Standards

# Architecture Terms (Ubiquitous-Language Register)

This file is the canonical register for the DDD/Hexagonal vocabulary AgentOps uses. It complements `PRACTICE-REGISTRY.md`, which owns practice slugs rather than architecture terms. Every skill, hook, schema, and CLI command that names one of these concepts MUST use the term as defined here. New terms are appended; existing entries are revised in place rather than renamed. Citations point to the source work that named the concept (`Author Year`) or to a canonical AgentOps doctrine surface. Code anchors are relative-path links; some anchors point at files scheduled by later waves of the DDD+Hexagonal v1 plan and may not yet exist on disk — that is intentional forward referencing.

## Aggregate / Aggregate Root

**Aggregate / Aggregate Root** — Evans, *Domain-Driven Design*, 2003 (Part II, ch. 6). An *aggregate* is a cluster of domain objects treated as a single unit for the purpose of invariant enforcement and persistence; the *aggregate root* is the one entity outside collaborators are allowed to reference, and it gate-keeps every mutation so the aggregate's invariants hold at every transaction boundary. In AgentOps v1, `ExecutionPacket` is the sole aggregate root — phase transitions, attempt history, and verdict assignment all flow through it so that "a packet is always in a legal phase with a consistent attempt graph" remains invariant. Anchor: [`../../../cli/internal/domain/packet/aggregate.go`](../../../cli/internal/domain/packet/aggregate.go) (created in Wave 1 #6).

## Bounded Context

**Bounded Context** — Evans, *Domain-Driven Design*, 2003 (Part IV, ch. 14). A *bounded context* is an explicit boundary inside which a single model and its ubiquitous language apply consistently; outside the boundary the same words may mean different things, and translation is required at the seam. In AgentOps each skill directory under `skills/<name>/` is treated as one bounded context: terms like "validate", "promote", or "phase" carry skill-local meanings, and cross-skill contracts go through declared inputs/outputs rather than shared mutable state. Anchor: [`../../../skills/`](../../../skills/) (each subdirectory is one context).

## Ubiquitous Language

**Ubiquitous Language** — Evans, *Domain-Driven Design*, 2003 (Part I, ch. 2). A *ubiquitous language* is a vocabulary deliberately shared between domain experts and code so that the same words name the same concepts in conversation, documentation, and source — eliminating the translation layer that otherwise rots requirements. AgentOps maintains its ubiquitous language as two coupled registries: the practice-slug registry at [`../../../PRACTICE-REGISTRY.md`](../../../PRACTICE-REGISTRY.md) for cross-era practice names, and this file for DDD/Hexagonal architectural terms. Anchor: [`../../../PRACTICE-REGISTRY.md`](../../../PRACTICE-REGISTRY.md) — the slug registry section.

## Port / Adapter

**Port / Adapter** — Cockburn, "Hexagonal architecture" (alistair.cockburn.us), 2005. In *hexagonal architecture* a *port* is a domain-defined interface describing one kind of conversation the application can have with the outside world; an *adapter* is the concrete implementation of that conversation against a specific technology. Ports come in two flavors: *primary* (driving) ports are called *by* outside actors (CLI, HTTP, test harness) to invoke the domain, while *secondary* (driven) ports are called *by* the domain to reach external systems (storage, Git, LLM, beads). In AgentOps the `PacketRepository`, `ClaimEmitter`, and `EvaluatorBus` interfaces are secondary ports; the `ao` CLI commands are primary adapters that drive those ports. Anchor: [`../../../cli/internal/ports/`](../../../cli/internal/ports/) (created in Wave 1 #6).

## Anti-Corruption Layer (ACL)

**Anti-Corruption Layer (ACL)** — Evans, *Domain-Driven Design*, 2003 (Part IV, ch. 14, "Anticorruption Layer" pattern). An *anti-corruption layer* is a translating boundary placed betw