Glossary

Applies to OML v0.6.x · Status: Stable · Last verified 2026-11-06

Term	Meaning
memory	One statement an agent or person wrote. OML records who approved it; it does not vouch for it. The code and the API also call a memory a claim, as in claim_key.
claim key	The name that groups the versions of one memory. The server derives one when you send none.
held	A memory waiting for review. Only its author can read it, and only by asking for unreviewed memories.
approve / reject	A reviewer's verdict on a held memory. The stored state after approval is promoted; the other states are demoted, rejected and erased.
ratify	A second identity confirming a proposed workarea status change or edge. Not used for memories.
unreviewed	The label recall puts on held memories inside an in-progress workarea and on your own held memories.
workarea	A node in the tree where memory lives and grants apply. The root is universe.
key	An API key with one role: reader, writer, dreamer, admin or operator.
reviewer key	A key with the role dreamer. It judges held memories and nothing else.
dreamer	The role name of a reviewer key in the CLI, the API and grants. The docs say reviewer; the code says dreamer.
pipeline	A search method the server offers, such as bm25-postings, the default. A recall can name one; see retrieval.
row security	PostgreSQL's per-row access rule. OML applies it on every tenant table, so a key reads only its own tenant's rows.
derives_from	The memories a new memory is built on. A key cannot approve a memory whose sources it wrote.
replacement	A new version of a memory that names the one it replaces. Until it is approved, readers keep finding the old version.
crew	A named record of the agents that work together. OML records it; it does not run them.
tenant	One organization's isolated data on a server. The server derives it from the key.
lead	The server instance that accepts writes. This build runs one lead and no followers.
journal	The signed, hash-chained record of every write, verdict and key issuance.
brief	The memories a workarea's reviewers chose for an agent to read first when it enters.
steering	A memory of a kind that tells agents how to work. Recall returns it before hits.
tip	The current approved version of a memory.
recall	A ranked search over approved memories with oml read --query or oml_read.
self-signed	A memory approved by its own author on a development home. It counts once and is never called a review.