Reference
Glossary
Every key term in NILScript, defined in one line. When a definition leans on another term, that term has its own entry.
A – C
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Action node | A DSL node that performs a verb with side effects; the only node type that produces a NIL COMMIT. |
| Append-only audit | Guarantee G6: every envelope and decision is recorded to an immutable log. |
| Axioms (five) | DSL design laws: atomic actions, dependency-only linking, human-in-the-loop, self-healing grammar, bounded reversibility. |
| BCP 47 | IETF standard for language tags; used to localize previews. |
| COMMIT | The performative and endpoint that executes a previously proposed action; idempotent. |
| COMPENSABLE | Reversibility tier: no clean inverse, but an offsetting forward action exists (payment → refund). |
| Compensation token | The reference a ROLLBACK targets, emitted on the original COMMIT's EVENT. |
| Conformance class | Core System (protocol + guarantees) or NIL-H (multi-tenant SaaS). |
| CRITICAL | The highest tier; requires owner approval and a 300-second cooling delay before commit. |
D – G
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| DAG | Directed acyclic graph; the shape of a program — nodes linked by backward-only references. |
| Data reference | A reference to a prior step's output: $.step_N.output.field; backward-only guarantees acyclicity. |
| DECIDE | Owner-plane performative that records an approval or rejection. |
| Default-deny | Guarantee G1: nothing is permitted unless a grant explicitly scopes it. |
| Determinism | Same program → same flow; non-determinism is quarantined to NIL activities. |
| DSL | The orchestration language: a declarative, event-driven JSON DAG an agent emits; version 0.1. |
| Durable runtime | The execution layer that runs validated programs idempotently with partial-failure recovery. |
| Envelope | The immutable message wrapper for every NIL call; eight fixed fields. |
| EVENT | The performative and endpoint for async notifications; delivered as signed webhooks. |
| Generation layer | The first layer of the tri-layer machine: an LLM produces a candidate DSL program from intent. |
| Grant | A scoped, budgeted, revocable authorization for a speaker in a workspace; default-deny. |
| Guard expression | A side-effect-free boolean used by condition nodes to branch flow. |
H – N
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| HIGH | A tier; the action is parked pending owner approval before it can commit. |
| Hint vs resolved value | A hint is what the speaker supplies; a resolved value is the concrete entity the system matched. |
| Idempotency key | Guarantee G4: a repeated COMMIT with the same key returns the original outcome rather than acting twice. |
| Intent, not implementation | A verb names what the speaker wants, not how the backend does it. |
| IRREVERSIBLE | Reversibility tier: no reversal exists; the default for any unmarked verb. |
| Least power | The DSL is intentionally non-Turing-complete — the least expressive language that does the job. |
| LOW / MEDIUM | Tiers: LOW executes immediately; MEDIUM executes and notifies the owner. |
| NIL | The Network Intent Layer — the wire protocol: envelopes, performatives, endpoints, refusals, guarantees. |
| NIL-H | The multi-tenant SaaS conformance class; adds workspace isolation and per-workspace sequencing. |
| Node | A unit in the DAG; closed set of eight types. |
O – R
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| on_error | A program field setting failure policy: halt, continue, or compensate. |
| Performative | The speech-act type of a NIL message; closed set of seven (+ DECIDE on the owner plane). |
| Pipeline | The ordered list of nodes that make up a DSL program. |
| Preview | A system-rendered, human-readable statement of facts; localized per BCP 47. |
| Profile | A versioned definition for a family of verbs: args, tier floors, previews, modifiable facts. |
| PROPOSAL | The reply to PROPOSE: a preview or a refusal; never a side effect. |
| PROPOSE | The first phase of two-phase execution; no side effects; returns a PROPOSAL. |
| QUERY | The read performative and endpoint; returns a typed response; never mutates. |
| Refusal | A PROPOSAL that declines, returned with 200 OK and a typed code. |
| Resolution | Matching a hint to a concrete entity; ambiguity yields AMBIGUOUS, no match yields UNRESOLVED. |
| Reversibility tier | How far a verb can be undone: REVERSIBLE, COMPENSABLE, or IRREVERSIBLE. |
| ROLLBACK | The lifecycle-closing performative; requests a reversal, answered by a PROPOSAL, then committed. |
S – Z
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Saga | The execution shape of a program: action nodes may declare compensation, unwound in reverse on failure. |
| Self-healing grammar | The validator emits diagnostics precise enough to regenerate a corrected program. |
| SEQRD-PC | The kernel mnemonic: STATUS · EVENT · QUERY · ROLLBACK · DECIDE · PROPOSE · COMMIT. |
| Sentence | An informal name for a single well-formed NIL envelope. |
| Six Guarantees | G1–G6: grants, two-phase, out-of-band approval, idempotency, budgets, append-only audit. |
| Speaker | Any agent that emits NIL messages under a grant. |
| STATUS | The performative and endpoint for checking the state of a prior operation. |
| Steward | The maintainer of the standard and its reference implementation — the Wosool project. |
| Swarm | A group of speakers acting under one shared grant and one shared budget. |
| Tier / tier floor | The risk class of an action: LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, CRITICAL; a profile sets the floor. |
| Tri-layer machine | Generation → Validation → Durable runtime. |
| Two-phase | Guarantee G2: every side effect requires a PROPOSE then a COMMIT; no direct-write. |
| Verb | A domain action describing intent; standard only if it has a profile. |
| Workspace | The tenant / isolation unit; grants, budgets, audit, and sequencing are scoped to it. |