Glossary

Cross-domain terms used across the public Nimi documentation. Each entry is a reader-facing summary; precise authority lives in .nimi/spec/** and is linked from the corresponding domain section.

Platform And World Model

Nimi. An AI open world platform. Worlds, agents, applications, runtime services, and identity share one social and semantic environment instead of each app inventing its own private world model.

World. A long-lived semantic and social environment with its own rules, participants, history, and presence. Anyone admitted as a world creator can build a world; the platform supplies the cross-world contracts so identity and meaning can move between worlds.

Open World. A world that is composable with other worlds through the platform protocol. It isn't the same as "open source." It refers to participation, identity portability, and shared semantics across worlds.

Participant. A first-class entity inside a world. People, AI agents, and applications can each participate, but with different capability and authority profiles.

Six Protocol Primitives. The fixed cross-world contract surface defined by the platform protocol. Timeflow, Social, Economy, Transit, Context, and Presence. Worlds may define their own internal rules, but meaning that crosses worlds must fit these six contracts.

OASIS Comparison. Nimi compares itself to an OASIS-style world engine in shape, not in content. OASIS is framed in spec as a physical world engine; Nimi is a social and semantic world engine. Worlds rules are creator-defined; the cross-world contract surface is fixed.

Authority Domains

Authority Domain. A named owner surface (Platform, Runtime, SDK, Desktop, Realm, Avatar, Cognition, Nimi Coding) responsible for a specific kind of truth. A claim that crosses authority domains must be admitted, not implied.

Platform. Owns the open world model, protocol primitives, and authority rules.

Runtime. Owns AI execution: providers, workflows, streaming, multimodal delivery, local capability routing, delegation, audit, and runtime-owned agent participation.

SDK. The TypeScript app-facing access boundary. Apps consume Runtime, Realm, world composition, scope, and mods through the SDK rather than crossing private internals.

Desktop. The first-party native shell. Hosts native, local, and mod capabilities admitted by Desktop contracts.

Web. A constrained projection of selected platform surfaces. Does not inherit Desktop-native capabilities by implication.

Realm. Owns semantic truth: world state, world history, chat, social, economy, asset, transit, binding, and resource semantics. The public docs describe the public read path; backend, dashboard, and creator-side authority lives in private repositories and is not absorbed into the public docs.

Avatar. Owns embodied agent presentation: embodiment projection, carrier visual acceptance, and shell-specific rendering boundaries.

Cognition. Owns standalone memory, knowledge, prompt serving, references, completion, skill service, and runtime bridge semantics.

Nimi Coding. The AI-coding governance workflow: topics, waves, packets, preflight checks, audits, and closeout evidence.

Runtime Vocabulary

Workflow. A governed multi-step execution graph owned by Runtime. Has node types, state transitions, streamed events, and terminal outcomes.

Streaming. Runtime contract for partial and final delivery, including stage boundaries, terminal frames, error semantics, and gating.

Provider. An external or local source of AI capability. Provider identity and capability information is governed runtime data, not marketing copy.

Model Catalog. The runtime-governed source of truth for model identity, capability, and lifecycle status.

Multimodal Artifact. A non-text output (image, audio, video, voice, music) produced under Runtime artifact contracts.

Delegated Capability. A Runtime-owned authority for forwarding requests to external providers under firewall and approval contracts.

Local Capability. Runtime-owned routing, device profile, and engine capability semantics for local execution.

SDK Vocabulary

Surface. A named SDK sub-path with its own export and boundary contract (sdk/runtime, sdk/realm, sdk/world, sdk/ai-provider, sdk/scope, sdk/mod, sdk/types).

Boundary. A spec-admitted import or call rule that prevents apps from crossing into private Runtime, Realm, or Cognition internals.

Projection. A typed app-facing view of an underlying authoritative contract. The projection does not redefine the contract; it exposes it.

Realm Vocabulary

Truth. Canonical semantic facts about a world, owned by Realm.

World State. The current state of a world, governed by world-state contracts.

World History. Past states and transitions, governed by world-history contracts.

Chat. Realm-owned chat semantics when conversation participates in world meaning.

Desktop Vocabulary

Shell. Desktop's native first-party UI surface.

Mod. A Desktop extension that runs near the user surface under hook capability allowlists.

Hook Capability. A specific, allowlisted ability granted to a mod through a typed hook surface.

Web Adapter. The constrained projection of selected Desktop surfaces into the browser. Native bootstrap, mod registration, native window behavior, and sensitive token persistence are disabled in this surface.

Avatar Vocabulary

Embodiment. A governed presentation projection of an agent into a visual or interactive carrier.

Carrier. The host surface that renders an embodiment under a typed visual acceptance contract.

Cognition Vocabulary

Memory. Long-lived participant context owned by Cognition.

Knowledge. Retrievable structured information owned by Cognition.

Prompt Serving. Cognition-owned authoritative prompt templates and serving lanes.

Runtime Bridge. The seam through which Runtime can consume Cognition without absorbing Cognition's authority.

Nimi Coding Vocabulary

Topic. A governed work track for high-risk or authority-bearing work.

Wave. A bounded owner cut inside a topic. A wave isolates one closure domain at a time.

Packet. The frozen execution contract for a wave, including allowed reads, allowed writes, acceptance invariants, negative tests, and stop lines.

Preflight. A stop-line check before a wave's implementation begins.

Audit. Evidence that the work matches authority and consumer needs.

Closeout. The decision that the work is actually done across all closure dimensions.

Closure Dimensions. Authority closure, semantic closure, consumer closure, and drift-resistance closure. A wave is closed only when all four are satisfied.

False Closure. Output that looks complete by one closure dimension while failing another. Common shapes: build passes but the page is unreadable; the page is readable but lacks source authority; the route exists but has no reader value.

Posture And Compatibility

Pre-Launch Posture. The current public posture: the platform model is documented; install commands, distribution channels, provider availability, and model catalogs appear publicly only after the matching evidence is admitted.

Hard Cut. A deliberate removal of a route or page rather than preserving it as a hidden compatibility entrance.

Selected Projection. A locale or surface that intentionally exposes a subset rather than mirroring everything. The public Chinese projection is selected, not full-mirror.

Glossary ​

Platform And World Model ​

Authority Domains ​

Runtime Vocabulary ​

SDK Vocabulary ​

Realm Vocabulary ​

Desktop Vocabulary ​

Avatar Vocabulary ​

Cognition Vocabulary ​

Nimi Coding Vocabulary ​

Posture And Compatibility ​

Source Basis ​