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Reference

Glossary

This glossary indexes every Ship-specific term you'll encounter in the manual. Unlike the Vocabulary chapter—which walks through core concepts step-by-step—this is a quick A–Z reference: one term, one sentence, one link to where it lives.

Activation#

The per-repo decision that lets Ship act on a connected repository (comment on PRs, mirror knowledge, fire routines). GitHub App and repo activation.

Admin#

Workspace role; can manage members and settings but cannot promote owners or delete the workspace. Members and roles.

Agent rule file#

Versioned instructions installed at canonical paths each agent reads (CLAUDE.md, .cursor/rules/*.mdc, AGENTS.md, etc.). Roadmap.

API token#

A workspace-minted credential for authenticating into Ship from CI or external tools. Secrets.

Approval#

Inbox item kind requiring explicit human sign-off before something irreversible. Item types.

Artefact#

A versioned unit in the catalogue (pattern, tool, collection, preset). Authoring.

Audit log#

Admin-visible record of privileged mutations across the workspace. Audit log.

Bucket#

Named container for related knowledge articles. Buckets.

Bundle#

The set of artefacts a repo currently has installed; the workspace home banner flags out-of-date bundles. Bundle updates.

Clarification#

Inbox item kind: a question a routine needs answered before continuing. Item types.

Connected repo#

A repository activated in the workspace. Vocabulary.

Disposition#

The action that closes an Inbox item (answer, accept, approve, reject, retry, acknowledge, snooze, dismiss, reassign). Disposition.

Distiller#

The path that routes raw imported content into a bucket and drafts an article for review. Distiller and review.

Evidence#

The trail tying an action to a tracker item, a PR, a CI run, a comment, or a knowledge article. Evidence checklist.

Exception#

Inbox item kind: a normal-rule override that needs an acknowledgement. Item types.

Failure#

Inbox item kind: a configured action that broke and is waiting for a person. Item types.

Fence#

The bounded-scope rule under which an agent acts (allowed paths, allowed actions, allowed states). What Ship is.

Handle#

Symbolic name (e.g., secops, repo_maintainer) that routing rules bind to a user, group, or strategy. Routing rules.

Improvement#

Inbox item kind: a suggested enhancement to a routine or rule that needs accept / decline / defer. Item types.

Inbox#

The workspace-wide attention surface for items needing decisions. Inbox overview.

Knowledge#

Product and repo context agents can use without guessing; lives in buckets. Knowledge overview.

Lane#

Legacy term for process. Process overview.

Member#

Workspace role; reads everything and acts on routed items but cannot change settings. Members and roles.

Owner#

Workspace role with full control, including the ability to delete the workspace. Members and roles.

Pattern#

A versioned artefact in the catalogue describing a routine procedure. Authoring.

Policy#

Admin-authored standing rule injected into every agent's system prompt. Policies.

Process#

The per-repo workflow definition (states, transitions, capacity, routines). Process overview.

Roadmap#

The page describing what Ship ships at production depth today and what we're growing toward. Roadmap.

Routine#

A named job with a prompt and a default schedule that runs inside a process or standalone. Routines.

Routing rules#

The workspace-scoped binding from a handle to a target (user, group, or strategy). Routing rules.

Secret#

A credential; lives in the workspace integration store, repo secrets, agent secrets, or API tokens—never in prompts or .ship/config.yml. Secrets.

Specialist#

Agent profile a routine takes on for a run (intake, business analyst, product manager, designer, technical architect, developer). Tracker mapping and specialists.

State#

A column in the process workflow; intake, analysis, in progress, review, done, or whatever shape a team chooses. Process overview.

Tracker#

The system of record for product intent (Linear, Jira, GitHub Issues, GitLab, Azure DevOps). Tracker binding.

Tracker mapping#

The panel in the process editor that binds tracker states to process states. Tracker mapping and specialists.

Workspace#

The team or product area Ship operates inside. Vocabulary.

.ship/#

The small folder Ship adds to a connected repo (config, lock, knowledge mirror, cache). The .ship/ folder.

shipctl#

The local CLI engineers use for setup, sync, validation, diagnostics. shipctl.

For the long argument behind any term, the book is where the why lives.