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Glossary

The ubiquitous language is a concept from Domain-Driven Design (Eric Evans, 2003) — a shared vocabulary that keeps everyone (and every AI session) speaking the same language about the project.

Why it matters

Without a shared vocabulary, AI agents and humans drift. The same concept gets called different things in different conversations, specs, and code. A ubiquitous language prevents that drift by defining the project's core terms in one place.

How litespec uses it

The glossary lives in specs/glossary.md — a single, version-controlled markdown file that serves as the project's shared vocabulary.

Which skills read it

Skill Behavior
think Reads the glossary at session start. Nudges when a concept seems foundational but isn't defined. Suggests creating one if it doesn't exist.
plan After writing specs, checks whether new terms were introduced that aren't in the glossary. Offers to update. Offers to seed if no glossary exists.
build May consult the glossary as optional terminology context after completing a phase. No enforcement.
review May consult the glossary as supplementary terminology context during cross-change review. No enforcement.

Graceful degradation

Not every project starts with a glossary. All skills degrade gracefully — if specs/glossary.md doesn't exist, no error, no block. The conversation skills (think, plan) may suggest creating one when stable terms emerge.

How to maintain it

The glossary is curated, not auto-generated. The AI proposes terms; the user approves. Only stable, shared, or ambiguous terms belong — not every noun from a proposal.

To add or update terms:

  1. Ask your AI agent to update the glossary (the think and plan skills manage it as part of their workflow)
  2. Or edit specs/glossary.md directly — entries use - **Term**: definition format

Each entry is one line: bold the term, follow with a colon and a space, then the definition. Keep definitions concise. Where disambiguation matters, include what a term explicitly does not mean.

Source of truth

The living glossary is specs/glossary.md in the repository. This page explains the concept — it does not duplicate or inline the terms.