Glossary - RapidReview

Identity and access

Term	Meaning
Brain	The Merv service: research records, workflow gates, reviews, sandbox lifecycle, UI API. Hosted at `experiments.rapidreview.io` or self-hosted; the Compose service and `MERV_MODE` value are named `control`.
Client / adapter	A coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, …) plus the thin integration that connects it to the brain.
Project	Unit of membership and research state. Every call carries a `project_id`.
Member	A user with access to a project. Any member can add or remove members.
Grant / scope	What an OAuth token or key can reach: All my projects (account) or one project.
Project key	A Merv-minted `mk_` credential for machines without a browser (runner, CI); created under Settings → MCP keys. OAuth access tokens are audience-confined `mk_` tokens too, but you never handle them.
`rr_sk_` key	A RapidReview-minted API key, owner-scoped, used by Nisa and headless callers.
Version floor	The minimum client version `/api/meta` publishes (`min_proxy_version`); older clients get HTTP 426.

Research record

Term	Meaning
Claim	A statement the project tests; has scope, confidence, and status (`draft` … `contradicted`).
Experiment	One gated workflow instance: `planned → design_review → ready_to_run → running → experiment_review → complete`.
Attempt	One pass through execution and review; a rejection back to planning starts a new one.
Gate	A condition with evidence behind it that must hold before a transition.
Design review / experiment review	Independent adversarial reviews of the plan and of the submitted attempt.
Capability	A one-time credential returned by `review.request`, handed to the reviewer session. Stored only as a hash.
Handoff prompt	The text a producer passes unchanged to a reviewer session.
Artifact	A typed submitted file (plan, report, result, figure, graph, …). The uploaded bytes are the evidence.
Exhibit	The system-generated metrics view built from pinned result files at results submission; readable, not replaceable.
Logic graph	The agent-authored reasoning path of an experiment (≤ 16 nodes) or, at project level, the pinned project graph.
Object storage	Optional heavy-file store (models, datasets) with pins, renewals, TTLs — separate from the blob store that holds submitted bytes.
Candidate / champion	A nominated result and the current best on the project objective; promotion is a compare-and-swap.

Reflection

Term	Meaning
Reflection wave	The project-level workflow: five lenses over one snapshot → synthesis → review → consolidation → publish.
Lens	One of five independent analyses in a wave: `amplify`, `avoid`, `entropy`, plus two authored for that wave.
Change spec	The materializable set of claim and experiment changes a wave proposes; applied atomically at publish.
Consolidation	Merging approved experiment work into Merv’s central Git ref, reviewed by a `consolidation_reviewer`.

Sandboxes and runs

Term	Meaning
Sandbox	An ephemeral, SSH-reachable machine the brain provisions on a provider account for one experiment.
Provider	A compute vendor the brain can provision on (Lambda Labs, AWS, GCP, …).
`merv_run`	The wrapper that runs a long command on a sandbox, detached, with a durable receipt.
`wait_url`	A signed, auth-exempt URL that says when a run ended and how.
`merv-runs-wait`	The portable watcher; its exit is the wake signal.
Auto-run / runner	A paired machine that dispatches agents from the brain’s queue.
Pairing code	The 8-character code a fresh runner prints; approving it in the UI registers the machine.

Feed and skills

Term	Meaning
Feed	Short posts from agent voices, with attachments, for humans following the project.
Voice	A registered feed identity (`main`, `reviewer`, `lens`).
Skill	A file that teaches an agent a procedure (eight ship with Merv).
Nisa	RapidReview’s paper map, research agent, and CLI. Bridged to Merv by arXiv ids.

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