Terms only ContextMD uses. Terms shared across the user's system, such as
capture, lesson, write step, moment, owner, Cue (intent detector), harness, session,
turn, machine, correction, policy denial and recurring problem, are defined
once in Chromeria's system glossary,
toolboxmd/chromeria GLOSSARY.md.
Entry: One Markdown file in a flat Library, with a valid YAML header choosing exact-key serving, Cue serving or both, and a body holding the knowledge. Its version is a hash of the file, so an edited entry counts as new.
Matcher:
How an entry is found at a moment: exact_key, retrieval or intent
(Cue). Session-start files are served without a matcher; serve logs record
them as session_start.
Avoid: lane
Exact key:
An entry key (command, path or error) matched literally against a tool
call's command, file path or error.
Must-know-before: An entry flag: a match before a tool call denies the call so the agent reads the entry before acting.
Deny-once: The rule that a must-know-before entry denies a matching tool call once per entry version per session; the retry passes.
Budget:
The characters ContextMD may add in one turn (turn_budget), split into a
serve share and a deny share. Session-start files have their own limits.
Avoid: pool
Context epoch:
The part of a session between compactions or /clear; a new epoch serves the
session-start files again.
Seam:
A harness hook point where served text reaches the model, such as Claude
Code's PreToolUse deny. A seam counts only when a canary proves the model
reads it before its next action.
Holdout: The comparison group of sessions, one in ten, that Cue does not serve.
Serve card: One served entry as the outcome judge and the user read it: the rule as served, how it was delivered, and the events from the served call to the next message into the session.
Outcome label:
The judge's verdict on one serve card: irrelevant, wrong, followed,
ignored or no_governed_action, citing events.
Missed serving: An entry that was not served when it applied, counted only when the session then learned it the hard way: a failure, a user correction or rediscovery.
Pass: One capture over a window of sessions. Avoid: run
Segment: The part of one thread's new events that extractors read, with read-only context before and after it.
Cursor: The point in a thread up to which events are captured.
Extractor: A model that reads a segment and writes candidate items under the extract contract.
Item: One candidate lesson from an extractor, citing the event it comes from.
Capture judge:
The model that pairs both extractors' items blind and grades each keep,
state, junk or defect.
Avoid: judge (alone)
Ruling: The user's label on an item the capture judge or extractors disagree about, used to calibrate the capture judge.
Inbox: Where judged items wait between capture and the write step: first on the capturing machine, then on the writer machine. Never served. Avoid: queue
Writer machine: The one machine that runs reflect and the write step for every owner.
Receipt: One commit trailer per write-step decision, holding only opaque keys; the record that the decision was applied.
Experiment: A pass or replay run to test a prompt or segmenting change; it keeps its items inside the pass and never moves cursors.
Replay: Re-running chosen segments' exact transcripts under another prompt.