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Glossary of Terms

This page defines the core concepts, components, and mathematical terms used throughout the ARF Specification. The diagram below shows how key entities relate to each other.

Definitions

Term Definition Category See also
InfrastructureIntent Abstract base class for any infrastructure request (provision, grant access, deploy config). It contains service name, environment, requester, and provenance metadata. Core core_concepts.md
HealingIntent Immutable container for a governance recommendation. Contains action (approve/deny/escalate), risk score, justification, confidence, and full decision trace. Core governance.md
RiskScore Bayesian posterior mean (0–1) computed by the RiskEngine. Blends conjugate prior, HMC prediction, and optional hyperprior. Mathematics mathematics.md
GovernanceLoop Orchestrator that processes an InfrastructureIntent and returns a HealingIntent. Integrates cost, policy, risk, epistemic uncertainty, predictive foresight, and memory. Core governance.md
RecommendedAction Enum: APPROVE, DENY, ESCALATE, DEFER. Determined by expected loss minimisation, overridden by policy violations or high epistemic uncertainty. Decision governance.md
Expected Loss Minimisation Decision rule that selects the action with smallest expected loss, using cost constants (COST_FP, COST_FN, etc.) and optional CVaR for tail risk. Decision governance.md
Escalation Gates Mechanical validations in the enterprise layer: license, confidence, risk, rollback, causal. All required gates must pass for execution. Enterprise enterprise.md
Execution Ladder Hierarchy of autonomy levels: Advisory → Operator Review → Supervised → Autonomous (Low) → Autonomous (High) → Novel Execution. Enforced by enterprise gates. Enterprise enterprise.md
Conjugate Beta Online Bayesian model with Beta priors per action category. Posterior parameters (α,β) updated after each outcome. Provides fast, interpretable risk updates. Mathematics mathematics.md
HMC Logistic Regression Offline Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (NUTS) model that captures complex patterns (time of day, user role, environment) from historical data. Mathematics mathematics.md
Hyperprior Shrinkage Hierarchical Beta model (α₀,β₀ ∼ Gamma(2,1)) that shares statistical strength across categories. Fit via SVI in Pyro. Mathematics mathematics.md
Epistemic Uncertainty Composite score ψ = 1 - (1‑hallucination)(1‑forecast_uncertainty)(1‑data_sparsity). When ψ > threshold, forces escalation. Decision governance.md
Lyapunov Stability Discrete‑time stability guarantee for healing actions. Quadratic Lyapunov function V(x,r) decreases along trajectories if a stabilising action exists. Mathematics mathematics.md
Temporal Reliability Optional external layer for cross‑session reliability aggregation. Uses session_id, observed_at, time windows, decay. Does not affect in‑session scoring. Extension temporal_reliability.md
RAGGraphMemory Semantic memory using FAISS index (IndexFlatL2 in OSS) to retrieve similar past incidents. Enhances confidence via similarity‑weighted boosting. Core design.md
CVaR Conditional Value at Risk. When enabled (USE_CVAR=true), approve loss uses average of worst α=0.05 fraction of loss samples – penalises tail risk. Decision constants.py
IntentSource Enum indicating origin of a HealingIntent: OSS_ANALYSIS, HUMAN_OVERRIDE, RAG_SIMILARITY, INFRASTRUCTURE_ANALYSIS, etc. Core healing_intent.py

Acronyms & Abbreviations

Acronym Full form
ARF Agentic Reliability Framework
HMC Hamiltonian Monte Carlo
NUTS No‑U‑Turn Sampler
SVI Stochastic Variational Inference
CVaR Conditional Value at Risk
HDI Highest Density Interval
RAG Retrieval‑Augmented Generation
FAISS Facebook AI Similarity Search
ECLIPSE Epistemic Confidence Learning with Integrated Probabilistic Semantic Evaluation (hallucination probe)
OSS Open‑Source Software (public specification and demo; core engine is proprietary)

How to use this glossary

  • Terms are linked to their primary specification page where applicable.
  • Use the concept map above to understand relationships at a glance.
  • The table is searchable (your browser’s find function works).

See also