Give the glossary the words of config and provisioning (issue 653)
mesh/merge-gate head 1f6d1b30053b merged into trunk fc9edd5c75b3 — pass: the change touches no module of the mesh's graph
mesh/repo-check head 1f6d1b30053b merged into trunk fc9edd5c75b3 — pass: its merge-check.sh passed
mesh/delivery superseded: a newer head of the same pull request

ADR 0348 makes config a domain of its own and ADR 0349 makes every value a
module needs a provision placed by mesh-provisioner, but the glossary had no
word for a config value, a predefined key, the provisioner client, a
collection or who owns a placed file. Add them in their domains, move
preference under Config, and use config value where the glossary itself said
setting. "setting" is not put on a Not: line: 67 documents in force still use
it in running prose, so retiring it now would fail words.py on all of them.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-10-13 23:45:31 +00:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
parent fc9edd5c75
commit 1f6d1b3005
+86 -26
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@@ -69,7 +69,8 @@ is listed under [Homonyms](#homonyms), with the qualified form each domain uses.
**Recorded in** the catalogue, one manifest per module. **Upstream of** every other domain; its words
are a published vocabulary, fixed by the manifest's schema. **Decided by** ADR 0040, 0126, 0174, 0188,
0207, 0236, 0262.
**Uses:** module, seat, provision (Provisioning), data class (Data), health (Health and repair).
**Uses:** module, seat, config value (Config), provision (Provisioning), data class (Data), health (Health
and repair).
- **manifest** — the file a module is defined by (`module.json`): what it is, what it provides and
requires, the seats it claims, the resources it declares, its tools, its data and its health. Say
@@ -83,18 +84,9 @@ are a published vocabulary, fixed by the manifest's schema. **Decided by** ADR 0
it guards: the `mesh-controller`, `postgres` and `nats` modules claim the `mesh-controller`,
`mesh-store` and `mesh-broker` seats (ADR 0079,
ADR 0116).
- **setting** — a value a manifest declares and an assignment gives, one of the two ways a node varies
a module (ADR 0174).
What a "flavor" once varied is a setting or a separate module.
*Not:* ~~flavor~~
- **preference** — a setting whose manifest gives it a default, because its value is true of the
software and only tuned per node: a font size, a width
(ADR 0262).
A setting with no default is the operator's own value: a domain, an identity.
*Not:* ~~tunable~~ (hq)
- **kept region** — a marked block in a managed file the mesh writes *into*, where the operator's own
lines survive every send and are given back when the module goes (ADR 0174). The other way a node
varies a module.
varies a module, besides a config value; a **managed** file's marked block is one (Provisioning).
- **bundle** — the artifact a module's own code is built into — its tools, a seat's implementation, a
daemon — in any language the mesh has a toolchain for; never an image. A **tools bundle** speaks MCP to
the tool runner. One module may declare several
@@ -111,6 +103,45 @@ are a published vocabulary, fixed by the manifest's schema. **Decided by** ADR 0
(ADR 0236).
The controller's verb `upgrade` shows it.
## Config — the values someone may change
**Purpose.** To hold, check and resolve every value a module reads that someone may change, and to say
where each resolved value came from. **Recorded by** the `mesh-config` module, in its buckets on the bus,
with its store as the history behind them. **Upstream of** Provisioning, which places the values;
downstream of Module and Placement. **Decided by** ADR 0348.
**Uses:** module, node, manifest (Module), assignment (Placement), provision (Provisioning), proposal
(Operator and conversation).
- **config value** — anything a module reads that someone may change: a font size, a domain, an address.
A module declares every one it reads under `config` in its manifest, with a type, a description,
validation, whether it is trusted, optionally the predefined key it falls back to, and a default or
`required`; it lands in a template file as `${config:<key>}` or is read by the module's code at runtime.
It resolves from four sources, the most specific winning: the default in the manifest; **mesh config**,
the value of the predefined key it falls back to for the whole mesh; **node config**, that key's value
on one node; and **module-assignment config**, the module's own value on one node. There is no module
value for the whole mesh. *Config* is the concept, the verb (`config`) and the manifest field
(ADR 0348).
Older records and documents say *setting* for a config value and *settings* for the concept; new writing
says config value and config. The word is not yet on a *Not:* line, because documents in force still use
it in running prose; until they are reworded it is checked by review.
What a "flavor" once varied is a config value or a separate module.
*Not:* ~~flavor~~
- **predefined key** — a key of the catalogue's `predefined.json`, the fixed list of keys for which mesh
config and node config hold values, each with its type, description, validation and whether it is
trusted, such as `font-size`. A config value may name the predefined key it falls back to, of its own
type; one that names none resolves from its default and the module's own value only. The list is the
catalogue build's: a change to it is validated with every manifest naming a key, and removing a key still
named or still holding a value is refused (ADR 0348).
- **preference** — a config value whose manifest gives it a default, because its value is true of the
software and only tuned per node: a font size, a width
(ADR 0262).
A config value with no default is `required`: the operator's own value, such as a domain or an
identity, and while nothing sets it the module's files are not written (ADR 0348).
*Not:* ~~tunable~~ (hq)
- **mesh-config** — the module that owns every config value: it holds the seat `mesh-config` once for the
mesh, validates, takes a trusted value only from the controller's terminal or the operator's Approve,
keeps the history with who set it and why, and resolves the four sources (ADR 0348).
## Core — the mesh's own machinery
**Purpose.** To keep the controller, the bus, the store and every node's engine running and agreed, so
@@ -178,7 +209,7 @@ every other domain has something to run on. **Recorded by** the controller and t
(ADR 0229).
- **record mirror** — a key-value bucket on the bus that the controller writes from one kind of its
records (nodes, assignments, walks, builds, settings), after each change commits in its store and only
records (nodes, assignments, walks, builds, config values), after each change commits in its store and only
when the value differs, with one event per write. The store stays the record; the self-check compares
the two and raises `mirror-drifted` on any difference
(ADR 0289). Shortened to *mirror* where the
@@ -190,9 +221,10 @@ every other domain has something to run on. **Recorded by** the controller and t
**Purpose.** To decide, send and apply what each node runs, and to say why.
**Recorded by** the controller's `inventory` database. **Upstream of** Provisioning, Connectivity, Data
and Health and repair. **Decided by** ADR 0100, 0126, 0176, 0181, 0207, 0221, 0252, 0261.
**Uses:** node, machine, module, seat, setting (Module), manifest (Module).
**Uses:** node, machine, module, seat, manifest (Module), config value (Config).
- **assignment** — a module put on a node, with the settings that node gives it.
- **assignment** — a module put on a node, with the config values it is given there (module-assignment
config, Config).
- **pending assignment** — an assignment of a module whose build is still running, kept, and made by the
controller when that build registers the module, or ended with why when it does not
(ADR 0261).
@@ -227,7 +259,7 @@ and Health and repair. **Decided by** ADR 0100, 0126, 0176, 0181, 0207, 0221, 02
(ADR 0181).
Not a name a manifest carries.
- **agent account** — the login every coding agent on a node runs as, when the node names one of its own;
stated on the node record at the controller's terminal, never by a verb or a setting. Empty means agents
stated on the node record at the controller's terminal, never by a verb or a config value. Empty means agents
run as the operator account. It cannot become root without a person, and the node-engine judges that on
every look (ADR 0266).
- **account group** — a group of the machine's group database that a module puts an account in, by
@@ -238,15 +270,21 @@ and Health and repair. **Decided by** ADR 0100, 0126, 0176, 0181, 0207, 0221, 02
## Provisioning — one module serving another
**Purpose.** To resolve which module serves a provision for which consumer, and to wire the two.
**Recorded by** the controller. **Upstream of** Data; downstream of Module, Placement and Identity.
**Decided by** ADR 0027, 0084, 0138, 0225, 0230, 0263.
**Uses:** module, seat, credential (Identity and access).
**Purpose.** To resolve which module serves a provision for which consumer, to wire the two, and to
place every value a module needs into its files on its node. **Recorded by** the controller and
`mesh-provisioner`. **Upstream of** Data; downstream of Module, Placement, Config and Identity.
**Decided by** ADR 0027, 0084, 0138, 0225, 0230, 0263, 0349.
**Uses:** module, seat, node-engine (Core), declaration (Placement), config value (Config), credential
and vault (Identity and access).
- **provision** — a service one module `provides` and others `require`; the mesh resolves a provider
and wires the two with an endpoint and a credential. A provision is a service you offer, a seat is a
role you occupy, and the two meet where a seat delivers a provision: occupying the seat is what makes
a module *the* provider of it.
Every value a module needs is a provision from the domain that owns it: placement from the controller,
config values from mesh-config, shared secrets from the vault, a consumer's values from the module
providing it, an item of a collection from its contributor. A module says only what it needs and where
it lands (ADR 0349).
- **provider** and **consumer** — the module that provides a provision, and the module that requires
it. Which of several providers serves a consumer is resolved
(ADR 0084).
@@ -264,6 +302,28 @@ and Health and repair. **Decided by** ADR 0100, 0126, 0176, 0181, 0207, 0221, 02
node seat `node-mounts`, as a mount unit and an automount unit, mounted on access (ADR 0263).
- **occasional source** — a share on a device that is not a node and comes and goes, such as a USB disk;
its absence is a state, *not present*, never a fault (ADR 0263).
- **mesh-provisioner** — the module that places provisions on the nodes: it holds the seat
`mesh-provisioner` once for the mesh, keeping which domain answers which kind of placeholder, what each
module on each node needs, what is applied where and the items of every collection, and the seat
`node-provisioner` on every node, which its provisioner client serves (ADR 0349).
- **provisioner client** — mesh-provisioner's part on one node. For each module there it reads the
placeholders of its template files, records the needs, watches each owner's values for the node, fills a
template only once every value is there, has the node-engine write the file through a narrow local verb,
makes the program take the change as the file declares (`restart-on`, `reload-on`, `read-on-use`), and
reports `prov.applied`. It runs as a service with a bus account of its own, never in the tool runner
(ADR 0349).
- **collection** — a provision with many providers. The **collector**, a module that takes additions from
others (a shell's snippets, a bar's blocks), requires it; each **contributor** ships its **item** as a
template in its own repository and provides it. The provisioner client fills the collector's template
from the items of the contributors placed on its node, and an item goes when its contributor leaves the
node (ADR 0349).
- **owned** — a placed file that is the mesh's whole: the provisioner writes it back whenever it differs.
It is one of three answers a manifest gives for each file it places (`owner-at-runtime`): **owned**,
**seed** or **managed**. Whichever it is, the file has one writer: the node-engine writes it only on the
provisioner client's word (ADR 0349).
- **seed** — a placed file the provisioner writes once; from then on it is the program's.
- **managed** — a placed file of which only its named keys or a marked block (a kept region, Module) are
the mesh's; the program keeps the rest.
## Identity and access — who may do what
@@ -278,7 +338,7 @@ and the operator act. **Recorded by** the controller's `identity` and `licences`
- **secret** — a credential or other value the vault keeps sealed and the node-engine unseals into a
file at apply (ADR 0085).
- **secret family** — a module's own secrets declared as one name ending in `-*`; each member is the prefix
and a name (`smb-password-<source>`, one per source the module's settings name), given by its full name
and a name (`smb-password-<source>`, one per source the module's config values name), given by its full name
and never made by the mesh
(ADR 0283).
- **vault** — the module that owns every secret (`mesh-vault`,
@@ -422,7 +482,7 @@ becomes a message). **Decided by** ADR 0227, 0231, 0240, 0252, 0283.
running session, started before, does not have that group yet. Said by the node-engine as the module's
resource of kind `account`; it clears at the first look after a new login (ADR 0252).
- **waiting** — a resource's health when its module's tool check says it waits for the operator: a named own
secret or setting of the module, not given yet, without which a part cannot work. Not a fault: the
secret or config value of the module, not given yet, without which a part cannot work. Not a fault: the
controller checks it and says it as the condition `needs-operator`, naming the act, and the first-node gate
reads it as *waits for a person*
(ADR 0283).
@@ -546,7 +606,7 @@ asking, never the act. **Decided by** ADR 0152, 0175, 0234, 0259, 0272.
published for that asker alone. The only thing an asker acts on (ADR 0259).
- **proposal** — a change an agent, or anyone the bus admits, puts forward through a verb and that takes
effect only on the operator's warrant, bound to the exact thing shown: a shared instruction section (ADR
0274), a trusted setting's layer (ADR 0277).
0274), a trusted config value (ADR 0277, ADR 0348).
A proposal changes nothing by itself; declined, expired or refused, it is discarded.
- **approval mark** — a tool's or verb's declaration in its manifest (`needs-approval`) that each call to it runs
only on the operator's warrant for that one call, with its exact arguments; the tool runner that serves it, or
@@ -563,7 +623,7 @@ asking, never the act. **Decided by** ADR 0152, 0175, 0234, 0259, 0272.
build seat's holder, whose seat name `node-build-agent` is an identifier to rename.
- **instruction section** — one named section of the managed instruction file, which every agent session on the
nodes it is for reads first, as the mesh's word: set at the controller's terminal in the agent module's
settings, or **proposed** by an agent and made active on each node only by the operator's warrant, which that node
config, or **proposed** by an agent and made active on each node only by the operator's warrant, which that node
proves itself (ADR 0274). A hand-over between sessions is one.
- **personal rule** — one short text in the operator's own words about how the operator wants their agent
to work with them, registered for the operator (the **operator scope** of the agent module) and rendered
@@ -578,10 +638,10 @@ asking, never the act. **Decided by** ADR 0152, 0175, 0234, 0259, 0272.
## Media — what a person watches, listens to and reads
**Purpose.** To find, fetch and file copies of the works a person watches, listens to and reads, each in
the library its kind names. **Recorded by** the `media-importer` module's settings and its memory of what
the library its kind names. **Recorded by** the `media-importer` module's config values and its memory of what
it was told, and the servarr apps' own libraries. **Upstream of** nothing. **Decided by** ADR 0295, 0296,
0302.
**Uses:** module, seat, setting (Module).
**Uses:** module, seat, config value (Config).
- **content** — a work a person watches, listens to or reads: a film, an album and its tracks, an
episode, a book, a session of a sport event. It is known by an identity from a catalogue outside the
@@ -592,7 +652,7 @@ it was told, and the servarr apps' own libraries. **Upstream of** nothing. **Dec
- **media release** — one copy of a work an engine can fetch, such as an NZB or a video. Downloaded, it
sits in the downloads folder, not yet filed. ADR 0302 says *release*.
- **library** — one folder of one kind, filed by one importer: the media-importer's, named in its
settings, or a servarr app's. Several libraries may hold one kind, as TV Shows and Anime both hold
config, or a servarr app's. Several libraries may hold one kind, as TV Shows and Anime both hold
series.
- **media file** — a file on disk together with its metadata: its kind, the fields that identify the
work, and what part of the work the file is. It is what the media-importer takes.