Ubiquitous language

This page is the public, canonical home for Modeller's domain language. The root CONTEXT.md file carries the same glossary for contributors and automated tools. Terms are alphabetical, and related terms cross-link in both directions.

Status: Accepted

Language

Acceptance scenario

A named, reviewed domain example whose inputs and expected observable meaning demonstrate that an architectural contract is satisfied.

For example, an ACCS acceptance scenario may supply an active enrolment, eligible risk reason, determination period, and supporting-evidence fact, then state the expected conclusion, findings, and safe provider explanation.

Avoid using implementation test, sample data, or demo as synonyms for an acceptance scenario.

See the validation and conformance decision for review and coverage requirements.

Actor

A person, organisation, or external system that participates in a behaviour through a named domain role. The role is independent of technical identity and authentication.

For example, a parent or guardian records a child's attendance, an educator records staff attendance, and a government child-care system receives a session report. A child may be the subject of a behaviour without being its actor.

Avoid using user, account, or persona as synonyms for actor.

Authorization policy

A policy deciding whether an actor may attempt a behaviour for a domain subject. It fails closed when permission cannot be determined.

Authentication establishes actor facts outside rule evaluation. An authorization policy evaluates those facts, maps denial to Not authorized, and limits public explanations so protected information is not disclosed.

Avoid using authentication, requirement, or guard as synonyms for authorization policy.

Behaviour

One complete, externally meaningful thing a system can do. Commands, queries, rules, outcomes, effects, and events describe aspects of a behaviour rather than being interchangeable with it.

An actor participates in a behaviour through a named domain role. A workflow is a behaviour that coordinates other behaviours. A capability groups behaviours by enduring business purpose.

Avoid using operation, endpoint, or use case as synonyms for behaviour.

Bounded context

An independently versioned domain ownership scope with an explicit semantic surface. It owns its concepts and controls their exports and imports without implying a separate package, process, or deployment.

Bounded contexts federate into one resolved federation snapshot. Every concept has exactly one owning bounded context; concepts shared by several contexts belong to an explicitly named shared-kernel context and are imported like any other dependency.

Avoid using service, module, or deployment unit as synonyms for bounded context.

Canonical trace

An immutable, deterministically ordered graph explaining the semantic evaluation steps taken for one request. It excludes timestamps, durations, host data, and other operational telemetry.

For example, an ACCS canonical trace may show which eligibility facts were read, which decision-table row matched, and which missing fact prevented a conclusion. An OpenTelemetry trace may correlate with it but remains operational.

Avoid using log, OpenTelemetry trace, or stack trace as synonyms for a canonical trace.

See the rule evaluation decision for trace levels, structure, ordering, and disclosure.

Capability

An enduring ability or responsibility of a system, realised through one or more behaviours. A capability groups behaviours by business purpose but is not itself executable and does not prescribe organisation or implementation.

For example, attendance management is a capability realised through behaviours such as record parent attendance, record staff attendance, and clear attendance in the Child Care reference project.

Avoid using module, service, or feature as synonyms for capability.

Classification

A typed conclusion selecting one value from a closed set of domain meanings. It describes an evaluation result without changing state or causing effects.

For session-report processing, Determine session-report disposition may classify a response as Approve, Reject, or No change. A rule binding maps each value explicitly to meaning owned by the governing behaviour.

Avoid using status, outcome, or enumeration as synonyms for classification.

Command

A request from an actor to perform a behaviour that may change domain state or produce effects. It expresses intent, can be accepted or rejected, and is not evidence that the requested behaviour occurred.

For example, a provider issues a submit session report command. A policy may reject it; if accepted, the behaviour may update report state and publish a session report submitted event.

Avoid using behaviour, event, or instruction as synonyms for command.

Compatibility fixture

An immutable historical artifact and its expected load, migration, or rejection result, retained to prove a declared compatibility promise over time.

For example, a released Child Care context package remains unchanged in the fixture corpus so a later loader must either load it or return its declared migration-required diagnostic.

Avoid using regenerated sample, current snapshot, or backup as synonyms for a compatibility fixture.

Conclusion

The typed, explained result of evaluating a rule. A conclusion may be a truth, classification, or value, but does not itself change domain state.

A decision selects a conclusion. Findings explain how the evaluation arrived there. An outcome is instead the domain result of a completed behaviour.

Avoid using outcome, effect, or return value as synonyms for conclusion.

Conformance fixture

A versioned, machine-readable input and independently authored expected semantic observation used to compare implementations against the same contract.

For example, one ACCS conformance fixture may require the reference interpreter and generated .NET runtime to return the same typed conclusion, findings, and canonical trace for the same federation snapshot and facts.

Avoid using golden implementation output, unit test, or runtime snapshot as synonyms for a conformance fixture.

Context package

The independently versioned persisted unit owned by one bounded context. It contains that context's canonical semantic definitions and explicit imports and exports, while layout and source provenance remain non-semantic companions.

For example, the Child Care ACCS bounded context may be distributed as a context package without implying that its diagram layout or source-file arrangement is part of ACCS domain meaning. Its exact persisted bytes have a package digest, while normalized meaning has a distinct semantic digest.

Avoid using project file, deployment package, or federation snapshot as synonyms for a context package.

See the context-package reference for the executable load, persistence, resolution, and migration interface.

Context version

The immutable semantic release version of one bounded context. It communicates compatibility of that context's exported meaning independently of persistence schema versions and resolved dependency versions.

For example, adding an optional exported ACCS fact may advance the Child Care context's minor version, while changing an existing conclusion's meaning requires a major version.

Avoid using schema version, snapshot version, or latest as synonyms for a context version.

Data Type

A closed canonical description of the values a Field may contain. Each Data Type carries only its valid constraints: for example, precision and scale belong only to Decimal, while semantic reference types require a stable target identity. Optionality and collection cardinality are not Data Types.

See Readable Modelling Language.

Decision

A named composition of rules that resolves a domain question by selecting among defined conclusions. It explains how supplied facts led to its conclusion and causes no effects.

For example, determine session-report disposition may conclude approve, reject, or no change, with findings explaining which reported-care and government-response facts led there.

Avoid using behaviour, policy, or decision record as synonyms for decision.

Decision table

A decision representation whose typed rows map explicit fact combinations to declared conclusions under one hit policy. Row order cannot become an implicit default or change meaning where the hit policy does not define ordering.

The Child Care Classify ACCS eligibility table uses the Unique hit policy to select Eligible or Ineligible. A wildcard evidence cell allows an inactive enrolment to be classified without demanding irrelevant evidence.

Avoid using spreadsheet, lookup table, or separate rules engine as synonyms for a decision table.

Declared function

A pure, versioned domain calculation referenced explicitly by canonical rule meaning when built-in expressions are insufficient. Its adapter receives only typed arguments and cancellation and cannot introduce ambient information.

For example, a future Child Care date calculation must receive the relevant effective date as a fact; it cannot read the host clock.

Avoid using callback, script, or external service as synonyms for a declared function.

Diagnostic

A structured report of an invalid definition, request, contract, or expected technical failure. It is distinct from a finding that explains domain reasoning.

For example, an ACCS rule referring to an unknown fact produces a diagnostic; an inactive enrolment that prevents eligibility produces a finding.

Avoid using finding, conclusion, or exception text as synonyms for a diagnostic.

Disclosure policy

An explicit rule controlling which protected facts, evidence, findings, and trace details may appear in a projection for a named audience. It changes visibility without changing the evaluation result.

For ACCS, a public policy can omit protected supporting-document metadata while an authorised audit policy may retain its safe evidence reference.

Avoid using authorization policy, redaction afterthought, or trace level as synonyms for a disclosure policy.

Diagram projection

A derived visual graph that reveals selected semantic concepts and relationships without owning or changing their meaning. It is recreated from a semantic model revision, a view definition, and optional layout state.

For example, a Child Care lifecycle projection can show Draft, Submitted, and Withdrawn session-report states. Moving those state shapes changes only layout; adding a transition requires an explicit semantic model operation.

Avoid using model, source of truth, or visual schema as synonyms for a diagram projection.

See the diagram projection and editing decision for the initial view kinds and editing contract.

Effect

A declared domain consequence owned by a behaviour. An effect may change state or request an interaction, but is never produced directly by a rule or decision.

For example, accepting a session report may update its submitted information or request submission to the government child-care system. A transition and publication of an event are related consequences owned by the behaviour, but remain explicit semantic concepts.

Avoid using conclusion, outcome, or side effect as synonyms for effect.

Edit operation

An explicit request produced by an editor interaction and classified as exactly one semantic, view, layout, session, or invalid operation before anything is changed. Spatial gestures alone never imply semantic intent.

Remove from view changes only the view definition, while Delete from model is an explicit semantic operation checked against the authored revision. Moving a lifecycle stage changes only layout state.

Avoid using graph mutation, gesture side effect, or generic delete as synonyms for edit operation.

See the diagram-projection reference.

Entity

A domain concept with stable identity and continuity through changes in state. Its meaning and lifecycle are independent of how or whether it is persisted.

Child Care examples include a child, enrolment, booking, and session report. Two entities may contain identical values yet remain distinct because they have different identities.

Avoid using record, table, document, or generated class as synonyms for entity.

Enumeration

A stable semantic definition containing a closed, explicitly numbered set of Enumeration Members. A Field refers to an Enumeration by semantic identity, not by a renderer-specific type name.

Event

An immutable statement that a domain-significant fact occurred. It may result from a behaviour or report something that occurred externally, and is neither a command nor an instruction. Event names use the past tense.

Child Care examples include attendance recorded, session report submitted, enrolment arrangement ended, and ACCS determination changed. Downstream reactions do not change the event's meaning.

Avoid using command, notification, or message as synonyms for event.

Evaluation result

The immutable determined, indeterminate, invalid, or failed result of evaluating one rule or decision against one request. Cancellation is control flow and is never an evaluation result.

For Determine ACCS eligibility, supplied supporting information may produce a determined Eligible conclusion; missing necessary information produces an indeterminate result with the exact missing Fact.

Avoid using outcome, response, or exception as synonyms for an evaluation result.

Evidence

Immutable provenance supplied with facts and referenced by findings. Evidence supports an explanation but does not by itself establish that a source is trustworthy.

For an ACCS evaluation, supporting-document metadata may be evidence for the fact supporting evidence is held. Rule evaluation preserves that relationship without opening or interpreting the underlying child-protection document.

Avoid using fact, attachment, or document as synonyms for evidence.

Explanation

An audience-appropriate account projected from structured conclusions, findings, evidence references, diagnostics, and optional canonical traces. It communicates meaning without becoming a second evaluation result.

For example, the provider explanation of an ACCS information-required result may identify a missing supporting-evidence fact, while a protected audit explanation contains additional findings allowed by its disclosure policy.

Avoid using raw trace, free-text result, or diagnostic dump as synonyms for an explanation.

See the validation and conformance decision for the explanation-quality rubric.

Fact

A typed piece of domain information supplied to rule or decision evaluation as known for that evaluation. Facts are inputs to reasoning, not mutable evaluation state or untyped property bags.

Facts may reference evidence recording their provenance; the fact remains the typed input used by evaluation.

For an ACCS determination, facts may include the child's enrolment, identified risk reasons, relevant dates, and whether supporting evidence is held.

Avoid using variable, parameter, or raw data as synonyms for fact.

Field

Named, typed data owned by an Entity. A Field has stable identity, one Data Type, and explicit optionality. Relationships and uniqueness rules are modelled separately.

Federation snapshot

An immutable, reproducible resolution of exact context package versions, package digests, imports, and exports. It is the authority consumed by evaluation and generation, but is derived rather than directly authored.

For example, an ACCS evaluation identifies the exact Child Care context package and imported package versions captured by its federation snapshot rather than silently using whichever versions are newest.

Avoid using context package, workspace, or latest version as synonyms for a federation snapshot.

See the canonical persistence decision for package resolution and snapshot-locking constraints, and the context-package reference for the executable interface.

Finding

An explained observation produced while evaluating a rule or decision that supports, qualifies, or prevents a conclusion. A finding may reference evidence and is not necessarily an error.

For example, supporting evidence is held may support an ACCS conclusion, while enrolment is not active for the requested period may prevent it.

Avoid using diagnostic, exception, or outcome as synonyms for finding.

Generation plan

An immutable, deterministically ordered proposal for artifacts derived from a resolved federation snapshot, validated configuration, and validated template pack. It records logical paths, ownership, and input digests without rendering content or writing files.

For Child Care, the plan may propose separate ACCS eligibility and application behaviour artifacts. Changing the ACCS rule input changes only the artifact that declares that input.

Avoid using generated output, write manifest, or semantic model as synonyms for a generation plan.

See the generation-plan reference.

Guard

A rule evaluated against current facts to determine whether a particular behaviour or lifecycle transition is allowed now. It produces an explained conclusion and no effects; the behaviour decides what happens when the guard passes or fails.

For example, can withdraw session report might guard the transition to withdrawn, based on the report's current lifecycle stage and government-processing facts.

Avoid using validation, authorization, or condition as synonyms for guard.

Hit policy

The declared rule determining how matching decision-table rows produce a conclusion. Every supported policy has explicit overlap, completeness, and ordering semantics.

The initial Child Care table uses Unique: every complete Fact combination must match exactly one row, and overlapping or incomplete tables are invalid at binding.

Avoid using row order, default branch, or engine setting as synonyms for hit policy.

Invariant

A rule that must hold for domain state to be valid before and after every externally observable behaviour. A violated invariant prevents the proposed state from becoming observable.

For example, a session of care cannot end before it starts, and an attendance cannot belong to a different child than its booking.

Unlike a guard, which asks whether one behaviour or transition is allowed now, an invariant applies to every relevant state change.

Avoid using guard, validation rule, or database constraint as synonyms for invariant.

Layout state

Non-semantic presentation choices for one view, such as positions, sizes, routing, orientation, and collapsed appearance. Removing it changes no domain meaning and permits the diagram projection to be laid out again.

For example, placing the Submitted session-report state above Withdrawn and routing their transition around another shape is layout state. It neither creates nor changes the transition.

Avoid using model state, ownership, or relationship as synonyms for layout state.

See the diagram projection and editing decision for persisted layout and editor-session constraints.

Lifecycle

The meaningful stages an entity may occupy and the permitted transitions among them from creation to termination. Behaviours cause transitions; guards decide whether a transition is currently allowed.

For a Child Care session report, a simplified lifecycle is draft → submitted → approved or rejected, with a later transition to withdrawn only where the domain permits it. A lifecycle describes how one entity may change; a workflow coordinates multiple behaviours toward an outcome.

Avoid using workflow, status, or state as synonyms for lifecycle.

Migration

An explicit, deterministic transformation from one declared schema version or context version to another. A schema migration preserves meaning; a model migration is an authored change to meaning.

For example, moving an ACCS definition between JSON documents needs no model migration, while moving its ownership to another bounded context requires an explicit model migration that preserves its stable ID and rewrites references.

Avoid using silent upgrade, loader fallback, or data repair as synonyms for migration.

See the context-package reference for the explicit migration interface, reports, and failure guarantees.

Outcome

The explicit domain result of a completed behaviour, including success, rejection, or another defined result. It is distinct from the conclusions used to reach it and the effects it authorises.

Submitting a session report might produce submitted, rejected, or no change outcomes. Each is meaningful to the actor even when no state transition occurs.

Avoid using conclusion, effect, or response as synonyms for outcome.

Ownership manifest

A versioned record proving which generated artifacts own which logical output paths and the exact content last applied there. It permits safe comparison but never grants ownership based on a filename convention alone.

For Child Care output, the manifest can prove that the ACCS eligibility artifact owns its last generated C# content. A locally modified or unknown file remains protected and is reported as a conflict.

Avoid using file extension convention, output directory, or generation plan as synonyms for ownership manifest.

See Generated output application.

Package digest

A deterministic digest of the exact persisted bytes of one context package. It identifies packaging and reproducible provenance independently of the package's normalized semantic meaning.

Two Child Care packages may share a semantic digest after a layout or representation-only change while retaining different package digests and package versions in their federation snapshots.

Avoid using semantic digest, context version, or file name as synonyms for package digest.

See the context-package reference for the canonical persistence and snapshot-lock contracts.

Policy

A named rule or decision expressing a domain choice about what is permitted, required, or entitled. Behaviours enforce policies; policies do not cause effects themselves.

For example, an ACCS eligibility policy may determine whether the known child, enrolment, risk, date, and evidence facts establish eligibility.

A guard applies a rule to whether one behaviour or transition is allowed now. An invariant defines state that must always remain valid. A policy expresses the domain choice those specialised uses may draw on.

Avoid using guard, procedure, or configuration as synonyms for policy.

Projection element

A node or edge occurrence in one diagram projection, with a stable identity within that view and references to zero or more semantic concepts. Repeated occurrences never create additional semantic identities.

Avoid using semantic concept, model element, or canonical identity as synonyms for projection element.

See the diagram-projection reference.

Query

A request from an actor to perform a behaviour that observes domain information without changing domain state or producing domain effects. It may select, derive, aggregate, or explain information, and returns an answer rather than evidence that something occurred.

Child Care examples include get occupancy for centre, get projected bookings, find family, and check whether an action is allowed. Authorization checks and technical telemetry do not make a query a state-changing behaviour.

Avoid using command, lookup, or report as synonyms for query.

Readable Modelling Language

The versioned, business-facing DSL that proposes canonical semantic meaning and retains source provenance. It compiles into the authored model and never becomes a parallel semantic authority.

The Child Care RML can organise ACCS Facts, Rules, Behaviours, and Lifecycles in nested, named definitions while tooling maintains canonical identity outside the normal reading path.

Avoid using Semantic Assembly Format, canonical model, or free text as synonyms for Readable Modelling Language.

See the RML reference and authoring-language decision.

Relationship

A stable semantic link from one Entity to another with explicit one-or-many cardinality and optionality. A Relationship is not a Field or a renderer-specific foreign-key property.

Requirement

A domain prerequisite that must be satisfied before a behaviour may proceed. Missing information is distinct from an unsatisfied requirement.

For Submit ACCS determination application, requirements may establish that an enrolment exists for the relevant child and that the necessary application information is available. A rule binding connects those requirements to reusable rules or decisions.

Avoid using guard, invariant, or validation as synonyms for requirement.

Rule

A named, reusable definition that evaluates typed facts and produces an explained conclusion without changing domain state or causing effects. Rules may compose other rules.

Child Care examples include child is within the eligible age range, session report contains reportable care, and provider may withdraw session report. Guards, policies, invariants, and decisions use rules for different purposes; they do not redefine rule evaluation.

Avoid using condition, validation, or business logic as synonyms for rule.

Rule binding

An explicit semantic relationship stating why and how a governing concept uses a reusable rule or decision. It maps available domain information to typed facts and relevant conclusions to their governing purpose.

For example, Withdraw session report may own a transition-guard binding to Provider may withdraw session report, mapping the provider actor, report lifecycle stage, and government-processing state to the rule's facts.

Avoid using embedded expression, callback, or rule copy as synonyms for a rule binding.

Runtime configuration

The immutable, validated result of resolving explicit configuration layers, one selected profile, substitutions, and command overrides with field-level provenance. It configures adapters without defining domain meaning.

Avoid using process environment, mutable settings, or semantic model as synonyms for runtime configuration.

See Configuration resolution.

Runtime plan

An immutable, disposable executable projection derived from a resolved semantic snapshot and its relevant runtime versions. It is safe for concurrent reuse but is never an authoritative model or persisted source definition.

For example, one runtime plan may bind the ACCS eligibility rules once and then evaluate applications for many children concurrently. Each evaluation still owns its own facts, findings, trace, and cancellation state.

Avoid using runtime model, compiled source, or authoritative executable as synonyms for a runtime plan.

See the reusable rules runtime architecture decision for its binding, concurrency, conformance, isolation, and caching constraints. See the rules-runtime reference for the executable interface and Child Care result contract.

Schema version

The version of a persisted representation's structural contract. It determines which loader or migration is required but says nothing about domain meaning or compatibility of a bounded context's exports.

For example, representing source spans in a new JSON shape changes the schema version even when the ACCS semantic digest remains unchanged.

Avoid using context version, model version, or product version as synonyms for schema version.

See the context-package reference for supported-schema and explicit-migration behaviour.

Semantic Assembly Format

A versioned, flat engineering format with explicit stable identities used for conformance fixtures, diagnostics, parser bootstrapping, and low-level tests. It compiles to the authored model but is neither canonical persistence nor the business-facing authoring language.

The Child Care decision-table language 1.0 conformance fixture is SAF: its UUID-heavy statements make semantic mappings explicit for conformance, but business authors are not expected to maintain it.

Avoid using Readable Modelling Language, context package, or canonical model as synonyms for Semantic Assembly Format.

See the authoring-language decision.

Semantic digest

A deterministic digest of normalized semantic meaning. It excludes source partitioning, formatting, layout, source provenance, and other non-semantic packaging details.

Two Child Care packages with the same ACCS definitions but different filenames or diagram positions have the same semantic digest.

Avoid using file hash, package digest, or version as synonyms for semantic digest.

See the context-package reference for the normalization rules and the executable Child Care digest.

Semantic validation

An explicit, staged analysis of authored or resolved semantic meaning that returns deterministic diagnostics without executing behaviours, repairing the model, or deciding whether a domain action is currently allowed.

For the Child Care package, semantic validation can report that Determine ACCS eligibility refers to an unknown fact, or that Submit ACCS determination application has a transition whose outcome is not declared. It does not evaluate ACCS eligibility or decide whether one application may be submitted now.

Avoid using guard, invariant, rule evaluation, or parser error as synonyms for semantic validation.

See the semantic-validation reference for the staged interface and extension contract.

Session state

Transient editor presentation such as selection, hover, viewport, open panels, or an evaluation highlight. It changes neither semantic meaning, the view definition, nor shared layout state unless explicitly saved as layout.

An ACCS evaluation path and its missing Facts may temporarily highlight a rule decision view without storing the application's Facts in the diagram.

Avoid using layout state, view definition, or model annotation as synonyms for session state.

See the diagram-projection reference.

Source provenance

Non-semantic information relating a stable semantic concept to one or more versioned source artifacts and locations. It explains origin without determining meaning or identity.

For example, an ACCS rule may retain spans into both an imported decision table and a readable DSL file. A span becomes stale when its recorded source digest no longer matches, without changing the rule itself.

Avoid using ownership, identity, or semantic relationship as synonyms for source provenance.

See the canonical persistence decision for source-digest and lifecycle constraints.

State

The complete set of domain facts currently associated with an entity. A named position in its lifecycle is one part of state, not a synonym for the whole of it.

For a Child Care session report, its reporting period, submitted sessions, and government response are state. Draft, submitted, approved, or rejected is its current lifecycle stage.

Avoid using status, lifecycle stage, or persisted data as synonyms for state.

Template pack

An independently versioned adapter for one reusable output purpose, such as a C# Domain Project, API Project, or DTO Project. It declares output recipes, definition scopes, confined path patterns, renderer requirements, and pinned templates. Applying it to a canonical context expands those recipes into the concrete generated artifacts. It projects canonical meaning but cannot add or reinterpret it.

A C# Domain Project pack may generate files for every supported Entity, Enumeration, Rule, and Behaviour in Child Care. The pack does not name Booking, ACCS eligibility, or any other definition from that context.

Avoid using individual template, semantic model, generator implementation, or output directory as synonyms for template pack.

See Template packs.

Trace level

The requested amount of canonical trace detail: none, summary, or full. It changes trace projection only and never changes conclusions or findings.

For an ACCS evaluation, full detail may include both Fact-expression steps, while none returns the same eligibility result without a canonical trace.

Avoid using disclosure policy, log level, or telemetry sampling as synonyms for trace level.

Transition

A permitted change from one lifecycle stage to another, caused by successful behaviour. It identifies its source and target stages, may be restricted by guards, and may result in events or other effects.

For example, record session-report approval causes the transition from submitted to approved. The transition is neither the command requesting approval nor the resulting session report approved event.

Avoid using command, event, or the broader state change as synonyms for transition.

Transition guard

A guard owned by a lifecycle transition that determines whether that declared transition is currently allowed. It validates an explicitly selected transition rather than selecting among transitions.

For example, Can withdraw session report may guard the transition from submitted to withdrawn. A behaviour selects that transition explicitly; the transition guard then determines whether it is allowed now.

Avoid using transition selector, requirement, or invariant as synonyms for transition guard.

View definition

A persisted, non-semantic selection of what a diagram projection reveals. It identifies a view kind, scope, roots, filters, inclusions, exclusions, and expansion choices independently of layout state.

For example, one Child Care behaviour-map view may focus on Attendance management and expand its events, while another hides events and includes only the behaviours available to a provider actor.

Avoid using semantic model, diagram image, or layout state as synonyms for a view definition.

See the diagram projection and editing decision for the six initial view kinds.

Workflow

A behaviour that coordinates multiple behaviours toward a domain outcome, often across time and in response to outcomes or events. Its coordination and progress are explicit domain meaning rather than a sequence of technical calls.

For example, a Child Care workflow may submit a session report, await the government response, record approval, rejection, or no-change, and notify the responsible provider role. The steps remain independently defined behaviours.

Avoid using pipeline, script, or orchestration as synonyms for workflow.

Settled relationships

The accepted semantic baseline establishes these relationships:

• Behaviour is the organising principle.
• Entities provide identity, lifecycle, and state.
• Rules evaluate typed facts and produce explained conclusions.
• Behaviours own effects, transitions, and event publication.
• Persistence is separate from domain meaning.
• Diagrams are projections; layout is not semantic truth.
• Modeller owns canonical semantic and expression meaning; external formats and runtimes are adapters.
• Independently versioned bounded contexts federate through explicit exports and imports; every concept has exactly one owner and stable identity.
• Documentation is first-class model content, while rendered pages and source locations remain projections and provenance.

See the successor semantic baseline and canonical rule expressions, and the canonical semantic model for the accepted decisions behind these statements.

Decision status

This glossary is the accepted resolution of Wayfinder issue #15. Documentation, architecture, model definitions, and implementation interfaces must use these meanings consistently. Later decisions may add terms or sharpen a definition, but must record any intentional change here and in CONTEXT.md.