Glossary

A

Agent An AI tool (Codex or Claude) managed by Kavi as a headless child process. Each agent operates in its own worktree.

Acceptance Check A verification action within an AcceptancePack. Kinds: command (runs a shell command), file (checks path existence), manual (operator review). Each check has a status: pending, passed, failed, or skipped.

Acceptance Pack A collection of acceptance criteria and checks attached to a mission. Tracks overall verification status (pending, passed, failed) and is used to gate the transition from awaiting_acceptance to ready_to_land.

Approval A gate that requires operator confirmation before an agent can use a specific tool. Managed via hooks for both Claude and Codex.

Approval Rule A saved decision about whether a specific tool action should be allowed, denied, or prompted. Rules can be remembered across turns.

B

Brain Kavi's persistent knowledge system. Captures learnings from completed tasks, landing reports, patterns, and operator input, then resurfaces them as context when relevant to future work.

Brain Entry A single knowledge record in the Brain. Has a source type (task, mission, landing, operator, pattern), content, tags, and an optional pinned flag for priority boosting.

Base Branch The git branch Kavi uses as the starting point for worktrees and the target for landing. Configured in .kavi/config.toml.

Base Commit The commit from which agent worktrees are created. Used as the reference point for diff tracking.

C

Claim A record of which agent has modified (or intends to modify) a specific file path. Claims are tracked to detect overlapping ownership.

Composer The inline task input in the TUI. Provides live route preview and planning mode selection.

D

DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) The task dependency structure produced by planning mode. Tasks form a graph where dependencies must complete before dependent tasks can start.

Daemon The background process that schedules tasks, manages approvals, and streams state to the TUI via a local RPC socket.

Decision A recorded choice — routing, approval, task, or integration — stored in the decision ledger for audit purposes.

Disposition The type of review note: approve, concern, question, note, accepted_risk, or wont_fix.

E

Envelope The structured output from an agent task. Includes summary, status, blockers, peer messages, and raw output.

Event A timestamped record in the event log. Events track state changes, task lifecycle, and operator actions.

Execution Mode How a task in a plan should be scheduled: blocking (sequential), parallel (concurrent with other parallel tasks), or follow_up (after all other tasks).

F

Follow-up Recommendation A recommendation generated when an agent requests continuation work via peer messages or a nextRecommendation field on a completed task. Follow-up recommendations have the highest priority and block landing until applied or dismissed.

Full-Access Mode A session mode where agents run without approval prompts. Enabled with --approve-all or the ! toggle in the TUI.

H

Hotspot A file path where multiple agents have overlapping claims. Indicates potential integration needs.

I

Integration Worktree A temporary git worktree created during kavi land to merge changes from both agent worktrees and run validation.

M

Mission A goal-driven orchestration unit that wraps a prompt with execution mode, acceptance criteria, brain entries, and checkpoint tracking. Missions manage the full lifecycle from planning through landing.

Mission Checkpoint A timestamped progress marker on a mission. Kinds include: created, planning_started, plan_materialized, task_started, task_progress, task_stalled, task_completed, task_failed, acceptance_verified, landed.

Mission Mode How a mission executes: guided_autopilot (fully autonomous), inspect (pauses at decision points), or manual (full operator control).

Mission Status The current lifecycle state of a mission: planning, active, blocked, awaiting_acceptance, ready_to_land, landed, or completed.

L

Landing The process of merging validated agent work into the target branch. Includes snapshot commits, integration merge, validation, and fast-forward.

Landing Report A JSON file persisted after each kavi land with details about the merge, validation, review threads, and change surface.

O

Operator The human user who interacts with Kavi through the TUI or CLI. The operator routes tasks, reviews diffs, approves actions, and lands work.

Ownership Rule A glob pattern in .kavi/config.toml that assigns file paths to a specific agent for routing purposes.

P

Path Claim See Claim.

Pattern A knowledge record extracted from landing reports that captures what was done, what files were touched, and what commands were used. Patterns persist in .kavi-patterns.json and are promoted into mission brain entries for cross-session context reuse.

Peer Message A structured message from one agent to another with an intent (question, handoff, review_request, blocked, context_share).

Planning Mode The system that decides whether a prompt should be decomposed into a DAG before execution. Modes: auto, plan, direct.

R

Protocol Version An integer tracked by the daemon and client to ensure compatibility. When a version mismatch is detected after upgrading Kavi, mutations are blocked until kavi restart is run.

Recommendation A suggestion from Kavi about actions the operator should take — follow-ups, handoffs, integrations, or ownership config changes.

Review Thread A discussion attached to a specific diff or file change. Threads have dispositions, assignees, and status (open/resolved/landed).

S

Session A managed Kavi instance for a repository. Includes agent worktrees, the daemon, event log, and all state.

Session Record The JSON file that holds the in-memory state of the session: tasks, plans, claims, reviews, approvals, messages, and agent status.

Snapshot Commit A commit created by Kavi before landing to capture the current state of a dirty agent worktree.

T

TUI (Terminal User Interface) The full-screen operator console with 9 views, keyboard shortcuts, and real-time updates.

V

Validation Command An optional shell command (e.g., npm test) that runs in the integration worktree during kavi land.

W

Worktree An isolated git checkout for an agent. Each agent has its own worktree so changes don't interfere during execution.