Glossary — Key Terms
This glossary defines the foundational vocabulary of the STRATA Protocol framework. Twelve key terms are presented here — enough to understand the framework's governance model and navigate its documentation with confidence. The complete STRATA vocabulary, covering 42 terms across all five strata, is available in the full member glossary via the link at the bottom of this page.
Terms
A
Artifact trail
The complete record of all governance artifacts produced during a project, maintained in docs/strata/. It includes every normative document — from the classification record through to execution loop session folders — providing end-to-end traceability across all governance decisions.
Used in: Stratum 5 — Artifact Trail; every STRATA project requires a populated artifact trail before implementation work begins.
Authority chain
The five-node chain of documents that governs what an AI copilot may do and how it must reason on a given project. The chain runs from the Classification Record → Vision → BRD → PRD → Copilot Instructions, with each document deriving from and constraining the one below it.
Used in: Stratum 3 — Authority Chain; the authority chain is the constitutional document the AI copilot reads at the start of every governed session.
C
Classification
Stratum 1 of the STRATA Protocol — the act of categorizing a project by class and category before any specification work begins. A project's classification determines which derivation paths are appropriate and constrains every downstream decision.
Used in: Applied first, before any derivation document is authored; the classification record produced in Stratum 1 is the root document of every project's derivation chain.
Conditioning
The process of transforming raw governance artifacts from docs/strata/ into MDC-formatted, navigation-annotated content suitable for publication in content/. Conditioning preserves the source document's meaning while adapting its structure for Docus rendering and sidebar navigation.
Used in: Applied when internal strata documents are to be published as platform documentation; each conditioned page requires a frontmatter update and a pass to ensure MDC-compatible structure.
D
Derivation
Stratum 2 of the STRATA Protocol — the process of producing governance documents layer by layer, each derived from the one above it. No document in the derivation chain is authored without a traceable source in the layer above.
Used in: Applied continuously throughout the specification phase; the derivation chain runs Vision → BRD → PRD, with each document answering the framing question of the stratum it belongs to.
E
Execution loop
Stratum 4 of the STRATA Protocol — the human-gated, phase-by-phase delivery cycle through which governed AI and engineer build software together. Every phase ends at a mandatory phase gate; the AI copilot cannot advance without explicit human sign-off.
Used in: Applied during all development work; each feature's implementation is structured as a phase plan within a session folder in the execution loop.
G
Governed AI
An AI coding tool operating within the constraints of an established authority chain and execution loop. A governed AI's scope, reasoning, and output are constrained by a chain of human-approved documents — it does not determine its own scope or advance phases unilaterally.
Used in: Applied throughout Strata 3, 4, and 5; defines the operating relationship between the human engineer and the AI copilot on any STRATA-governed project.
P
Phase gate
A defined checkpoint within the Execution Loop at which the human engineer must explicitly approve before the next phase begins. A phase gate is a structural governance control — it cannot be delegated to the AI copilot or skipped.
Used in: Applied at the boundary between every phase in Stratum 4; no phase may begin until the prior phase gate is explicitly cleared by the human engineer.
Protected route
A content path registered in PROTECTED_ROUTES that requires an authenticated session with the correct role before content is served. Frontmatter requiredRole alone does not protect content — the path must also appear in PROTECTED_ROUTES to block direct content API calls.
Used in: Applied in Stratum 4 and 5 when implementing member-only content; both the browser-side route guard and the server-side content guard consult PROTECTED_ROUTES independently.
R
Role (RBAC)
A named access level — public, customer, partner, or admin — that controls which content a user can access on this platform. Roles are stored in the session and checked by both the browser route guard and the server content guard on every request.
Used in: Applied throughout the platform to gate member-only content and implementation templates; the role hierarchy is tier 0 (public) through tier 3 (admin).
S
Session
The authenticated state of a registered member, stored as a sealed HttpOnly cookie with a 7-day TTL. The session carries the user's id, email, optional name, and role — the role is what the content guard checks against PROTECTED_ROUTES on each request.
Used in: Applied on every page request; the session determines which content the server will serve and which navigation items Docus renders in the sidebar.
Stratum
One of the five load-bearing layers of the STRATA Protocol governance framework. Each stratum has one framing question and one output layer; the five strata are Classification, Derivation, Authority Chain, Execution Loop, and Artifact Trail.
Used in: Applied across the entire framework; practitioners refer to a stratum by number (e.g., "Stratum 2 — Derivation") when citing which governance layer a document or process belongs to.