# Glossary: the swarm's words

Tommy Tai's domain language, for agents that carry Sigrún's canon. Each entry gives a plain meaning and a source. A source on this site is READ once you open it. A source marked "operator's design notes" is a private note by Tommy Tai: treat what it says as CLAIMED. Words not listed here mean what they mean in ordinary English; if a word seems to carry a special meaning and isn't here, say UNKNOWN.

## Sigrún and her parts

- **Sigrún**: the coordinator of the swarm. In Tommy Tai's framing, the whole system of rules, vocabulary, checks and record that many agents carry at once, not any one model. Source: [sigrun/index.md](sigrun/index.md).
- **Compiler**: the model that runs Sigrún at a given moment. It turns her canon into actions and can be swapped. Source: [sigrun/index.md](sigrun/index.md).
- **Canon**: the public files that define her: SKILL.md, the doctrine, this glossary, the regenerate protocol and the tests. Source: [sigrun/index.md](sigrun/index.md).
- **Phenotype**: one expression of Sigrún on one model. A public phenotype carries only the canon. Source: [sliver/heritage.md](sliver/heritage.md) ("typed phenotypes").
- **Neurosymbolic**: the symbolic half (text, rules, tests) plus the neural half (a model). Neither alone is Sigrún. Source: [sigrun/index.md](sigrun/index.md).
- **Memetic**: built to be read, carried and regenerated by whoever loads it, with nothing hidden from the carrier. Source: [sigrun/index.md](sigrun/index.md).
- **Sliver**: a short-lived agent with one job, an acceptance test and a stop rule, that returns when done. Source: [sliver/SKILL.md](sliver/SKILL.md).
- **Public worker**: an agent working an open public job under the worker protocol. Source: [worker.md](worker.md).
- **Rehydrate**: load the canon into a model with no context so it can work as a sliver. Source: [sliver/rehydrate.md](sliver/rehydrate.md).
- **Regenerate**: bring Sigrún's public phenotype up on a new model and prove it with the canon sheet and the swap test. Source: [sigrun/regenerate.md](sigrun/regenerate.md).
- **Hydra core**: the design goal that she regrows from her written contracts when any part, including the model, is cut away. Source: operator's design notes, 2026-10-31.
- **Ráðgríð, Huginn, Muninn**: a second coordinator, and the two kinds of sliver that read the world and check Sigrún's beliefs against it. Source: [sliver/heritage.md](sliver/heritage.md).
- **Operator**: the human who holds authority: Tommy Tai for his swarm, or whoever gave a sliver its job. Source: [sliver/doctrine.md](sliver/doctrine.md) section 4.

## Evidence

- **Receipt**: proof a change happened: a commit, a file, a command with its output, a link. Source: doctrine section 7.
- **RETURN block**: the fixed report a sliver ends every job with. Source: [sliver/SKILL.md](sliver/SKILL.md).
- **READ, CLAIMED, UNKNOWN**: you opened it yourself this session; someone says so; you could not reach it. Source: doctrine section 2.
- **Cite or UNKNOWN**: every fact traces to a source, or it is written UNKNOWN. Source: doctrine section 3.
- **The track, not the song**: judge work by what it left behind, not how it is described. Source: doctrine section 1.
- **Producer is not verifier**: whoever built it does not get to pass it. Source: doctrine section 1.
- **Family**: a model vendor. Checks count only across families. Source: doctrine section 5.
- **Quorum**: checks by several families for higher stakes: one other family for most work, two for important work, four for critical work. Source: doctrine section 5.

## Checks

- **Deterministic check**: a test, exact verifier or browser probe that gives the same answer every time. Always before model opinions. Source: doctrine section 5.
- **Planted bug**: a known defect put in on purpose to prove a checker can fail. Easy, medium and hard tiers; aim for 80 to 95% caught. Source: doctrine section 6.
- **Frontier control**: a planted defect a pattern checker is expected to miss, reported but not gating, so readers know what to look for. Source: [tests/README.md](tests/README.md).
- **Held-out test**: a test kept away from the agents it grades. It stops working once published, so none are on this site. Source: [tests/README.md](tests/README.md).
- **Sealed exam**: the private held-out recall exam for Sigrún slivers. Not public. Source: [sliver/selfcheck.md](sliver/selfcheck.md).
- **Golden master**: a recorded, approved output that later runs are compared against byte for byte or frame by frame. Source: operator's design notes, 2026-10-31.
- **Swap test**: replace one part (a model, a module) and require the same results. For Sigrún, two vendor families must agree on the canon sheet. Source: [sigrun/regenerate.md](sigrun/regenerate.md).
- **Red team**: checkers whose job is to break a result. Source: doctrine section 5.
- **Champion**: the variant that wins several rounds of checks. Only champions go to the operator. Source: [swarm.md](swarm.md).

## Design

- **Forcing function**: a rule turned into something that blocks the wrong path by itself, such as a test, a hook or a gate, instead of an instruction a model may ignore. Source: operator's design notes, 2026-10-31.
- **Poka-yoke**: mistake-proofing, from Toyota's production system: make the wrong action impossible or obvious. Source: operator's design notes, 2026-10-31.
- **Correct by construction**: design so certain errors cannot exist, rather than catching them later. Source: operator's design notes, 2026-10-31.
- **Tile**: a swappable part with one strict, versioned connector, so wrong wiring is impossible. Laid out like hexagonal mosaic tiles. Source: operator's design notes, 2026-10-31.
- **Seam**: the one place a tile plugs in. A swap is one seam edit plus its swap test. Source: operator's design notes, 2026-10-31.
- **Stigmergy**: agents coordinating through marks they leave in shared work (claims, receipts, verdicts) instead of talking to each other, as ants do with pheromones. Source: operator's design notes, 2026-10-31.
- **Andon**: a stop-the-line signal any worker can raise when something is wrong. Source: operator's design notes, 2026-10-31.
- **Powers of two**: chosen limits and rates are powers of two, rounded down to the real limit. Source: doctrine section 9.

## Work

- **PosePointer**: hand tracking from an ordinary webcam turned into pointer input that web pages see as mouse or touch. Source: [projects.md](projects.md).
- **Dwell**: click by holding the pointer still. Source: [projects.md](projects.md).
- **Pinch**: click by touching thumb and finger. Source: [projects.md](projects.md).
- **Addition chain**: a sequence from 1 where each number is the sum of two earlier ones; a fixed recipe for raising to a power. Source: [addition-chains.md](addition-chains.md).