ka renames a handful of concepts deliberately: the names are precise, and they show up in config, error messages, and the TUI. This is the full vocabulary.
| Term |
Meaning |
| strand |
One session: an append-only JSONL file, a tree of records with a single live tip |
| record |
One line in a strand (message, change, digest, boundary, or custom) |
| offshoot |
Moving the tip to an earlier record (branching in place, /rewind) |
| split |
Copying a strand’s prefix into a new strand file with a parent link: a fork |
| digest |
A compaction record: a summary plus the kept-tail boundary; never cuts between a tool call and its result |
| steer |
User input delivered mid-turn, between tool batches (Enter while ka works) |
| queue |
User input held for after the turn settles (+text prefix or Alt+Q); queued slash commands replay through their dispatcher on settle |
| ledger |
Per-strand map of file → (mtime, hash) at last read; edits refuse stale files |
| spill |
Oversized tool output parked on disk, referenced as spill://<id> |
| dialect |
A per-model profile (data, not code) shaping wire requests: context window, efforts, flags |
| Speaker |
The provider trait (“the model speaks through it”) |
| Hands |
The tool registry trait (“the engine acts through them”) |
| clearance |
A tool’s tier: read / write / exec |
| hardstops |
The unbypassable catastrophic-command list; prompts even in free mode, denied headless |
| waypoints |
Tiny per-terminal tokens so ka -c continues the right strand in each pane |
| pathfinder |
The built-in read-only research subagent; returns summaries, keeps exploration out of your context |
| poke |
A harness continuation round: ka itself continues a turn that settled with pending todos (bounded by [pokes] max) |
| transfer |
Digesting the live context into a fresh child strand that carries only the summary (/transfer) |
| settling | The post-turn maintenance window: ledger sync, digest checks, queue drain, harness checks, strand flush |
| Term |
Meaning |
| TUI |
The terminal interface (ka) |
| headless |
One-turn, no-interface runs (ka run) |
| serve |
The HTTP/SSE session server (ka serve) |
| ACP |
Agent Client Protocol over stdio, for editor embedding (ka acp) |
| Wire |
Covers |
anthropic_messages |
Anthropic’s Messages API |
openai_chat |
OpenAI chat completions, and every compatible endpoint (Ollama, vLLM, gateways, …) |
openai_responses |
OpenAI Responses API (reasoning models, item-based history) |
