Terminology - JoyStream

JoyStream has a canonical vocabulary for the model, and product nouns for what you type and click. This page maps between them.

The canonical vocabulary

Term	Canonical meaning
Job	The progress a person or stakeholder wants to make
Capability	The durable organizational ability to fulfill that Job repeatedly
Capability spec	The declarative definition and trust contract for the capability
Agent	The governed intelligent realization of a capability spec
Runtime recipe	The versioned, largely deterministic execution plan used by the agent
Agent version	An immutable executable realization combining spec, recipe, models, skills, and policies
Deployment	The environment-specific activation of an agent version
Run	One execution instance of a deployed agent version
Epic	The run-specific work graph instantiated from the recipe
Story	An individual executable work item within the epic
Ticket	The durable, business-readable collaboration and accountability object around work
Evidence	Proof that the intended technical and organizational outcome occurred
Memory	Governed context and learning accumulated through execution
Metrics	Measures of technical, operational, and capability performance
Workspace	The organizational boundary in which capabilities are owned and operated

How it maps to the product today

The product is younger than the model. Some canonical objects are fully first-class; others are still expressed through a nearer implementation name. This table is the bridge.

Canonical concept	What you see today
Capability spec	The agent definition, authored in `jstm agent plan` and exported by `jstm agent spec`
Agent	An agent record, addressed by handle such as `acme-corp/onboarding`
Runtime recipe	The built package and its work tree, seen with `jstm agent view --tree`
Agent version	The package version pinned by `jstm agent build`
Deployment	An installation plus its stage, credentials, and bindings — `jstm agent install`, `jstm agent installations`
Run	A run, listed by `jstm agent runs` and inspected with `jstm agent run show`
Epic	The work tree for one run
Story	A story, listed by `jstm agent stories`
Ticket	A ticket, listed by `jstm ticket list`
Capability	Not yet a separate object in the product. Today the agent and its history carry the capability.

Where the product and the model diverge, the docs use the product noun in guides and the CLI reference, and the canonical noun in concepts. This page is the join between them.

Lifecycle stages

Always written: Plan, Build, Conform, Dry Run, Pilot, Live. Dry Run was previously called Sandbox. If you see “sandbox” anywhere, it means Dry Run.

What is deliberately not a primary object

Several concepts matter but are not the center of the model.

	Why not
Prompt	An input or implementation detail, not a durable organizational asset
Conversation	An engineering and collaboration interface. It contributes history but does not define the capability
Model	Supplies intelligence to an agent version. The capability should survive model replacement
Tool call	One technical action inside a story, not the organizational work item
Log	Low-level events. Runs, epics, stories, tickets, and evidence provide the business-readable view
Job	A powerful discovery lens, but not something you navigate to in the product

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