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Glossary

This page defines the project terms. Each entry gives the term, its part of speech (noun, adjective or verb), and its meaning in these documents.

battery

Noun. A battery is a set of requests that a script sends to claustrum and to a reference build. The script then compares the frames of the two daemons. See Upstream tracking.

busy

Adjective. A daemon with a client connection is busy. On Linux the host cleaner reads this from /proc/net/unix. On macOS it learns this from an lsof run. If the host cleaner gives up on that run before a result comes, the daemon is also busy. The host cleaner sends no SIGTERM to a busy daemon. See Host cleaner and D17.

cleaner

Noun. The cleaner, or host cleaner, is a part of the daemon on Linux and macOS. At intervals it stops orphan Claude Code process groups and daemons that are not in use, and it removes stale run directories. It works for only one layout of the socket path, and only for a daemon binary that is deployed under that layout. See Host cleaner.

containment

Noun. Containment is the rule that a path must be inside a given directory. For example, worktreePath must be inside baseRepo and not equal to it. See git.worktree_remove.

daemon folder

Noun. The folder of one daemon below git-shadow. See The settings copy.

divergence

Noun. A divergence is a difference from the reference that claustrum has by decision. Each divergence has an entry in the divergence catalog.

drift

Noun. Drift is a difference from the reference that the project did not choose. A new reference build or a new toolchain can cause drift. See Upstream tracking.

driver

Noun. A driver is the client program that controls the daemon. Claude Desktop is a driver. See Architecture.

eviction

Noun. Eviction is the step in which a new daemon stops the daemon that holds the same socket. The new daemon does this before it binds the socket. It runs on Linux and macOS only. See daemon.lock.

guard

Noun. A guard is a test that claustrum runs before an operation that can cause damage. If the input is dangerous, the guard refuses it. For example, wipesHomeDir is a guard. See D2.

identity

Noun. This term has three uses:

  • The identity of a file or a directory is the value by which the OS identifies it. Two paths with the same identity lead to the same object.
  • The identity of a process is the set of values by which the daemon knows that process, for example its PID together with its start time.
  • The identity of a machine is the set of values by which the daemon knows the host and its PID namespace.

See daemon.lock.

parity

Noun. Parity is the condition in which claustrum behaves the same as the reference. A behavior that has parity is not a divergence. See Divergences.

pass

Noun. A pass is one full cycle of an operation through its items. For example, each run of the host cleaner is a pass. The documents also use the term for one cycle of measurements. See Host cleaner.

pin

Noun. This term has two uses:

  • The pin is the one reference build that the project compares claustrum against at this time. The file scripts/UPSTREAM_SHA holds its SHA. See Reference builds.
  • A pin is a value that the daemon gives to a git call and that the git configuration cannot change. Examples are the GIT_COMMON_DIR pin and the hook pins. See Hardened git calls.

probe

Noun. This term has two uses:

  • A probe is a test that claustrum runs on a program to find its state. Examples are the <cli> --version probe of -probe-cli and the libc probe. See -probe-cli.
  • A probe is a measurement of a reference binary that uses only its inputs and its outputs. See Upstream tracking.

reconciliation

Noun. Reconciliation is the work that makes claustrum agree with a new reference build. See Upstream tracking.

reference

Noun. The reference is the daemon that claustrum reimplements in a clean room. The project compares each behavior of claustrum with a reference build, and a git SHA identifies each build. In the title "Protocol reference", the word is part of the name of a document. See Reference builds.

refusal

Noun. A refusal is a result in which an operation does not happen because a rule, a guard, the OS or another program rejects it. The response or the output gives the cause. See catalog of error texts.

seed

Noun. This term has two uses:

  • The seed is the set of files that git.worktree_create copies into a new worktree. See git.worktree_create.
  • A seed is an input from which a fuzz test starts. See IMPROVEMENTS.md.

settings copy

Noun. The daemon's own copy of a repository's git settings. See The settings copy.

sleeper

Noun. A sleeper is a test process that only waits.

spelling

Noun. The spelling of a path is its sequence of characters. Two different spellings can lead to the same file. See Path handling.

stage

Noun and verb. This term has three uses:

  • To stage a file is the git operation that adds a change to the index.
  • A staging file or a staging name is a temporary file or a temporary name that an operation uses until it completes. For example, -install writes the CLI to a staging file and then renames it. See Architecture.
  • A staged fixture is a test state that a person prepares before a measurement.

stale

Adjective. A stale object is left over from an operation or a daemon that stopped, and it is not in use. Examples are a stale socket file, a stale run directory, and a stale worktree entry. See Host cleaner.

stamp

Noun. A stamp is a small piece of data that a program puts on an object to identify it. A build stamp identifies the build or the toolchain of a binary. A time stamp gives the time of a log line. See Reference builds.

state

Noun. The value of settingsControl: shadow, fallback-git or off-switch. See The settings copy.

success

Noun. This term has two uses:

  • A success is a response that contains "success":true. See Message shapes.
  • Success is the result of an operation that completes with no error.

sweep

Noun. A sweep is an operation that goes through all the entries of a directory or a list and removes the entries that a rule selects. Examples are the sweeps of -install in the CLI directory and the sweep of the host cleaner. See Architecture.

undo

Noun. The undo is the rollback of git.worktree_create. If the rollback cannot complete, the daemon adds an undo text to the error. See git.worktree_create.

wire

Noun. The wire is the byte stream of the JSON-RPC connection between a client and the daemon. Data on the wire is in a frame. A behavior that is off the wire changes no frame. The wire surface is the set of all the methods and frames that a client can see on the wire. See Transport.