Field manual
Glossary
The words this book uses in a fixed sense.
Mac Anderson2 min read369 words
| Term | Meaning here | Part |
|---|---|---|
| Agent | A program that calls a model in a loop and takes actions through tools. In parts 14 to 20, a registered principal with its own identity. | 14 |
| Agent-computer interface | The commands and output formats an agent works through. SWE-agent's term. | 2 |
| Anchor | An entity parsed from a prompt and resolved against an index: a path, a symbol, a route, an issue. | 3 |
| Bounded task | Work with an end state you can describe before it starts. | 20 |
| Check | One completion criterion for a bounded task: a command, a file or diff condition, or a human decision. | 20 |
| Clause | One of the four parts of a mandate, owned by one team. | 15 |
| Connection | A system reached on the agent's behalf. For a mediated connection, the platform holds the credential and the agent does not receive it. | 16 |
| Context utilization | Tokens the final output depended on, over tokens supplied. | 7, 13 |
| Cost basis | How a cost figure was obtained: measured, reported, or estimated. | 17 |
| Domain dossier | A short, generated briefing on one area of a codebase, stamped with its source commit. | 5 |
| Equipment | The tools, skills, and permitted business context assigned to an agent through its mandate. | 18 |
| Governed action | A call that passed through the layer that checks the mandate and writes the record. | 15, 19 |
| Identity | The agent's own principal, with an accountable operator. Separate from any connection credential. | 14 |
| Initiator | The person who started the task a run is working on. | 14, 17 |
| Mandate | The one object an agent works under: access, budget and rules, equipment, and the record. | 15 |
| Observe mode | Calls are recorded and not blocked. Recorded, not enforced. | 15 |
| Ongoing responsibility | Work with no last step, managed through authority, budget, and review points. | 20 |
| Operator | The person accountable for an agent and its runs. | 14 |
| Record | The ordered, typed account of a run, kept for a reader who was not there. | 19 |
| Request | An agent asking for a system, scope, or action at the moment of use. | 16 |
| Retrieval precision | Of the context supplied, the share the final patch depended on. | 13 |
| Rule | What answers a request: allowed, denied, or routed to a person. | 16 |
| Run | One agent, under one operator, on one task. | 13 |
| Skill | Packaged instructions for one kind of task, loaded when that task comes up. | 18 |
| Step | One model call or one tool call. | 17 |
| Turn | One prompt through to the point the agent stops. | 17 |
| Working memory | What is in the context window for the current step, kept small by policy. | 11 |
Cite this
Anderson, M. (2026). Glossary. In Engineering Deterministic AI Coding Agents (2nd ed., Glossary). Oxagen Inc. https://macanderson.com/manual/glossary
BibTeX
@incollection{anderson2026glossary,
author = {Anderson, Mac},
title = {Glossary},
booktitle = {Engineering Deterministic AI Coding Agents},
edition = {Second},
publisher = {Oxagen Inc.},
address = {Los Angeles, CA},
year = {2026},
url = {https://macanderson.com/manual/glossary}
}Updates by email
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