> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.contracts.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Glossary

> One word per thing. CONTRACT-SCHEMA v0 settles each of these, and this page says what lost and why.

The same object picked up different names in different rooms while this was being
designed — five documents, drifting nouns, and two facts that flatly contradicted
each other. CONTRACT-SCHEMA v0 settled all of it.

Where you meet a losing word somewhere in the product or its source, it means the
same thing. It is drift, not a distinction.

## What won, and what lost

| Settled             | Rejected                                      | Why                                                                                                          |
| ------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Contract**        | paper, document, agreement, deal, envelope    | *Paper* is the interface's word for the rendered page of a Contract, and it stays an interface word.         |
| **Party**           | signer, recipient, counterparty, participant  | *Counterparty* names a pair, not a side. Capacity is a role, not a person.                                   |
| **Block**           | clause, section, node, element                | *Clause* is one kind of Block, not the category — a title and a schedule are blocks too.                     |
| **Proposal** `prp_` | ask, redline, changeset, diff, suggestion     | *Ask* reads as a question; this is a proposed set of words. *Redline* is the interface's word and stays one. |
| **Decision**        | vote, response, verdict, reply                | —                                                                                                            |
| **Version** `ver_`  | receipt, snapshot, revision                   | *Receipt* is what a Version is **for**. Two names for one object is how the drift started.                   |
| **Acceptance**      | agreement, sign-off, approval                 | *Sign-off* smuggles signing into a record that is explicitly not signing.                                    |
| **Signature**       | signing, execution, seal                      | —                                                                                                            |
| **Room** `rom_`     | relationship, workspace, thread, channel      | *Relationship* is the derivation — a counterparty pair. *Room* is what people call the place.                |
| **Event**           | atom, log entry, activity, audit row          | —                                                                                                            |
| **LexNote**         | AI suggestion, assistant message, summary     | Lex has no tray of its own. A note is a record on the contract.                                              |
| **GoverningLaw**    | jurisdiction, a single `governing_law` string | *Jurisdiction* also means forum and venue. This field names the law, and it is a list.                       |

## The words that do exact work

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Accept" icon="check">
    To agree to the words of a Version. It is not signing, and the two are never
    rounded into one state. See [Accepting is not signing](/accept-is-not-signing).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Sign" icon="pen-line">
    A person putting their name to a `wordsHash` — the exact words — never to the
    contract as a moving object.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="wordsHash" icon="hash">
    A sha256 of the contract's canonical text. It is the identity of the words; a
    Version is the identity of a moment. The canonicalisation spec behind it,
    CANON-1, [does not exist yet](/anatomy#the-gap-canon-1-does-not-exist).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Held" icon="pause">
    A signature that survives an open question, because an open question is a
    proposal and the words have not moved.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Origin" icon="pen-tool">
    Which hand held the pen when a contract was drafted. It records provenance and
    never confers authority.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Router" icon="scale">
    A country holding more than one legal system — the United Kingdom, the United
    States, Canada, Australia. A heading, never a choice: nothing can be governed by
    one. See [Governing law](/governing-law).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Guest" icon="user">
    A person with no account, acting through the link they were sent. They never
    make an account and never pay.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The door" icon="door-open">
    The first screen of contracts.io: one field and the controls around it, before
    anyone is signed in. See [The door](/the-door).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Lex" icon="sparkles">
    The AI in the product. It writes, and it never sends and never signs.
    See [Lex](/lex).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Words we do not use

**Envelope.** A borrowed idiom from signature software, where a contract is cargo
being routed. Here the contract is the object and there is nothing carrying it.

**Workflow.** Nothing here is a routing order you configure in advance.

**Sign off.** It blurs accepting and signing, which is the one distinction the
product exists to keep.

**CLM.** Not a word anyone outside the category says out loud.

**Section numbers as identity.** Block numbers are display-only. Never key on one.