Domain Glossary
The words the cockpit runs on. Readiness is computed bottom-up from Nuggets, flows along node dependencies, is hard-stopped by gates and capped by the readiness ceiling. When work stalls, the ack ladder and escalation kick in along the critical path. Each term below points at the code that enforces it.
All terms
Sorted alphabetically. Each entry pins down one concept and links to the module that owns it.
Ack ladder
noun · the acknowledgement staircaseThe ack ladder is the ordered set of confirmations required before an instruction or assignment is considered truly accepted. Each rung is one acknowledgement (sent → seen → accepted → ready); the ladder only counts as complete when every rung is climbed. It turns a single fuzzy "did they get it?" into an auditable sequence of steps.
Example
A stage manager has been paged (rung 1) and has opened the message (rung 2) but not accepted (rung 3) — the AckLadder shows the assignment as still incomplete.
Critical path
noun · the longest dependency chainThe critical path is the chain of dependent nodes whose total lead time determines the earliest the whole event can be ready. Slipping any node on the critical path slips the event; slack on off-path nodes does not. The cockpit highlights this path so attention and escalation land where they actually move the date.
Example
computeCriticalPath flags Power → Audio → Soundcheck as the binding chain, so a 20-minute delay in Power pushes the ready time by the full 20 minutes.
Escalation
noun / verb · widening the circleEscalation is the timed, monotonic process of paging a progressively wider audience when a node stalls. It runs on a fixed clock (relaxed for planning, compressed for live events) and ratchets a severity floor upward at each rung — an item that lingers can only become more severe, never less, until a human resolves it.
Example
A stalled load-in crosses the third rung; nextEscalation hands it to the incident commander and pins it at critical severity.
Gate
noun · a hard blockerA gate is a binary, non-negotiable check that must pass before a node can transition forward. Unlike readiness (a weighted score), a gate is pass/fail: if any gate fails the transition is blocked outright, regardless of how high the readiness score is. Gates encode the rules that can never be averaged away — an unfilled critical role, a missing instruction, an unresolved dependency.
Example
evaluateGates returns a failing roleUnfilled gate, so the event stays in "Planning" even though its readiness score is 94 — the score cannot buy past a hard gate.
Node
noun · a unit in the dependency graphA node is any addressable entity in the readiness graph — typically an event, a cluster of events, or a sub-task that aggregates Nuggets. Nodes are connected by typed dependency edges; readiness flows along those edges, and a blocked upstream node caps everything downstream of it.
Example
A "Main stage" node depends on the "Power" and "Audio" nodes; if Power is blocked, Main stage cannot be marked ready no matter how complete its own Nuggets are.
Nugget
noun · the atomic unit of workA Nugget is the smallest independently-trackable piece of an event: one role to fill, one resource to stage, one instruction to confirm. Readiness is computed bottom-up from Nuggets — an event is only as ready as the Nuggets it depends on. Every Nugget carries its own status and rolls up into its parent node.
Example
The "Front-of-house lead assigned" Nugget flips to ready the moment a qualified person accepts the role; until then it drags the parent node's readiness down.
Readiness ceiling
noun · a cap on the scoreThe readiness ceiling is the maximum readiness score a node is allowed to display given its worst open issue. A critical finding clamps readiness to a low ceiling; a warning clamps it to a middle ceiling. The ceiling prevents a node from looking "almost ready" while a serious problem is still open — the score is capped, not just annotated.
Example
Three green Nuggets would average to 88, but one open critical issue applies CEILING_CRITICAL, so the node reports the capped value instead of 88.
Glossary content is illustrative project-tracking vocabulary authored in src/data/glossary, not product data. Sources name the canonical implementation in @uploz/validation-engine and @uploz/ui.