Glossary
Each entry gives the short definition and links to the page that owns the topic. Where a term is used inconsistently in the wider ecosystem, the definition here is the one this documentation means.
Configuration
Section titled “Configuration”canonical configuration: the repository-local .agents/ tree and root AGENTS.md. It belongs to the repository rather than to any one harness. See Configuration Layout.
canonical instructions: AGENTS.md and .agents/AGENTS.md, holding repository and shared behavioral guidance. Initialization does not rewrite them.
canonical skills directory: .agents/skills/, the capabilities portion of the canonical configuration. Note that this path is a convention, not part of the Agent Skills specification. See Open Standards.
canonical skill: an immediate directory under .agents/skills/. Files at that level are ignored.
tool setting: harness or tool configuration kept in its own separately named file under .agents/, because each setting has its own schema and compatibility rules.
golden set: the user-authored canonical list of MCP servers at .agents/buddy-agent-harness/mcp.toml, one entry per server in the superset of fields the supported hosts accept. See MCP Servers.
last-projected record: .agents/buddy-agent-harness/mcp.projected.json, the per-target record of what was last written from the golden set, and the drift baseline for a file git cannot speak for. See MCP Servers.
Harnesses
Section titled “Harnesses”harness: a coding-agent runtime with its own skill discovery location. Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor are harnesses.
active harness: the harness in which initialization is invoked.
enabled harness: the active harness plus any harness the user explicitly chose. The enabled set is derived on every run and only ever grows. See Configuration Layout.
native harness: a harness that reads .agents/skills/ directly at project scope, so the canonical directory is its directory and nothing is written for it. See Harness Differences.
polyfill: the umbrella for whatever makes canonical configuration reach a harness that cannot read it, covering both a projection and a bridge. As with a browser polyfill, nothing is written for a harness that already reads the canonical format. The homepage uses this word; the rest of the documentation names the specific mechanism.
projection: a directory-level symlink from a harness path to .agents/skills, such as .claude/skills → ../.agents/skills. Only Claude Code needs one. Where symlinks are unavailable the initializer copies instead, which is a snapshot rather than a live projection.
bridge: the harness-specific edit that lets a harness reach AGENTS.md when it cannot read that file directly. Two exist: the Claude Code CLAUDE.md import and the Gemini CLI context.fileName setting. The CLI writes neither, because both need judgment about user-authored content. The init skill handles them.
skill bridge: whatever points a harness at .agents/skills, whether a symlink or a copy. This is the sense the doctor command prints, where each row of its bridges list is one harness path it checked. A working skill bridge is a projection; the word covers the broken states too, which is why the diagnostic uses it. See doctor.
enabled vs. projected: enabling a harness states what the repository supports; projecting writes a link. For a native harness the two differ, so the CLI result separates native from linked. See Harness Differences.
Skills
Section titled “Skills”skill: a SKILL.md file, holding frontmatter that governs when it loads and a body the agent follows once loaded. Commands, gateways, and personas are all skills. See Kinds of Skill.
launcher: a script a skill ships in its own scripts/ directory, which resolves the code it runs from its own location rather than the working directory. It lets an installed skill run its command without fetching anything. See Skill Scripts.
selection, visibility, effect: the three independent axes that distinguish kinds of skill, namely how it is chosen, who may choose it, and what running it changes. The familiar names are recognizable combinations of values on these axes, not a fixed list.
command: a skill selected explicitly by the user, performing an action. See Commands.
gateway skill: a skill whose effect is routing rather than action. It directs the request to the right place. See Gateway Skill.
persona skill: a skill selected explicitly by the user whose effect is a stance rather than an action. See Persona.
direct invocation skill: an agent-only skill selected by name, with a description kept deliberately unmatchable so it is never auto-loaded. See Direct Invocation Skill.
discipline: a skill triggered by an event, whose effect is a stance.
Instructions
Section titled “Instructions”purpose: what a block of instruction is for, whether procedure, criteria, policy, reference, menu, tone, or structure. A property of the prose, not of the file. See Instruction Purpose.
target: which of the agent’s outputs an instruction governs, and therefore who eventually reads it. Separating targets is what lets contradictory instructions coexist. See Instruction Target.
file type matching, description matching, prose matching: the three mechanisms that specify a target, acting at different moments. A path glob is evaluated by the harness, a description is judged by the agent at load time, and a distinction is drawn in the body while working. See Instruction Target.