# Glossary

**Acceptance criteria.** Plain-language statements of what must be true for a change to count as done. Sphere turns them into checks.

**Approved goal.** A change someone wants, stated functionally and approved before Sphere starts work.

**Architecture-guided delivery.** Planning and building from a model of the whole system rather than a single prompt or file.

**Autoplay.** Continued planning, implementation and verification across related work with less repeated prompting.

**Board / Diagram.** The visual view of the system model in Sphere Desktop. Supporting surface — not where you are expected to spend most of your time.

**Chat.** Home screen of Sphere Desktop: conversational architect/orchestrator surface where goals, proposals, and approvals happen.

**Checked result.** A change that has passed verification and is ready for human review and merge.

**Coding agent / coding harness.** An AI tool that writes and edits code, plus the tooling that drives it. Sphere works with these.

**Component.** A part of a system: service, app, data store, agent or external system.

**Connected system.** One managed application or platform in Sphere, possibly spanning several services and repositories.

**Connection.** A link between components showing what talks to what.

**Drift.** When the architecture model, plans and real code no longer match.

**Flow.** A structured piece of work or process captured in Sphere that uses the system model.

**Living model.** The system model kept up to date as changes land, rather than a one-off diagram.

**Plan.** Sphere's description of a change: what will change, where, and how it will be verified. In Desktop, plans and roadmaps live under **Plans**.

**Revise.** Refining a plan against the architecture and review feedback before it is built.

**Runs.** Desktop view of build and verification activity for plans.

**SCAN.** System and Component Architecture Notation — the open, free notation Sphere is built on. The free browser whiteboard at app.spherescan.io is SCAN-only, not Sphere Desktop.

**Sphere Desktop.** Primary Sphere product (Windows and macOS): chat-first architect and orchestrator. See `sphere-desktop.md`.

**Verification.** Running a plan's checks against the built change.

**Viewer.** A person who can see a workspace without running delivery work. Viewers are not charged.