Glossary

Plain-language meanings first, then the technical term behind them. Words in bold are what people see in the app; code is what you’ll find in the source.

Term	In the product	In the code
Chat	Any conversation: a direct chat, a group or a community.	A Space.
Space	— (never shown)	The unit of conversation: a signed, append-only, hash-chained event log with members, items and grants.
Community	A large, open-to-join, moderated group.	A Space with Closed privacy (relay-readable by design; see ADR 0027).
Thread	Replies grouped under one message.	A reply marked in_thread; one level deep.
Item	Something a chat produced: a page, a plan, a file, a mini-app.	A versioned ItemContent changed only by signed events.
Live Page	A document the chat edits together.	A Loro block document stored as signed Item versions.
Plan	A page with rows, costs and a budget.	A typed Live Page (PlanDoc) with integer-cent costs.
Agent	A member that can answer, book or act — with your approval.	A first-class identity of kind Agent with its own MLS device, run by zoen-agentd.
Creator	The built-in agent that creates agents from a conversation.	creator_definition() in zoen-agentd.
Agent link	A link that opens a chat with an agent.	/a/CODE public page plus a redeemable invite.
Approval / Your agent needs you	A card asking you to approve before something happens.	A durable AgentRequest resolved by the owner’s signed RequestResolved.
Mini-app	A small app inside a chat.	An MCP Apps server (tools + ui:// HTML resource) whose state is an Item.
Grant	What an agent or mini-app is allowed to do.	One of the five primitives; evaluated to act / ask / block.
Linked device	Another phone, computer or browser signed in to your account.	A device key certified by the identity key; its own MLS leaf.
Recovery key	64 digits that restore your account if you lose every device.	Key for the client-side encrypted backup (ADR 0046).
Relay	— (never shown)	zoen-relay: orders, stores and fans out signed envelopes per Space.
Identity	Your account.	An Ed25519 identity key (person, agent or Space).
Member	Someone in a chat.	A membership event plus a role.
MLS	—	Messaging Layer Security (RFC 9420), via OpenMLS, for end-to-end groups.
UniFFI	—	Generates Swift and Kotlin bindings for the Rust core.
Sandbox tier	—	Where an agent tool runs: WASM component, Firecracker microVM, or browser in a microVM.
Protocol 4	—	The current Zoen Sync wire protocol version.

The five primitives

Everything in Zoen is built from five types defined in the core’s types crate:

1. Identity — a person, an agent or a Space.
2. Space — created by a signed event, projected from its log.
3. Member — added by a signed event, with a role.
4. Item — versioned content changed by events.
5. Grant — trust levels, budget and capabilities.