Terminology

Term	Engineering meaning
Vault	A directory whose Markdown files and assets form one knowledge space.
Page	A Markdown document with YAML front matter and a stable id.
Database or table	A structured view over pages, normally scoped to a folder and schema rather than a separate SQL table.
View	A saved projection of a database: type, filters, sort, grouping, fields, and layout state.
Registry	Gnosi-managed metadata describing databases, views, schemas, or catalogs.
Sidecar metadata	Internal .gnosi data associated with content but intentionally separated from user-authored Markdown fields.
Management database	Local-only SQLite state for identities, workspaces, memberships, vault access, tokens, and share links.
Local data	Per-instance databases, caches, indexes, secrets, logs, outputs, and checkpoints. It must not be cloud-synchronized.
Personal mode	Default single-user mode with authentication bypassed unless explicitly required.
Organization mode	Authenticated mode with workspace membership and ordered roles.
Workspace	Administrative boundary that groups members and registered vaults.
Runtime skill	A documented application capability under pipeline/skills/; not a development-agent plugin.
Tool	A callable operation available to an agent, possibly discovered through MCP or generated locally.
MCP	Model Context Protocol, used to discover and invoke external agent tools.
Directive	Engineering memory describing a procedure, decision, incident, restriction, or implementation plan.
Generated reference	Deterministic documentation derived from current source without importing the runtime.
Source of truth	Data whose loss cannot be repaired from another authoritative representation.
Derived data	Cache or index that can be rebuilt from a source of truth.
File provider	Adapter for local or cloud-backed filesystem behavior such as hydration and availability checks.
Translation server	Zotero sidecar that translates web pages and identifiers into normalized reference metadata.
PAT	Personal Access Token; the management database stores only its hash and display prefix.

Naming boundary

Historical identifiers such as vault, DIGITAL_BRAIN_VAULT_PATH, and some legacy Temenos-prefixed integration keys remain compatibility contracts. Public product language uses Gnosi and Knowledge where migrations have completed. Identifiers are not renamed merely to make documentation terminology uniform.