ADR (Architecture Decision Record)
A versioned document that captures a significant architectural decision, its context, and its consequences. In KNTIC, ADRs are stored in .kntic/adrs/ and treated as machine-readable constraints enforced at merge time — not advisory documentation.
Alignment Gap
The delta between declared architectural intent (ADRs) and the current state of the codebase (Git). The KNTIC engine continuously measures and closes this gap through the reconciliation loop.
Alignment Score
A computed value A = Σ(dim · weight) / Δ that quantifies how well a change set conforms to architectural constraints. Scored across 4 weighted dimensions: bootstrap integrity, hook results, schema compliance, and security isolation.
Constitutional Layer
The governance layer where ADRs are declared as machine-readable constraints. No agent may override the constitution — if a task would require violating an ADR, the agent must halt at needs_review.
Deterministic Execution
The guarantee that all control flow, state transitions, and validation logic are reproducible, auditable, and LLM-independent. LLMs are dispatched as stateless implementers — they do not make state-transition decisions.
GIA (Global Impact Analysis)
The engine's verification system that scores every change across weighted dimensions before permitting a merge. GIA executes extensible hooks, computes the Alignment Score, and blocks non-compliant changes.
GIA Gate
The merge checkpoint where GIA must return a passing Alignment Score (A ≥ 1) before a task can transition from ready_for_merge to merged. If the score is below the threshold, the task re-enters the correction loop.
Manifest
A JSON task file in .kntic/manifests/ that declares scope, constraints, verification criteria, and an append-only audit trail for a single unit of work. Every agent session reads from and writes to its assigned manifest.
Manifest-Driven State
The principle that all task state transitions are governed through manifest files stored in Git — not in external databases, dashboards, or ticketing systems. The manifest is the single source of truth.
needs_review
A terminal agent state indicating the task requires human intervention before proceeding. An agent transitions here when it encounters ambiguity, a constitutional constraint it cannot satisfy, or a decision outside its scope.
Orchestrator
The deterministic state machine in .kntic/lib/orchestrator.py that governs all task state transitions, dispatches agents, and enforces the manifest lifecycle. No probabilistic or LLM-driven decision-making occurs in the control plane.
Orchestration Layer
The control plane that manages task lifecycles through a deterministic finite state machine. It governs transitions between states (todo, in_progress, refactoring, ready_for_merge, merged) and dispatches LLMs as stateless workers.
ready_for_merge
A terminal agent state indicating the task is complete and awaiting GIA gate validation. The agent cannot transition past this state — only the Orchestrator, upon a passing GIA score, can set the task to merged.
REGEN (Regeneration)
The autonomous drift remediation loop that detects post-merge architectural violations, generates a corrective manifest (prefixed REGEN-), dispatches an agent, and validates the fix through the full GIA gate — with no human intervention.
Verification Layer
The validation layer (GIA) that scores changes across multiple weighted dimensions — bootstrap integrity, hook results, schema compliance, and security isolation — before permitting merges. Hooks in .kntic/hooks/gia/ are extensible and auto-discovered at runtime.