term (entity)

Generated from solutions/ontological/lib/model/entities/term/schema.ts.

Schema version: 1.

Description

A Term is one entry of SDLC’s shared vocabulary: a named concept with a single authoritative definition. Terms exist so the architecture words the project leans on (substrate, harness, adapter, op, …) are defined once, carry identity, and can be cited by stable wikilink. The glossary (docs/glossary.md) is a build artifact assembled from Term instances — never hand-edited. See D-B4CA-term-entity-and-generated-glossary.

A Term is not:

• A Standard. A Standard prescribes a rule; a Term names and defines a concept. Standards use Terms.
• The per-entity companion doc (definition.md, S-0005). That document specifies an entity type’s contract; a Term defines one word of project vocabulary. The type is named term precisely to avoid colliding with that artifact.

Properties

Field	Type	Required	Description
type	string	yes	Dispatch tag for the validator framework.
schema_version	string		Numeric string version of the per-type schema this instance conforms to. Compare numerically when ordering versions. Independent of any product version. The value 0 is a documented sentinel meaning ‘pre-SDLC-managed’ — audit treats it as intentional, not stale. Optional in frontmatter: never in any per-type required set (audit flags a MISSING stamp as drift, not the validator).
id	string	yes	Immutable identifier in canonical TM-NNNN shape per D-0002-entity-identifier-shape: ‘TM-’ + 4 zero-padded chars [0-9A-Z] (Terms use incrementing numbering). Never renamed once assigned.
status	string		Lifecycle stage. open/active: adopted vocabulary, in use today (the default — a term is captured because it is in use); open/draft: proposed vocabulary, not yet settled; closed/retired: no longer used, kept for link stability.
title	string	yes	Human-readable headline. Frontmatter is canonical; the body opens with # <title> for readability.
created	string	yes	ISO date the entity was first authored.
last_reviewed	string		ISO date the entity was last reviewed. Optional: never in any per-type required set.
related	array		The glossary’s Source column: wikilinks to the decisions, standards, and principles where the term is normative. Entries are wikilinks — typically to entities by id (slug optional per D-0002-entity-identifier-shape), but may also reference non-entity planning docs by their wikilink slug.
tags	array		Free-form labels. Required at the common level, defaulting to []. Per-type schemas may add a contains constraint (e.g. Principle requires exactly one principle/<category> tag).
need_human_review	boolean		Review-tracking flag.
aliases	array		Alternate names for the term (e.g. ‘protocol adapter’ for Adapter, ‘deterministic tail’ for Tail). Rendered beside the term in the generated glossary.

Enums

status

• open/draft
• open/active
• closed/retired