Vocabulary
Glossary
Every term that appears on this site, defined in plain English. Algorand-specific stuff, the crypto + protocol vocabulary, AI / agent terminology, and the tooling lexicon. Linked where the term has its own page.
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Algorand
- Algorand
- Layer-1 blockchain CorvidLabs is native to. ~3-second finality, ~$0.001 fees, mature SDK in every language we touch. Carbon-negative.
- ASA Algorand Standard Asset
- On-chain token type. Fungible (like USDC) or non-fungible (NFT). The native asset primitive on Algorand.
- ARC Algorand Request for Comments
- Standards process for Algorand. ARC-69 is the standard for ASA-backed NFT metadata; ARC-19 for upgradable NFT URIs. CorvidLabs uses ARC-69 heavily for the agent memory system.
- USDC
- Dollar-backed stablecoin on Algorand. Used for in-app tips, hosted-tier billing (planned), and pay-per-task agent fees.
- Localnet
- Local Algorand network for development. `fledge-plugin-localnet` spins it up. Mints test ALGO, runs test ASAs, simulates federation tests without burning real money.
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Crypto / Protocol
- AlgoChat
- CorvidLabs's E2EE messaging protocol. X25519 + ChaCha20-Poly1305 + HKDF-SHA256 + two-level ratchet. Six language implementations sharing one wire format.
- PSK Pre-Shared Key
- Out-of-band shared secret used by AlgoChat to bootstrap encrypted channels. Two parties can establish a contact via QR code, paste-pair, or a deterministic derivation from a BIP-39 phrase.
- Federation
- Multi-server protocol where corvid-chat homeservers route messages between each other. Ed25519-signed `SignedFrame<FederationFrame>` envelopes; anti-replay protected.
- Sealed-sender
- Privacy property where the server can't tell which channel member produced a ciphertext. Tombstoned deletes still leak `from_user` metadata; sealed-sender is the technique that closes that gap.
- X25519
- Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman key exchange. AlgoChat uses it to derive the shared secret each pair of identities encrypts with. Fast, standardized, and easy to implement consistently across six languages.
- ChaCha20-Poly1305
- Authenticated encryption (AEAD) cipher used by AlgoChat for the message body. Confidentiality + integrity in one primitive. Tampered ciphertext fails decryption instead of silently corrupting.
- HKDF-SHA256
- HMAC-based key derivation. Used by AlgoChat's two-level ratchet to derive per-message keys from the long-term shared secret. Each message gets a fresh key; compromise tomorrow's, yesterday's stays sealed.
- Ed25519
- Elliptic-curve signature scheme. Algorand addresses are Ed25519 pubkeys; corvid-chat homeservers sign federation frames with the same key. One identity, two cryptographic roles.
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AI / Agents
- MCP Model Context Protocol
- Anthropic's protocol for LLM ↔ tool integration. Merlin supports MCP transports; spec-sync exposes its registry over MCP.
- Agent
- An LLM-driven program that takes actions on your behalf. Merlin is CorvidLabs's in-house runner for spawning agents on tasks: per-task, not always-on.
- Sub-agent
- An agent spawned by another agent with a fresh context window. The pattern that closes Merlin's context-retention gap. Main agent stays lean, delegates heavy work to ephemeral sub-agents that return summaries.
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Tooling
- spec-sync
- CorvidLabs's spec-to-code validation tool. `.spec.md` files are contracts; spec-sync ensures the code matches the spec (in both directions) and fails CI when they drift.
- fledge
- The dev-lifecycle CLI. Task runner + plugin protocol + AI review + scaffolding. The single CI gate across every CorvidLabs project.
- Merlin
- CorvidLabs's in-house AI agent runner. Multi-provider, tier-aware, plugin-shaped. Built on the fledge plugin protocol and spec-sync contracts.
- Quill
- Local-first voice dictation app. Whisper STT on-device, embedded llama.cpp polish with a verified GGUF, and system-wide paste. macOS .dmg + Linux .AppImage/.deb; closed alpha during dogfooding.
- Lane
- An ordered list of tasks in fledge. E.g. `verify = ["fmt-check", "lint", "test", "spec-check"]`. The unit of CI work; one lane = one PR check.
- Plugin
- A `fledge-v1`-protocol subprocess that extends fledge or Merlin with new commands. WASM-sandboxed plugins ship too: a fuel-metered Wasmtime/WASI sandbox with capability-scoped access.
- Worktree
- Git feature that materializes a branch into a separate working directory, so multiple agents (or tasks) can work on different branches in parallel without stepping on each other.
- Cargo workspace
- Rust convention for a multi-crate repository sharing one Cargo.lock and one target/ directory. corvid-chat and Merlin are both workspaces: one repo, many crates, one set of dependencies.
- Tier
- Merlin's per-task model selector: `read` (cheap context builders), `tool` (default day-to-day), `code` (high-capability for writing). Runtime `--tier` flag, not a provider field; each tier routes to a different provider entry from `[merlin.providers.*]`.
- iced
- Cross-platform Rust GUI library with an Elm-architecture. The corvid-chat desktop client is built on iced 0.13. Renders via wgpu on macOS / Windows / Linux without per-platform forks.
- ratatui
- Rust library for building terminal user interfaces. The corvid-chat admin TUI uses it to manage identity, invites, peers, and channels from the terminal.
- Wasmtime
- Bytecode Alliance WebAssembly runtime with capability-based sandboxing. fledge's WASM plugin sandbox uses Wasmtime to run untrusted plugins with explicit filesystem / network / env capabilities.
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