> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL. > For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.nvidia.com/docsfab/llms.txt. > For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.nvidia.com/docsfab/_mcp/server. # Glossary > Look up the product, knowledge, workflow, and quality terms used throughout DocsFab documentation. Use this glossary to look up DocsFab product, knowledge, workflow, delivery, authority, and quality terms. Each definition gives the DocsFab-specific meaning; follow its related link when you need the full concept or contract. **Browse alphabetically:** [A](#a) · [C](#c) · [D](#d) · [E](#e) · [F](#f) · [G](#g) · [H](#h) · [I](#i) · [J](#j) · [M](#m) · [N](#n) · [P](#p) · [Q](#q) · [R](#r) · [S](#s) · [T](#t) · [W](#w) ## A Approval : A recorded grant from an accountable authority for a specific mutation, publication, release, or external action. Approval for one boundary does not imply approval for another. Artifact : A versioned workflow output, such as a finding, report, documentation page, patch, preview, branch, or proposed pull request or merge request. ## C Context Packet : A revision-bound, budgeted structural view of the selected repository that the runtime prepares before a workflow step. Packet contents are not retained in run records. ## D Documentation Brief : A target-specific handoff that pins the audience, reader outcome, repository revision, product reference-model version, evidence, style profile, template, quality policy, and authority boundary. Documentation Convergence : The post-reconciliation transition that updates affected pages, rescans every configured information-architecture family, generates newly ready missing targets, and records targets that remain blocked. **Related:** [Documentation Convergence and Freshness in DocsFab](/docsfab/reference/knowledge-and-delivery/delivery/documentation-convergence) Documentation Readiness : The evidence-backed assessment of whether DocsFab has enough information to produce one documentation target for a named audience and release. **Related:** [Evidence Before Drafting](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/documentation-quality#evidence-before-drafting) Durable Patch : The Git binary patch the runtime preserves from an authorized write-capable run before the disposable workspace is cleaned up. ## E Evidence State : The custody or transformation state of a source item, such as raw, source-authored, participant-edited, transformed, awaiting confirmation, or attribution-unverified. ## F Façade Inputs : The three replaceable inputs at the DocsFab package edge: imported accepted canon (knowledge), a locked quality pack, and the one-job runtime executor. Runtime does not own product truth. Finding : An identified technical, editorial, audience, policy, or delivery issue that remains active until addressed or explicitly dismissed with rationale. ## G Governed Workflow : A fixed `Task → Workflow → Step` contract with bounded tools, defined evidence, and explicit write authorization. Disk presence of a skill does not activate a governed workflow. **Related:** [Documentation Jobs in DocsFab](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/documentation-jobs) ## H Host : `packages/host`, a DocsFab GitLab channel. It is not a fourth façade and not an outside product. Runtime writes the patch. Host is the only DocsFab code allowed to hold a GitLab credential long enough to post a note or, when authorized, open a draft merge request. **Related:** [Delivering Results](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/documentation-jobs#delivering-results) Host Publisher : The fixed-purpose DocsFab component in `packages/host` that may redeem a task-scoped credential lease and perform a typed GitLab mutation. A valid lease is not a repository grant. ## I Inconsistency : A meaningful difference between source claims, classified by behavior, intent, terminology, scope, version, representation, or documentation quality and routed to an appropriate resolution owner. Inference Hub Metadata : The authenticated DocsFab catalog-evidence adapter that reads only `INFERENCE_HUB_METADATA_API_KEY` (`ihub_api_...`). It is not used for ordinary composition-execution inference. **Related:** [Install DocsFab](/docsfab/get-started/installation) ## J Job : One bound execution of a catalogued workflow against a pinned repository revision, using pinned knowledge and a locked quality pack. This is the sense used throughout this documentation set, as in "the runtime is a one-job executor" and "a job takes pinned knowledge". **Related:** [Documentation Jobs in DocsFab](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/documentation-jobs) Job Packet : The durable record the host tracks for one submitted workflow, carrying its own status, events, and progress through submit, observe, cancel, and resume. Statuses are `queued`, `running`, `needs-input`, `needs-human-decision`, `succeeded`, `failed`, and `cancelled`. The spine that manages packets is repository-tested and has no production caller. **Related:** [Delivering Results](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/documentation-jobs#delivering-results) ## M Mailbox : A DocsFab surface that kicks off, observes, and resumes **one** catalogued job on an existing conversation (GitLab merge-request notes first). It talks on that merge request. It does not by itself open a new draft merge request. **Related:** [GitLab Host Mailbox in DocsFab](/docsfab/reference/knowledge-and-delivery/delivery/gitlab-host-notification) Merge Receipt : The immutable record of a synthesis boundary, exact inputs, claim decisions, inferences, conflicts, approvals, and delta from a prior product reference model. Model Context Protocol : An interface through which an agent can access governed tools or context. DocsFab identifies MCP as one possible interactive adapter; the product contract does not depend on it. ## N Needs Input : An honest product stop that records a named gap instead of inventing intent. Several doors can print this string: routing-time `do`, delegated pause, editorial work products, knowledge continuation, human-decision (CLI-skinned), and product disposition `needs-input`. They are not the same class. Refer to the Stop Classes tables. **Related:** [Stop Classes in DocsFab](/docsfab/reference/status-and-configuration/stop-classes) Non-Author Review : Adversarial evaluation by a person or clean agent that did not participate in producing the artifact. Same-session self-review does not satisfy this minimum DocsFab gate. NVIDIA API Catalog : The hosted NVIDIA chat route at `https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1`. Installed NVIDIA API Catalog compositions authenticate with `DOCSFAB_NVIDIA_API_KEY` only. **Related:** [Install DocsFab](/docsfab/get-started/installation) NVIDIA Inference API : The internal NVIDIA Inference Hub serving route, `nvidia-inference-api`, an OpenAI-compatible origin recorded in the route registry. DocsFab uses it for catalog inspection and the optional semantic judge, not for the NVIDIA API Catalog compositions. NVIDIA Inference Hub : The internal NVIDIA catalog and key console at [NVIDIA Inference Hub](https://inference.nvidia.com). Other tools often store the same key as `NVIDIA_API_KEY` or `NVINF_HUB_KEY`. DocsFab does not read those names. ## P Product Disposition : The product-outcome plane of a finished job, independent of execution status: `ready`, `not-ready`, `needs-input`, `inconclusive`, or `blocked`. Successful execution is not a ready product. **Related:** [Stop Classes in DocsFab](/docsfab/reference/status-and-configuration/stop-classes) Product Reference Model : A versioned package of evidence-linked claims, relationships, terminology, diagrams, conflicts, decisions, open questions, and readiness assessments that is the canonical representation of shared product understanding for a defined scope. **Related:** [Product Knowledge in DocsFab](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/product-knowledge) Projection : A reader-oriented representation derived from a reference model, such as a documentation page, diagram, glossary, summary, or readiness view. A projection does not replace its source model or evidence. ## Q Quality Capability Slot : One required MVP quality outcome. Slots are covered many-to-many by human or agent roles, skills, checks, policies, knowledge operations, runtime behavior, and repository automation; they do not imply one skill per slot. **Related:** [Quality Roles and Capability Coverage in DocsFab](/docsfab/reference/quality/quality-roles-and-capabilities) Quality Function : A required judgment outcome (technical writing, technical review and verification, editorial review, quality evaluation, or target-audience evaluation) that a configured human or agent provider can supply. ## R Representation : An original or derived form of one source item, including its media type, locator, integrity, parent representation, and transformation metadata. Run Record : An append-only record of what a documentation job requested, planned, attempted, completed, verified, delivered, published, failed, or abandoned. **Related:** [Runtime CLI and Configuration in DocsFab](/docsfab/reference/status-and-configuration/runtime-cli-and-configuration) ## S Software Requirements Document : An optional, project- and workflow-dependent requirements artifact. DocsFab can ingest an existing SRD as source evidence, recommend creating one for a new project, or generate an updated SRD as a projection of the canonical product reference model. Source Item : One attributed piece of evidence within a source thread. An item preserves its own time, version, scope, governance, lineage, and representations. Source Thread : The stable, append-only lineage for one identifiable evidence origin. A thread can contain multiple documents, interviews, diagrams, tests, observations, and corrections. **Related:** [Source Threads](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/product-knowledge#source-threads) Standing Repository Grant : A DocsFab permission record, activated by a GitLab Maintainer or Owner who is also listed in DocsFab platform policy, for one exact GitLab host and numeric project. The `contribute` tier can allow a namespaced unprotected push and create-or-reuse draft MR. It does not include merge, approve, mark-ready, or protected-default write. The maintain-prm add-on lets the feedback publisher ready its own product reference model update and add it to the merge train, and nothing more. Host revalidates the grant immediately before mutation. **Related:** [Delivering Results](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/documentation-jobs#delivering-results) and [A Result Grants No Authority](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/documentation-jobs#a-result-grants-no-authority) Stop Class : One operator-visible reason DocsFab declined to pretend the work was done, paired with a next action or a named missing input. **Related:** [Stop Classes in DocsFab](/docsfab/reference/status-and-configuration/stop-classes) Synthesis : The governed comparison of selected source-thread claims that creates a new candidate model version, inconsistency report, and merge receipt. ## T Task : A canonical request that identifies the desired documentation outcome, requester, repository revision, model version, workflow, and authority. This is the runtime sense, written as `Task` in the `Task → Workflow → Step` contract. ## W Workflow : A versioned sequence or graph of governed steps used to produce a bounded documentation outcome. **Related:** [Workflow Contracts in DocsFab](/docsfab/reference/workflow-contracts) ## Related Documentation Use the following pages for the concepts and contracts that appear most often in this glossary: - [DocsFab Overview](/docsfab/about) - [DocsFab Architecture](/docsfab/reference/architecture) - [Documentation Jobs in DocsFab](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/documentation-jobs) - [Stop Classes in DocsFab](/docsfab/reference/status-and-configuration/stop-classes) - [A Result Grants No Authority](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/documentation-jobs#a-result-grants-no-authority) - [Delivering Results](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/documentation-jobs#delivering-results) - [Source Threads](/docsfab/about/core-concepts/product-knowledge#source-threads) - [Reference-Model Package in DocsFab](/docsfab/reference/knowledge-and-delivery/knowledge/reference-model-package)