Artifact: a packaged authoring unit (skill, agent, context, command, rule, hook, MCP-server registration, or extension type). Distinct from “build artifact” or “ML artifact.”
Canonical artifact ID: the directory path under the registry root (e.g., finance/ap/pay-invoice). All references use this ID, optionally suffixed with @<semver> or @sha256:<hash>.
Domain: a node in the catalog hierarchy. Distinct from DNS domain or DDD domain.
Effective view: the composition of every layer (admin-defined, user-defined, and the workspace local overlay) visible to the caller’s identity, in precedence order.
Harness: the AI runtime hosting an agent (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Claude Cowork, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Pi, Hermes, etc.). Used interchangeably with “host” when the runtime context matters. The full roster with documentation links is in Configure your harness.
Host: the MCP-speaking system that runs the Podium MCP server alongside its own runtime.
Layer: a unit of composition with a single source (Git repo, local filesystem path, or a custom source via LayerSourceProvider) and a visibility declaration. Admin-defined, user-defined, or the workspace local overlay.
Workspace local overlay: the workspace-scoped layer sourced from ${PODIUM_OVERLAY_PATH} by the MCP server’s LocalOverlayProvider. Highest precedence in the caller’s effective view.
Manifest: the ARTIFACT.md file specifically. Skills additionally have a SKILL.md carrying the agentskills.io-spec frontmatter and the agent-facing prose body; for skills the term “manifest” without qualification refers to ARTIFACT.md, and “skill manifest” refers to SKILL.md.
Materialization: atomic write of a loaded artifact’s content (manifest and bundled resources, after harness adapter translation) onto the host’s filesystem.
MCP server (Podium MCP server): the in-process bridge binary the host runs.
Package: the on-disk directory containing an artifact’s ARTIFACT.md (plus SKILL.md for skills) and bundled resources.
Registry: the centralized service that ingests artifacts from layer sources and serves the catalog. Backed by either a folder on disk (filesystem mode) or a Podium server (standalone or standard mode).
Visibility: per-layer access declaration in the registry config (or, for user-defined layers, set by the registrar): public, organization, OIDC groups, or explicit users.
Session ID: optional UUID generated by the host per agent session; used by the registry for latest-resolution consistency and learn-from-usage reranking.
Effort hint: advisory metadata (effort_hint: low | medium | high | max) capturing authoring intent about reasoning budget.
Model class hint: advisory metadata (model_class_hint: nano | small | medium | large | frontier) capturing authoring intent about model capability tier.
Rule mode: the rule_mode field on a rule artifact (always, glob, auto, explicit); controls when the harness loads the rule.