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Practitioner notes · AI applied to finance & operations

Jewel Nguyen

Reference · The Glossary

Terms I've met.

Plain-language definitions, added the first time a term shows up in the build. The vocabulary grows as I do — jargon explained, not hidden.

I build fast, then read it back slowly. Part of reading it back is naming things properly: when a new technical term turns up, it gets written down here in plain words, with the date I first met it. No prior knowledge assumed.

Agents & AI architecture

80 terms
Jun 29, 2026

AGENTS.md

the operating-rules file the Codex harness reads at the start of a repo, the way Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md

Jun 17, 2026

autonomy ladder

the 4 earned levels of agent trust: suggest → draft → apply-low-risk-but-approve → auto-with-audit-logs

Jul 19, 2026

bi-encoder

a search model that turns the question and each document into separate vectors and compares them; fast but judges topic-overlap, not whether a passage actually answers the question

Jul 19, 2026

bit-deterministic

a computation that returns the exact same output every single run (no random variation); the reranker is bit-deterministic, which is what let it replace the model whose answers flipped run-to-run

Jun 26, 2026

blended intelligence

using a per-task *mix* of AI models instead of one; because each model's skill is uneven across tasks ("jagged intelligence"), a well-chosen blend beats the single best model

Automation, reliability & ops

44 terms
Jun 14, 2026

429 / rate limit

the server's "too many requests, slow down" signal; the only cue you're near the usage ceiling

Jun 22, 2026

blast radius

how many things one change can break; the price of sharing code (one bug hits all), managed by versioning + doing risky merges last and gradually

Jun 19, 2026

canary

a small, low-risk task run first to check the pipeline works before the bigger ones go through

Jun 23, 2026

capability drift

when two parallel systems that should match fall out of sync (one gains a feature the other lacks); a drift-checker reports it so the gap is visible instead of silent

Jun 19, 2026

defence in depth

using several independent locks instead of one, so a single mistake never exposes the data

Knowledge, vault & PKM

40 terms
Jun 27, 2026

asset auto-promotion

an image lives with its deliverable by default; the moment it's used from a 2nd folder it auto-moves to the shared `assets/` folder and its links are rewritten — so "shared vs single-use" is enforced by the system, not tracked by hand

Jun 27, 2026

axis (per zone)

the single principle a part of the vault sorts by (Time / Category / Project); naming which axis each zone uses stops a permanent note being filed into a topic folder by reflex

Jun 28, 2026

Bases

Obsidian's built-in database: shows your notes as a live, sortable table filtered by their frontmatter — no plugin or script to regenerate

Jun 15, 2026

capture inbox

the `Clippings/` folder where new clips land before the daily sort files them into `raw/`

Jun 18, 2026

capture pass

a sweep that reconciles what was built back into the milestones and memory records

Code, web & infra

93 terms
Jul 5, 2026

.env file

a small, never-committed text file holding a project's passwords/keys as NAME=value lines; its committed twin `.env.example` keeps the names but empty values as a template

Jul 13, 2026

301 redirect

a "permanently moved" signal from the server: visitors and Google arriving at an old address get forwarded to the new one instead of an error page

Jun 17, 2026

`/web-setup`

a Claude Code terminal command that links your GitHub login to your Claude account, so phone/web sessions can open your private repos

Jun 15, 2026

allowlist

an explicit list of what's permitted (e.g. which pages may publish); anything not on the list is blocked by default

Jul 1, 2026

API token

a long secret key that lets a program authenticate to a service on its own (no human login), scoped to only what it needs; unlike a browser login session it doesn't expire, so it's the right credential for unattended jobs like a deploy cron

Finance, privacy & controls

16 terms
Jun 30, 2026

bandit

a security scanner for Python code: it flags risky patterns (e.g. running a shell command built from user input)

Jul 13, 2026

compound key

a citation/id built from several nested levels stacked together (e.g. Chapter + Part + Section → "QIAIF Pt I s.12"), needed when the inner numbering restarts under each parent so a bare "Section 1" is ambiguous on its own

Jul 9, 2026

ego-graph (ego network)

a network map centred on ONE node — it plus only its direct connections (e.g. one fund provider + all the funds it links to)

Jul 12, 2026

env var (environment variable)

a named setting read at runtime (e.g. `REGFUND_DATA_ROOT`), so a value like a data path lives in ONE place instead of being typed into every script

Jun 23, 2026

input routing (route, don't wall)

sending each task only the context it needs for relevance, even though the engine is allowed to read everything; it's an efficiency move, not a privacy wall

Method, process & writing

39 terms
Jun 20, 2026

[FRICTION] marker

a note stamped onto your vault when a new source contradicts an earlier belief, so the clash resurfaces in the brief until you resolve it (the system argues with you instead of burying it)

Jun 28, 2026

ADR (Architecture Decision Record)

a short dated note capturing one decision + why + what was rejected, so the reasoning isn't lost later

Jul 6, 2026

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

shaping content so AI answer engines cite it, not just so it ranks in the blue-link search results

Jul 25, 2026

aggregate stub

a data row that stores only a count (e.g. "11 funds"), not the actual names behind it

Jun 28, 2026

arc42

a standard template for documenting software architecture (12 fixed sections: goals, constraints, context, building blocks, runtime, decisions…) so any reviewer knows where to look

General

127 terms
Jul 19, 2026

.xip

Apple's signed archive format; double-click to unpack (how Xcode ships outside the App Store)

Jul 17, 2026

a11y

shorthand for "accessibility" (a + 11 letters + y): whether a page works for keyboard, screen-reader and colour-blind users — e.g. never signalling status by colour alone

Jul 20, 2026

accession number

the SEC's unique ID for one EDGAR filing (like an invoice number for a submission); knowing it lets you link straight to the original filing document

Jul 19, 2026

adversarial review

a second AI that did NOT write the code attacks it hunting real defects; findings are verified (or refuted with proof), never obeyed blindly

Jul 18, 2026

amending act

a law whose articles only edit another law ("in Article 18, replace…"); thin as a standalone document — the content belongs inside the consolidated base text

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