Glossary

The terms below are the vocabulary of the Zumik object model and metrics. Each links to the concept page where it is defined fully.

State objects

Artifact: A reusable, immutable unit of content: a policy, tool bundle source, response schema, document, retrieval chunk, or checkpoint. Addressed by an opaque ID, never by its content hash. Read more

Bundle: An immutable, ordered list of artifact references. Ordering is semantic and is never re-sorted after creation. Read more

Session: A causal state container for an agent workflow. Not a cache entry: it holds the logical history that branches extend. Read more

Branch: An append-only line of events within a session, updated with compare-and-swap so concurrent appends cannot silently clobber each other. Read more

Snapshot: The compiled, ordered logical state for a branch head. It pins artifact versions, ordering, the prompt-compiler version, and the branch head, so a response runs against an exact state. Read more

Identity and reuse

Materialization: The exact model-visible rendering of a snapshot, keyed by prompt-compiler, tokenizer, chat-template, and serialization revisions. Two requests can share a snapshot but need different materializations. Read more

KV realization: The physical runtime cache representation of a materialization on a specific model, engine, and GPU topology. A logical artifact can be reusable even when no compatible KV realization exists. Read more

HMAC fingerprint: A tenant-scoped keyed hash (HMAC-SHA256) used only inside the isolation boundary for deduplication and trace analysis. Rotating the key intentionally breaks equality linkage. Read more

WRS (Workload Reuse Score): A 0-to-100 score computed from trace data that weighs opportunity, recurrence, retention locality, TTFT sensitivity, session continuity, and payload redundancy. It replaces a single prompt-length heuristic. Read more

Reuse opportunity vs. realized reuse: Opportunity is how much input could have been reused; realized reuse is how much the provider or runtime actually reused. A reusable handle is not proof of a cache hit. Read more

Evidence level: The strength of a realized-reuse signal: provider_reported, runtime_confirmed, router_inferred, trace_estimated, or unknown. Every realized number carries one. Read more

Routing and reproducibility

Alias release: An immutable, reproducible resolution policy for a model alias. A live alias points at one release; changing a provider-model revision creates a new release rather than mutating a frozen one. Read more

Agent hints: A vendor-neutral, versioned contract that expresses intent (reuse preference, QoS class, region policy) without exposing provider-specific knobs. Hints are not guarantees, and Zumik reports which were honored. Read more

Capability manifest: A versioned record of what a provider and profile support: cache type, minimum tokens, discount, batch support, service tiers, context window, region support. Used for routing and for honest purge claims. Read more

Execution profile: The lane a request runs through: managed_provider (default), byok, byoc, or a hybrid of these. Read more

Outcomes and deletion

QoS outcome: A formal result for a request, reporting admission (admitted, queued, rejected, expired_before_start), completion, whether the target was met, latency, and a machine-readable reason code. Read more

Purge guarantee class: How strong a deletion is, from access_revoked through best_effort_expiry, verified_namespace_invalidation, verified_physical_purge, to cryptographic_purge. Each purge receipt states the class it achieved. Read more

Concept overview

How these objects and metrics fit together end to end.