened, not a barrier that forbids not-X. It becomes a gate only when a control point refuses to proceed without a valid witness (e.g. a commit rejected unless it carries a signed witness that the pre-flight occurred). It is the receipt a Work Order deposits when it completes.related: Work Order (WO), Encargo (work commission), GateLearn more →
- Work Order (WO)
- The execution layer of an Encargo, run under one SOW: disposable, contained, owned by the agent. Carries the deliverable, an observability envelope (workdir, Rust-style log level, JSONL output, start/end timestamps), the verified witness, and a contained verdict ('Accepted | 'Rejected | 'Escalated). A failure dies inside the Work Order rather than contaminating the session. Spanish term "Orden de Trabajo / OT"; the Rust type is `WorkOrder`.related: Encargo (work commission), Statement of Work (SOW), Verified witnessLearn more →
- Yin/Yang Collapse
- Antipattern in which a Spiral tension is forcibly resolved by adopting one pole as 'the answer' and dropping the other. Usually appears as a flip: Yang → Yin (e.g. all-centralized to all-scripted) or vice versa, when the correct move is synthesis — keeping each pole in its proper plane.related: Spiral, Synthesis, Ondaod
- adr?
- Evaluation procedure invoked at the end of a session or feature. Five criteria must all hold to justify an ADR: (1) a meaningful alternative was consciously rejected; (2) lasting constraints for future contributors; (3) reversal needs coordinated multi-component effort; (4) not already captured in an existing ADR; (5) ondaod — engaged tensions identified and synthesis state described. Verdict and rationale are stated concisely; no artifact is created without confirmation.related: Ondaod, PAP
- anti-PAP
- Approach that violates the project's PAP outright. Not 'slightly off' or 'in tension with' — a proposal called anti-PAP is rejected at design time, before implementation.related: PAP
- on+re
- Shorthand for the Ontoref dual layer: ontology (`.ontology/`: core.ncl, state.ncl, gate.ncl, manifest.ncl — what IS) + reflection (`reflection/`: modes, backlog, constraints, qa — what BECOMES). Every onboarded project instance carries both. A project may host multiple on+re instances at different paths.related: Gate, onre, DAG-Formalized Knowledge
- onre
- Shell alias for the `ontoref` CLI. Not a separate binary — invoked as `onre
`, equivalent to `ontoref `. `onre` (on+re) replaced the former `ore` alias. Used in documentation and conversation as the operator-facing name.related: on+re