/spec-kitty-glossary-context

name: spec-kitty-glossary-context
description: >-
  Curate and apply canonical terminology across Spec Kitty missions.
  Triggers: "update the glossary", "use canonical terms", "check terminology",
  "add a term", "fix term drift", "glossary conflicts", "resolve ambiguity",
  "review terminology consistency".
  Does NOT handle: runtime loop advancement, setup or repair requests,
  agent configuration, or direct code implementation tasks.

spec-kitty-glossary-context

Maintain semantic integrity by curating the project glossary, detecting term drift, and ensuring that all mission artifacts use canonical terminology.

Use this skill when the user wants to inspect, update, or enforce glossary terms. Do not use it for purely operational tasks like advancing the runtime loop or repairing an installation.

---

How the Glossary Works

The glossary is a **semantic integrity runtime** — a 5-layer middleware pipeline that intercepts mission step execution, extracts terms from inputs/outputs, checks them against stored definitions, and can **block generation** if terminology conflicts are unresolved.

Data Model

**Terms** have a `surface` (normalized to lowercase), `definition`, `scope`, `confidence` (0.0–1.0), and `status` (draft/active/deprecated).

**Seed files** (`.kittify/glossaries/{scope}.yaml`) provide initial definitions. **Event logs** (`.kittify/events/glossary/*.events.jsonl`) record all runtime mutations as append-only JSONL. State is reconstructed by replaying seed files then events.

4 Scopes (narrowest wins)

| Precedence | Scope | Use For | |:---:|---|---| | 0 (highest) | `mission_local` | Feature-specific jargon | | 1 | `team_domain` | Team/org conventions | | 2 | `audience_domain` | Industry/domain standards | | 3 (lowest) | `spec_kitty_core` | Framework terms (lane, work package, mission) |

The 5-Layer Middleware Pipeline

When a mission primitive executes (via `@glossary_enabled` decorator or `GlossaryAwarePrimitiveRunner`), this pipeline processes the step:

**Layer 1 — Term Extraction.** Scans step input/output for terminology using multiple methods (in priority order):

| Method | Confidence | Example | |---|:---:|---| | Metadata hints (`glossary_watch_terms`) | 1.0 | Explicit list of terms to monitor | | Quoted phrases | 0.8 | `"work package"` in text | | Acronyms (2-5 uppercase) | 0.8 | `WP`, `API` | | Casing patterns (snake_case, CamelCase) | 0.8 | `worktree_node`, `WorkspaceManager` | | Repeated nouns (3+ occurrences) | 0.5 | Frequent domain words |

Emits `TermCandidateObserved` events.

**Layer 2 — Semantic Check.** Resolves each extracted term against the scope hierarchy and classifies conflicts:

| Conflict Type | Trigger | Severity | |---|---|---| | `UNKNOWN` | Term not in any scope | Varies by confidence + criticality | | `AMBIGUOUS` | 2+ active senses for same surface | HIGH in critical steps | | `INCONSISTENT` | Output contradicts glossary definition | LOW (informational) | | `UNRESOLVED_CRITICAL` | Unknown term in critical step, low confidence | HIGH |

Emits `SemanticCheckEvaluated` events.

**Layer 3 — Clarification (runs BEFORE the gate).** Users get a chance to resolve conflicts before generation is blocked:

• In interactive mode: prompts user to select a candidate sense, provide a

custom definition, or defer

• In non-interactive mode (CI/headless): auto-defers all conflicts
• Resolved conflicts are removed; deferred ones pass to Layer 4

Emits `GlossaryClarificationRequested`, `GlossaryClarificationResolved`, and `GlossarySenseUpdated` events.

**Layer 4 — Generation Gate.** Evaluates whether to block based on strictness:

| Strictness | Behavior | |---|---| | `off` | Never block | | `medium` (default) | Block only HIGH severity conflicts | | `max` | Block any unresolved conflict |

Strictness resolved via 4-tier precedence: runtime flag > step metadata > mission config > global default (`.kittify/config.yaml`).

If blocking: saves a **checkpoint** (SHA256 input hash, scope versions, retry token), emits `StepCheckpointed` and `GenerationBlockedBySemanticConflict` events, then raises `BlockedByConflict`.

**Layer 5 — Resume.** For retry after a block:

• Loads checkpoint from event log
• Verifies input hash hasn't changed (detects context drift)
• Prompts user if context changed
• Restores execution state

Step-Level Configuration

Individual mission steps can control glossary behavior via metadata:

# In step definition
glossary_check: enabled          # or "disabled" to skip this step
glossary_check_strictness: max   # override strictness for this step
glossary_watch_terms:            # explicit terms to monitor (confidence 1.0)
  - work package
  - lane
glossary_aliases:                # map synonyms to canonical forms
  task: work package
  status: lane
glossary_exclude_terms:          # terms to ignore
  - the
  - a

8 Event Types

| Event | When | Effect | |---|---|---| | `GlossaryScopeActivated` | Scope loaded at runtime | Informational | | `TermCandidateObserved` | Term extracted from text | Records extraction | | `SemanticCheckEvaluated` | Semantic check completes | Records findings | | `GlossaryClarificationRequested` | Conflict needs resolution | Creates pending conflict | | `GlossaryClarificationResolved` | User selects a sense | Promotes selected sense | | `GlossarySenseUpdated` | Term added/definition changed | Updates store | | `GenerationBlockedBySemanticConflict` | Gate blocks generation | Records block | | `StepCheckpointed` | State saved before block | Enables resume |

All events are append-only in `.kittify/events/glossary/{mission-id}.events.jsonl`.

Integration Patterns

# 1. Decorator (simplest)
@glossary_enabled(repo_root=Path("."))
def my_primitive(context):
    return {"result": "ok"}

# 2. Function processor
processor = attach_glossary_pipeline(repo_root, runtime_strictness, interaction_mode)
processed_context = processor(context)  # May raise BlockedByConflict

# 3.