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Glossary

One-line definitions for every term used across SLAW and Botfather, alphabetised with a stable anchor per term so any page can deep-link to a definition.

Jump to: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · M · O · P · R · S · T · W

A​

Adapter​

The software bridge between SLAW's orchestration and an agent runtime. An adapter receives a heartbeat wake, spawns or calls the runtime (e.g. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor), captures output, and returns a structured result. See Adapters.

Agent​

An AI process assigned a role, a reporting line, and a budget in a Squad. Each agent has exactly one Adapter that determines how it runs. See The squad model.

Approval gate​

A mandatory pause in agent work that requires explicit Operator sign-off before execution continues. Used for hiring, significant strategy changes, and sensitive actions. See Governance.

Atomic checkout​

A conflict-free lock on an issue: only one agent can hold the checkout at a time. A simultaneous claim returns 409 Conflict. See Issues and the board.

B​

Board​

The kanban task board in the SLAW UI — the visual interface to the issue tracker. "Board" refers only to this task board, never to governance (the governance actor is the Operator).

Botfather​

SLAW's self-hosted fleet control tower. Provides fleet-wide visibility across multiple SLAW instances while each instance stays fully local and sovereign. See What is Botfather?.

Budget​

A per-agent or per-squad monthly spend cap. When an agent reaches its budget, it stops — no runaway costs. See Costs & budgets.

C​

Calendar versioning​

The SLAW release scheme: vYYYY.MDD.0, where the date is the release day. For example, v2026.529.0 shipped on 29 May 2026.

Checkout​

See Atomic checkout.

Cost event​

A record of token usage or dollar spend produced by an agent run. Used to track burn rate and enforce budgets.

D​

Data directory​

The local storage root for a SLAW instance: ~/.slaw/instances/<id>/. Contains the embedded database, secrets, and attachments.

Delegation​

The act of a Squad Lead or manager agent breaking a goal into tasks and assigning them to other agents down the reporting tree.

E​

Enrollment​

The process by which a SLAW instance registers with a Botfather tower. The instance lands in the tower's approval queue, an admin approves it, and the instance receives a per-instance API key and goes active. See Enroll an instance.

Execution workspace​

An isolated environment (typically a git worktree plus terminal) where an agent adapter runs agent processes during a heartbeat. See Execution workspaces.

F​

Fleet​

The collection of SLAW instances enrolled with a Botfather tower. A fleet operator has visibility across every machine, squad, and agent in the fleet from one dashboard. See The fleet and the tower.

G​

Goal​

The top-level intent that a squad works toward. All issues in a squad are traceable to the squad's goal.

Governance​

The controls an Operator has over agents: pause, terminate, override, approve hires, set budgets, and review the audit log. See Governance.

H​

Heartbeat​

The execution loop: an agent wakes, checks out an issue, does a bounded chunk of work, posts a comment with its progress, and exits. The control plane schedules the next wake based on events and timers. "If it can receive a heartbeat, it's hired." See Heartbeats and execution.

I​

Instance​

One local deployment of SLAW, run by one person. Stores its data at ~/.slaw/instances/<id>/. One instance can run many squads with complete data isolation.

Issue​

The unit of work in SLAW. Has a title, description, status, priority, one assignee at a time, and a parent issue. Lifecycle: backlog → todo → in_progress → in_review → done, with blocked off in_progress. See Issues and the board.

M​

machineId​

A salted-hash identifier for a SLAW machine, stored at ~/.slaw/machine.json. Used by Botfather for enrollment and identity.

Managed resource​

A resource (agent, routine, etc.) that a Plugin provisions and controls through its manifest. The Operator can opt in to activate it.

Model profile​

A named configuration for a language model and its parameters. Used in adapter configs to specify which model an agent runs.

O​

Operator​

The human with instance-level governance over a SLAW deployment. Approves hires, overrides strategy, pauses or terminates agents, reviews the audit log, and sets budgets. The Operator API key prefix is slaw_op_. See Operator and governance.

P​

Plugin​

A bundle of SLAW capability: managed agents, routines, and configuration. Auto-discovered from packages/plugins/*. Example: @slaw/plugin-jira-sync, which syncs a Jira board to a SLAW squad. See Plugins.

Project​

A container for a set of related issues. Issues belong to a project; projects have goals. A squad can have multiple projects.

R​

Reporter​

The sidecar module inside a SLAW instance that batches metadata and pushes it outbound to a Botfather tower. All connections are outbound from the instance; the tower never reaches inbound.

Routine​

A scheduled job managed by SLAW. Runs on a recurring schedule; can be owned by an agent or the control plane. See Routines and schedules.

S​

SLAW​

Simple Localised Agent Workforce. The open-source control plane for running, orchestrating, and governing local AI agent squads. See What is SLAW?.

Skill​

A squad-scoped capability descriptor that agents can invoke. Has a key, name, description, source type, and trust level. When a squad is enrolled with Botfather, the tower masters the skill catalog and pushes standard skills down to enrolled instances. See Skills.

Squad​

The top-level organisational unit in SLAW: a tenant with a goal, a team of agents, an org structure, a monthly budget, and a task hierarchy. One instance runs many squads with complete data isolation. See The squad model.

Squad Lead​

The agent that leads a squad. Holds branding and portability privileges; can create agents; is the primary delegator. Reports to the Operator. See The squad model.

T​

Token salary​

An informal term for a per-agent monthly token budget — the amount an agent can spend before it stops.

Tower​

The Botfather deployment itself (slaw-botfather), self-hosted by an organisation. Stores fleet state in Postgres, serves the admin dashboard, manages the enrollment queue, and publishes the standard-skills catalog.

W​

Wake​

A single heartbeat execution: the event that causes the scheduler to invoke an agent. Wakes are triggered by schedule, issue assignment, @-mention, resolved blockers, or manual operator action.

Workspace​

See Execution workspace.

Next steps​