harmony/GLOSSARY.md

Harmony Codebase Glossary

Canonical terms for learning the Harmony codebase. Terms should be added after they are understood well enough to use correctly.

Terms

Score: A declarative desired-state type that says what Harmony should achieve. Avoid: Manifest, script

Interpret: The execution logic that turns a Score into operations against a Topology. Avoid: Handler, runner

Topology: An environment view that exposes infrastructure capabilities to Scores. Avoid: Provider, backend

Capability trait bound: A Rust trait constraint such as T: Topology + HelmCommand that says which capabilities a Score or Interpret requires from a Topology. Avoid: Dependency list, runtime check

Portable Score: A high-level Score whose trait bounds name capabilities rather than one concrete backend, allowing multiple Topologies to satisfy the same desired state differently. Avoid: Generic deployment, abstract Score