Back Matter

Index

A term index over the chapters and the appendix. A curated concept entry leads with the paragraph that defines it and the paragraphs that exemplify it; a plain term entry links the pages where it appears, capped so the index leads with the significant sites.

#

• "Done" is a claimdefinition of: §5.2

A

• A chunkdefinition of: §1.2
• A property test models the outputdefinition of: §4.4
• A remediation jobdefinition of: §1.2
• A remediation servicedefinition of: §1.2
• A workerdefinition of: §1.2
• Action boundarydefinition of: §3.1
• ADA / document accessibility §6.2, Glossary, Preface, §2.1
• Adapter §4.3
• Agentdefinition of: §3.1
• agentic harness §1.3, Glossary
• Agreement is not correctnessdefinition of: §3.2
• Artifact/runtime boundarydefinition of: §3.1
• Audit List of Figures and Tables, §1.2, §1.4, §2.5
• Audits into lintsdefinition of: §4.3

B

• Blast radius Appendix A - 6, Appendix B - 10
• bounded model checking §3.3
• Brownfield migrationdefinition of: §4.3
• Bun (runtime port example) §7.1, What This Book Argues, Preface, Chapter 1

C

• Characterization / golden test Appendix H
• Cherry-pick §5.2
• Churndefinition of: Preface
• Claude Code, OpenCode Glossary
• Commodity intelligencedefinition of: Glossary
• Compare-and-swap (CAS) Appendix C - 2, Appendix C - 7
• Compoundingdefinition of: Glossary
• Constraint §3.3, Glossary, Preface, List of Figures and Tables
• Constraint (prevents drift)definition of: §3.3
• Constraints and sensorsdefinition of: §3.3
• context window / compaction Glossary, §1.3, §2.5, §3.1

D

• data-flow diagram §2.2
• Definition of Done (DoD) §3.2, §5.2
• Degrees of freedomdefinition of: Glossary
• deployment topology §2.2, §2.5, §5.2, Appendix C - 3
• Derivation directiondefinition of: §2.5
• Derive and joindefinition of: §2.5
• Deterministic firingdefinition of: §4.4
• Deterministic vs. judgment splitdefinition of: §4.4
• Dispatch §3.2, §4.4, §5.2, Appendix B - 5
• Diátaxis Appendix E - 2
• Drift Appendix I, Glossary, List of Figures and Tables, §2.2

E

• engineered environment Glossary, Preface, §1.1, §1.3
• Engineering capitaldefinition of: §3.4
• Epic §3.2, §5.2, Appendix B - 5, Appendix E - 2
• Epoch / fencing §2.3, §3.3
• Ex-ante governancedefinition of: §3.4
• Ex-post governancedefinition of: §3.4
• executable source-of-truth Appendix A - 1

F

• Fault / failure injection §1.1, §3.5, §4.2, §4.4
• Fixture §4.1, §4.2, §4.3, §5.1
• Flake §4.4
• flock / semaphore Appendix A - 5, Appendix C - 2
• foundation model §1.3, Glossary, §1.1, §2.1
• foundation model / model tier §1.3, Glossary, §1.1, §2.1

G

• Gate §3.3, How to Read This Book, Glossary, Preface
• Gating §1.1, §1.2, §3.2, §3.3
• Generative validationdefinition of: §4.4
• Governance as design patternsdefinition of: Conclusion
• Governance conversiondefinition of: §3.4
• Governance mechanismdefinition of: §3.3
• Governance packagedefinition of: §3.3
• Governance target — agentdefinition of: Appendix E - 2
• Governance target — models-bridgedefinition of: Appendix E - 2
• Governance target — productdefinition of: Appendix E - 2
• Greenfielddefinition of: §4.3

H

• Heartbeat Appendix A - 4
• hook (hard mechanism) Glossary, §1.1, §1.3, §2.5

I

• Independent obligationdefinition of: §3.2
• Intervention boundarydefinition of: §3.1
• Invariantdefinition of: §2.3
• invariant / policy over a model Preface, List of Figures and Tables, Chapter 2, §2.1

J

• jidoka (stop the line) §4.1
• join key §3.5

K

• kaizen (continuous improvement) §4.1

L

• lexicon Appendix E - 2
• Lifecycledefinition of: §4.4
• Lint Preface, §2.2, §3.1, §3.3
• liveness property §5.2
• Long-horizon taskdefinition of: §1.3
• loop engineering §1.3

M

• Map and territorydefinition of: §2.5
• Marker interface / attribute Chapter 2, §2.2, §2.3, §2.4
• Measure one level deeperdefinition of: §4.4
• Measure one level deeper (Ousterhout) §4.1, §4.2, §4.4
• Mirror vs. specdefinition of: §3.2
• Modeldefinition of: §2.1
• model (as map / cheaper approximation) Preface, §1.3, §2.1, §2.3
• Model classesdefinition of: Glossary
• Model driftdefinition of: §2.2examples of: §3.2
• Model-from-codedefinition of: §2.5
• Model-to-codedefinition of: §2.5
• Modeling substratedefinition of: §2.5
• Models are the building blocks of engineeringdefinition of: §7.2

O

• Observabilitydefinition of: §3.3examples of: §3.3
• Optionality is poisondefinition of: §5.2
• Oracledefinition of: §4.4
• orthogonal (complementary) models Appendix E - 2, Appendix E - 1

P

• poka-yoke (mistake-proofing) §4.1
• Probabilistic surfacedefinition of: §1.3
• Property-based test §5.4

Q

• Queues and infrastructuredefinition of: §1.2

R

• Ratcheteeringdefinition of: §4.2
• Reasoning horizondefinition of: §1.3
• Reasoning inputdefinition of: §3.1
• Rollback §5.2, Appendix D - 1, Appendix D - 2, Appendix D - 3
• Root-cause analysis (RCA) §2.4, §5.2, Appendix F - 4, Appendix F - 5
• rubric §4.4, §5.3, Appendix G - 4, Appendix G - 6
• Runbookdefinition of: §4.4
• runbook / playbook §3.1, §3.3, §3.4, §4.3

S

• search space (narrowing / conditioning) §4.3
• self-communicate (skill) Appendix E - 2, Appendix E
• self-governance (skill) Appendix E - 2, §2.1, §4.4, §7.4
• self-operate (skill) Appendix E - 2, Appendix E
• Semantic artifactdefinition of: §5.2
• Semantic commitmentdefinition of: §2.1
• Semantic gap §3.2, Glossary, List of Figures and Tables, §5.2
• Sensor Glossary, Preface, List of Figures and Tables, §3.3
• sensor (detects drift) Glossary, Preface, List of Figures and Tables, §3.3
• Sensor (observes drift, produces evidence)definition of: §3.3
• Single source of truth §2.4
• skill (soft mechanism) Appendix E - 1, Glossary, List of Figures and Tables, Chapter 1
• SLO / SLI §1.1, §1.2, §2.1, §2.3
• smell (code smell) §3.4, §4.3
• Specification-driven developmentdefinition of: §3.4
• Staged deploy Appendix B - 5
• Standing contextdefinition of: §4.4
• state-machine diagram §2.1
• Structureddefinition of: §2.1
• success metric / rubric §4.4, §5.3, Appendix G - 4, Appendix G - 6
• synchronization model Appendix B - 1
• SysML (Systems Modeling Language) §2.1, §5.3, §7.1, Appendix H

T

• Tests for agent failure modesdefinition of: §5.2
• The Alignment Principledefinition of: Chapter 3
• The capability ladderdefinition of: §2.1
• The drift caveatdefinition of: §3.2
• The earliest legible boundarydefinition of: §3.2
• The Enforcement Problemdefinition of: §1.4
• The engineer's seatdefinition of: §7.1
• The engineered agent loopdefinition of: §3.1
• The engineering substratedefinition of: §1.3
• The evidence recorddefinition of: §1.2
• The fidelity validatordefinition of: §1.2
• The fleetdefinition of: Preface
• The gatedefinition of: §3.3
• The governed environmentdefinition of: §3.4
• The Modeling Principledefinition of: §2.1
• The printer metaphordefinition of: §1.1
• The provenance layerdefinition of: §1.2
• The Representation Problemdefinition of: §1.4
• The residual (goals no mechanism reaches; stays-human)definition of: §3.4
• The semantic gapdefinition of: §3.2
• The support ratiodefinition of: §5.2
• The system knowledge graphdefinition of: §2.1
• The validatordefinition of: §3.3
• TLA / model checking Preface, §2.1, §3.2, §3.3
• Tolerancedefinition of: Glossary
• tool (deterministic action) Glossary, Preface, §1.1, §1.3
• Toyota Production System (lean production) §4.1
• Traceabilitydefinition of: §2.5
• traceability (quality case) Glossary, §2.1, §2.5, §3.2
• transformation (input→output) Preface, List of Figures and Tables, §1.1, §1.2
• Typed seam §5.2

U

• UML (Unified Modeling Language) §2.1
• user journey §7.1, Appendix C - 6

V

• Validator §3.3, Glossary, Preface, List of Figures and Tables
• Velocity exposes the dangerdefinition of: §5.2

W

• WCAG / conformance §1.2, §2.2, Chapter 3, §3.2
• Work-unit boundarydefinition of: §3.1
• Worktree §3.4

© James C. Davis, 2026–present