Glossary

Each term has one meaning in palm’s commands, its files and these docs. Code formatting marks a literal value, file or flag.

palm install obra/superpowers plugin:superpowers --targets claude -g

This line installs every entity the plugin superpowers selects from the source obra/superpowers, for the target claude, in the global scope.

Terms

Term	Meaning
activation	When a harness loads an instruction: always, on-request, paths or manual. palm records it from the source format, and prints a notice where a harness widens it to always-on until 0.3.
agent	A subagent: one file with a system prompt, a delegation description, tools and a model. A kind.
alias	An optional short name for a source, set with alias: in palm.yaml.
applied record	~/.palm/applied.yaml: what the global scope last wrote on this machine, with real paths. The global counterpart of a git checkout.
asset folder	.palm/assets/<source>/<entity>/: the scripts a hook or stdio MCP server runs, copied from a git source and committed.
bare install	palm install with no arguments. It makes the disk match palm.yaml and the lock.
carrier	The one file through which an entity reaches a harness. palm 0.3 records it per target.
closure	The files a hook or server needs: the folder of its definition, every file a command names, and every file a script reads through a literal path.
consent	The yes a person gives before a hook or stdio MCP server lands. Recorded as a trust: hash in the lock. See consent.
content hash	content: in the lock: sha256 of an entity’s content in its source. For an in-repo source it is the drift signal palm check compares.
entity	One skill, agent, instruction, hook or MCP server, named within its source.
exec unit	One hook entry or stdio server, with its commands, events, matchers and closure, hashed as one program.
generated file	Any file palm writes. Every path is listed in the lock, and in a project you commit it.
global scope	Files under your home directory and the harness homes, chosen with -g.
harness	The program that runs a coding agent: Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI or OpenCode.
hook	Lifecycle events, matchers and shell commands that a harness runs. A kind.
in-repo source	A directory inside the project, such as ./agent-kit, rendered from the working tree.
index	The scan result for one source at one commit, cached in ~/.palm/cache/.
instruction	Markdown context that is always on, scoped to paths, or loaded on request, such as a rule file. A kind.
kind	An entity’s type: skill, agent, instruction, hook or mcp. plugin is a selector.
layout descriptor	Globs on a source in palm.yaml that tell palm where it keeps its entities. See layout.
lock	palm.lock.yaml: what each source resolved to, what palm rendered per target, the files it wrote and the programs you trusted.
managed block	A marked section palm owns inside a shared text file, such as AGENTS.md.
manifest	palm.yaml: the targets, sources, entries and hand-declared MCP servers of a scope.
marketplace	A marketplace.json that lists plugins. palm reads it to find entities inside a source.
mcp	An MCP server connection: a command to start (stdio) or a URL (HTTP). A kind.
merged entry	A fragment palm owns inside a shared file, such as a server in .mcp.json, found by its identity.
plugin	A set of entities a source groups, usually with a plugin.json. In palm, a selector over the source’s entities, recorded under plugins:.
project scope	Files under the project root. The default.
ref	A source’s version intent: a tag, branch, commit or semver range, written as ref: in palm.yaml.
render hash	render.<target>: in the lock: sha256 over the files and fragments one target writes for an entry.
scope	Where palm writes: project or global.
skill	A folder with a SKILL.md that a harness loads on demand. A kind.
source	A git repository, a folder in one at a ref, or a directory inside the project, declared in palm.yaml.
target	palm’s identifier for a harness: claude, codex, copilot, cursor, gemini or opencode.
token	A placeholder for a home folder in the global lock, such as <claude> or <home>.
tree hash	tree: in an entry’s exec.closure: the hash of every file in a program’s closure, mode bits included.
trust	The list of program hashes a person consented to, stored on the lock entry.

Words palm does not use

Instead of	palm says
origin	source
registry	nothing: palm has none; name the repository
package, resource	entity, or the kind by name
command, prompt (as a kind)	skill
deploy	install
harness, as a verb	install, write
lockfile state, machine state	the lock; git for a project, applied.yaml for the global scope