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dragiter Glossary

Version: derived from source (2026.10.22)
Language: British English
Audience: readers of the Manual, the Technical Reference and the FAQ
Scope: Product words. Not a procedure guide and not a flag list.
Sources: docs/manual.md, docs/reference.md, docs/info.txt, CHANGELOG.md, README.md, example READMEs, and the 2026.10.22 tree

Each entry is the meaning the program actually uses. Board labels are quoted exactly as they appear on stdout and in simulate files. When this page disagrees with the Manual or the Technical Reference, name the file and the version and treat this page as uncertain.

British English is used throughout.

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Terms

Activity log

A JSON Lines trace of one run, appended when an activity file is requested. Every record has a run_id, a sequence number, a UTC timestamp, an event name and a payload. It states what the provider reported and what dragiter sent, and nothing in between; null means that nothing was reported or sent. It holds no message or answer text, only counts and checksums, and a set API key is masked.

It is not the run board and not the model reply.

See Manual, Activity logging. See Reference §10.

Assembly

For -o and stdout-only, merging every non-empty shard in a run's workspace into one file, immediately before commit. Shards stay in place until the commit removes them. Never runs for -O, where each shard is renamed straight onto its own final name instead.

It is not a second split and not deduplication. It only joins the shards already present, with output_delimiter, and discards shards with no content.

See Shard. See Delimiter. See Reference §9.

Batched

Board label mode batched. All valid chunks of one loop line are placed in a single chat request. The system instruction and the introductory first text appear once; each valid chunk becomes its own user message from the material template; synthesis appears once. Without a loop file there is one such request. With a loop file there is one request per line, each still holding every valid chunk.

It is not “ask the same question once per chunk”. That is sequential mode. It is not packing. It is not a provider batch API and not parallel calls. The board word in 2026.9.13 is batched, not combined.

See Manual, Sequential versus batched processing. See Reference §9.

Character estimate

Token size used by the window check: the character length of every message in the session, divided by chars_per_token, then truncated to an integer. The board cell tokens is that input estimate plus the reserved output budget.

It is not a vendor tokenizer and not chars / chars_per_token on the raw chunk alone.

See Manual, How to keep requests inside the model’s context window. See Reference §9.

Chunk

One piece of material after the staged split, optional substitutions, optional packing, and include/exclude filters. A chunk belongs to one file and one resource section. It is either valid or invalid.

It is not a chat session and not a loop line.

See Manual, Material, chunks and the context window. See Reference §6.

Chunk substitutions

An optional, ordered rewrite of each piece after the first split and before packing and filters. Replacements are literal: back-references in the replacement string are ordinary characters.

It is not a second split and has no command-line override.

See Manual, How to define material. See Reference §6. See CHANGELOG 2026.9.13.

Circuit breaker

A hard stop that aborts the run: 100 MB per input file, 200 chunks unless the cap is raised, 50 loop lines. Soft size notes (very short or very large pieces) warn and continue.

It is not the context-window refusal, which is a separate check.

See Manual, Hard safety limits. See Reference §2.

Combined

Informal synonym for batched. It does not appear on the 2026.9.13 board. Do not write it in commands, snapshots or support answers that quote stdout.

See Batched.

Commit

Transferring a run's workspace to its sink: renaming each shard onto its final name for -O, or moving the Assembly result onto the target for -o and stdout-only. Runs only after every session has been persisted, and only on success; carried out by OutputWriter through OutputCommitService.

It is not Persist and not Assembly, though it always follows both.

See Assembly. See Reference §9.

Context window

The model’s input-plus-output budget. dragiter enforces it only when chars_per_token, max_context_tokens and max_output_tokens are all set. A request whose estimated input plus reserved output exceeds max_context_tokens is refused before the network — except in simulation, which records a warning and still prints the board.

It is not packed character count.

See Manual, How to keep requests inside the model’s context window. See Reference §2 and §9.

Cut-off reply

A reply the provider stopped at the output limit (finish_reason length). It ends the run at once with exit code 7 and an error line on stderr; the verbose board marks its line with △. The reply is not written and nothing is committed, so --resume sends that session again.

It is not a refusal by the context window, which happens before any request.

See Reference §1a.

Delimiter

Short for output_delimiter: the text inserted between shards during Assembly, and between existing bytes and a new -m a block. A newline when the prompt template does not set one.

It is not the hardcoded *** that once framed a whole -o/stdout-only file in one pass; that framing is gone between shards. Within one shard, a session's board and its request are still joined by ***.

See Assembly. See Reference §9.

First

The introductory user text of a prompt template (task.first). It is sent once per session, before the material messages.

It is not the system instruction and not the question in synthesis.

See Manual, How to write a prompt template. See Reference §5.

Loop

A list of variants. Plain text: one non-empty line becomes LOOP_CONTENT. JSON Lines: each object’s keys become placeholders. The whole prompt runs once per line. More than 50 lines abort.

An empty list is shown as loops 0 on the run board. Session count still uses an implicit factor of one.

See Manual, How to iterate over many items. See Reference §7.

Material

The texts the model should see, collected from resource sections, split into chunks, then injected through the material template.

It is not the prompt’s question and not the loop file.

See Manual, How to define material. See Reference §6.

Pack

Joining consecutive chunks of the same file after the split, until a character budget would be exceeded. Packing never crosses a file or a section. Valid and invalid chunks are not packed together. A piece that no remaining pattern can shrink stays whole.

Board pack is that effective budget, or off, or mixed. It is not batched mode.

See Manual, How to define material. See Reference §6.

Pack from

Origin of the effective pack budget on the board: cli when a global value is set (including 0), section when one shared positive section budget applies, mixed when section budgets differ, off when nothing positive is set.

mixed and off make the run-board over count zero (over -- on the verbose board).

See Reference §9.

Partial results

Mid-run workspace beside -o or -O, or under the user's default temp directory for stdout-only: .tmp_staging_file_<PID>/ (-o), .tmp_staging_dir_<PID>/ (-O), .tmp_staging_stdout_<PID>/ (stdout-only). None of the three carries a suffix. Created after the -m x check and before the first completion. Removed after a successful commit. Left in place if a later call fails.

They are not the final routed result, and stdout-only has one too — it is not only -o/-O that stage. .dragiter-partial/ is gone.

See Workspace. See Reference §1a. See CHANGELOG 2026.9.26.

Payload table

The role/content rendering of a session's complete outgoing request (format_payload_table); in a simulate run it is the mock service's answer. Appears once per session, after that session's board, in every simulate shard.

It is not the model's reply — simulation makes no call — and not the run board itself.

See Session board. See Reference §9.

Peak

On the run board, peak / limit is the largest session total (estimated input plus reserved output) against max_context_tokens. peak at is the 1-based session index of that maximum. Until the window trio is complete both peak and limit show --.

peak is not the sum of all sessions and not the raw character total.

See Reference §9. See CHANGELOG 2026.9.13.

Placeholder

A {NAME} token in a template. Recognised names include chunk fields, loop fields, JSONL keys and {STDIN}. Unknown names stay visible in the text.

Placeholders are not expanded inside chunk-substitution replacements.

See Reference §5.

Prompt template

The versioned instruction set: system role, first / material / synthesis, optional behaviour and outcome. Same inputs yield the same request payload.

It is not a chat history and not provider configuration.

See Manual, How to write a prompt template. See Reference §5.

Provider

Any OpenAI-compatible chat-completions endpoint. Switching provider means changing the base URL, the model name and, when required, the API key.

dragiter is not a model host and not a vendor SDK wrapper beyond that contract.

See Manual, How to connect. See Reference §1a.

Resource section

One named block in the resource file: where to search, which files match, how to split, whether to pack, which filters and substitutions apply.

Sections do not share packing across their boundary.

See Reference §6.

Resume

--resume: before the first completion of a new -O run, adopt the shards of the most recently modified other .tmp_staging_dir_* workspace left behind under the same DIR (a same-filesystem rename, not a copy), then remove that now-empty source directory. A session whose shard is already there is reported reused on the board and never sent to the LLM, live or mock.

It is not a manifest or a fingerprint check — a changed material file, loop file, prompt or --sequential-processing since the aborted run is not detected; adoption trusts shard position alone. It is not available for -o or stdout-only, and it never touches more than the one, newest sibling workspace.

See Shard. See Staging. See Reference §9. See CHANGELOG 2026.9.29.

Run board

The aggregate simulate summary: sessions, mode, chunks/files, valid/loops, chars, pack, small/over, window, peak, output. Persisted as one leading shard for -o and stdout-only, ahead of every session's own board and request; never produced for -O, which persists one shard per session with no separate aggregate file.

It is not the only thing on stdout. Stdout-only now also shows every session's board and complete outgoing request after it, identical to -o.

See Manual Tutorial step 2. See Reference §9. See design/specs/spec-simu-simulation.md §4.3.

Sequential

Board label mode sequential. Each valid chunk is its own chat request. A loop file multiplies that count. Invalid chunks create no session; if no chunk is valid, the run ends with an error before any request.

It is not “calls run one after another” in the networking sense; combined requests also run one after another.

See Manual, Sequential versus batched processing. See Reference §9.

Session

One assembled chat request: system, first, one or more material messages, synthesis. sessions on the run board is the number of such requests.

It is not a chunk and not a saved conversation across runs. There is no hidden session state.

See Reference §9.

Session board

The per-request header written before every simulate session's transcript: session index, mode, file, chunk, section, valid, chars, tokens, pack, loop. Under a result directory each file starts with this header, then the transcript. On stdout and under -o it appears once per session too, immediately before that session's payload table.

See Manual Tutorial step 2. See Reference §9.

Shard

One finished, single-completion file inside a run's workspace, named by a run-local sequential number (res<N>, fixed width, zero-padded). No relation to the final file name, output_filename_schema, or a chunk's own name.

It is not the final routed file. .dragiter-partial/ used a different, now-removed scheme.

See Workspace. See Reference §9.

Simulate

A full assembly of material, templates and routing with no network call and no token spend. The run board and every session's board plus its complete prompt transcript are the product, on stdout as much as under -o or -O.

It is not a syntax-only parse. Window overflow warns instead of aborting: the boards show window no and warns, while a live run with the same settings is refused.

See Manual Tutorial step 2. See Reference §9.

Small / over

Run-board pair, also at the end of line 2 of the verbose board (small N over M). small counts final chunks shorter than 50 characters. over counts final chunks longer than the effective pack budget. When pack is off or mixed, over is 0 on the run board and -- on the verbose board.

There is no 20 000-character warning in the 2026.9.13 tokenizer. Manual and Reference follow that fact.

See Reference §9. See MaterialTokenizer.count_size_flags in 2026.9.13.

Staging

Typed workspace beside the user-chosen sink, or under the user's default temp directory for stdout-only: .tmp_staging_file_<PID>/ for -o, .tmp_staging_dir_<PID>/ for -O, .tmp_staging_stdout_<PID>/ for stdout-only. None of the three carries a suffix. Completions write there first. -m runs only at commit. The visible target bytes must match a direct -m write with no workspace.

See Workspace. See Reference §9. See CHANGELOG 2026.9.26.

Stdin

Read only when a task is supplied on the command line or when {STDIN} appears in task.first. A pipe into a template that asks for neither is ignored.

See Reference §5. See CHANGELOG 2026.9.9.

Stdout contract

Results — live replies, or for simulate the run board plus every session's board and complete request — appear on stdout only when neither a result file nor a result directory is set. File routing replaces that sink. Shell redirection is not treated as a file sink. Progress (-v) writes to stderr.

See Reference §9. See README stdout contract.

Synthesis

The task or question at the end of a session (task.synthesis). Loop placeholders belong here. In batched mode it is sent once per request, after every material message of that request.

See Manual, How to write a prompt template. See Reference §5.

System instruction

The persona text (system.instruction), sent as the system message of every session.

See Reference §5.

Valid chunk

A chunk that passed include/exclude filters. Only valid chunks enter prompts. Sequential mode skips invalid chunks. Batched mode injects only valid ones. Valid and invalid chunks are never packed together.

A filter that marks almost everything invalid can still “run” and leave file none and raw {CHUNK_*} placeholders.

See Reference §6. See CHANGELOG 2026.8.20.

Verbose board

Live progress on stderr: a start block (its first line shows live api on or simulate api off before the model), one request line per completion with a pulse mark (△ for a cut-off reply, which ends the run), a closing block. A token figure the service did not report is shown as --, never 0. With -o, -O or stdout-only, completions also land in the typed staging workspace beside the target (or, for stdout-only, under the user's default temp directory). The board is never written onto the result sink.

The closing-block prefix is □ (END_MARK, U+25A1 WHITE SQUARE, text_session_board.py). An older CHANGELOG entry printed it as ■; the shipped code and Reference §1a agree on □.

See Reference §1a. See CHANGELOG 2026.9.13.

Warns

The board count warns (run board peak at / warns, verbose board line 4): the number of sessions whose estimate exceeds the context window. Short-chunk log lines do not increment it.

See Reference §9. See ContextWindowEstimator in 2026.9.13.

Window

Board word: yes, no or n/a. n/a means the three window settings are not all present — not a successful estimate of zero. From 2026.9.13 that state is n/a and -- / --, not yes and 0 / 0.

See Reference §9. See CHANGELOG 2026.9.13.

Workspace

The hidden directory that holds one run's shards: .tmp_staging_dir_<PID>/ for -O, .tmp_staging_file_<PID>/ for -o, .tmp_staging_stdout_<PID>/ (under the user's default temp directory) for stdout-only. Created after the early -m x check and before the first completion; removed after a successful commit; left in place if a later call fails.

It is not .dragiter-partial/, which is gone, and it is never shared between sinks. Two runs' workspaces stay separate too — --resume adopts a previous run's leftover shards into the new run's own workspace rather than reusing that workspace itself, and only ever for -O.

See Shard. See Staging. See Resume. See Reference §1a and §9.