Glossary

Workbench Top-level container for your fai setup within a project or at user level. Lives at ~/.fai/workbenches/<project>/. The YOU^AI space - your personal AI context, patterns, history.

Vault A git-backed, typed knowledge store. Each vault has its own schema, storage strategy, sub-vaults, and lifecycle hooks.

Session A named, scoped working context. Implemented as a journal branch inside the capture vault. Sessions can be opened, sealed, and resurrected by name. Never auto-deleted.

Journal The code-level term for a vault scoping unit (what the CLI calls a "session"). Branch name format: journal/timestamp-slug.

Capture Raw observation written to JSONL. Zero AI, zero cost. File changes, terminal activity, git events, AI transcripts. Foundation of the knowledge flow.

Digest Processed capture files - JSONL entries grouped by common suffix, ordered by timestamp. What synthesis agents read.

Seal Merging a session branch into the pending git branch. Just a git merge. Marks end of a discrete work unit.

Pending Protected git branch where sealed sessions accumulate before synthesis runs.

Kept The canonical git branch. What synthesis agents read. What the next session inherits from. Never deleted.

Synthesis AI processing of captured digests into meaningful vault content. Runs per-sub-vault using a persistent chat session so each run has memory of previous runs.

Compound Intelligence The full cascade: captures → all sub-vaults synthesized → knowledge vault aggregated. When everything fai has observed becomes structured knowledge your AI can use.

Crystallization Not a code term - the outcome where repeated workflows become permanent workbench intelligence through vault synthesis proposals accepted by the user.

MCP Server fai's local Model Context Protocol server. Exposes vault tools so any MCP-compatible AI can read from and write to your workbench. Started with fai --mcp.

Prune Vault history compaction. Replaces multiple old commits with fewer, rewrites the kept branch. Keeps AI chat history small and cheap without losing signal.

YOU^AI The scale journey marker for the personal workbench tier - fai as individual. Grows into TEAM^AI (workshop) when collaborating.