12. Glossary
Terms used throughout Finnest documentation.
Product names
| Term |
Meaning |
| Finnest |
Internal codename for the AI-native workforce-management platform. Used in code, commits, and this documentation. |
| Hexis |
Commercial name (client-facing). Appears in UI, marketing, invoices. |
| ASG Central |
Legacy v2 system (Laravel) being migrated away from via Strangler Fig. |
Architecture
| Term |
Meaning |
| Supervised modular monolith |
Finnest's pattern: 21 independently-supervised OTP apps in one Elixir release sharing one Postgres cluster. |
| OTP app |
Erlang/Elixir concept — an application with its own supervision tree, config, and optional MCP server. Finnest has 21. |
| Domain |
A business-concept slice (roster, payroll, safety, etc.) implemented as an OTP app. |
| Tier |
Coarse grouping of domains by maturity / priority: Tier 1 (core, 8 apps), Tier 2 (essential, 4), Tier 3 (growth, 3), Tier 4 (industry, 3), Tier 5 (people excellence, 1), infra (2). |
| Event store |
Append-only Postgres table where all cross-domain events land. Doubles as IRAP audit trail. |
| MCP |
Model Context Protocol. Every Finnest domain publishes its capabilities as typed MCP tools. |
| Hexagonal port |
A behaviour module that defines an external-integration contract; at least two adapters planned per port. |
| Compliance gate |
Compliance.check/2 — the sole synchronous cross-domain call in Finnest. |
| BudgetGuard |
Per-org AI-spend circuit-breaker in finnest_agents. |
Compliance
| Term |
Meaning |
| IRAP |
Information Security Registered Assessors Program — the Australian government's certification regime for OFFICIAL:Sensitive workloads. |
| OFFICIAL:Sensitive |
Australian government data classification; Finnest's IRAP deployment target. |
| ISM |
Information Security Manual — the Australian government control catalogue that IRAP assesses against. |
| FWC |
Fair Work Commission — the Australian workplace-relations regulator. |
| MAPD |
Modern Award Pay Database — the FWC's canonical award-interpretation dataset (ADR-016-F). |
| WHS |
Work Health & Safety — Australian state-level safety regulators. |
| Award |
An Australian industry-specific pay/entitlement instrument. Interpreting awards correctly is a core Finnest requirement. |
Engineering
| Term |
Meaning |
| BEAM |
Björn's Erlang Abstract Machine — the VM Elixir runs on. |
| GenServer |
Generic server behaviour in OTP. Every Finnest AI agent is a GenServer. |
| Oban |
Elixir job queue backed by Postgres. Replaces Sidekiq/Celery/Redis. |
| LiveView |
Phoenix's server-rendered interactive UI framework. Finnest's primary UI technology. |
| DaisyUI |
Tailwind component library; Finnest's primary UI primitive set (deferred to STORY-F-017). |
| Kamal |
Zero-downtime Docker-deploy tool (Basecamp). Finnest's deploy mechanism. |
| Bitwarden Secrets Manager |
Secrets store used across all Finnest environments (STORY-F-005). |
| Boundary |
Elixir library that enforces compile-time architecture contracts. Used to gate cross-domain module calls (STORY-F-002). |
Documentation / process
| Term |
Meaning |
| ADR |
Architecture Decision Record — a markdown file in adrs/ capturing a single significant choice. |
| Arc42 |
The documentation template this site is organised around (arc42.org). |
| C4 |
Architecture-diagram model by Simon Brown: Context → Container → Component → Code. |
| BMAD |
The method-and-workflow framework this repository uses (/dev-story, /architecture, /brainstorm, etc.). |
| Worktree |
Git concept — a separate working copy of a branch. Finnest's development flow uses one worktree per in-flight story (ADR-015-F). |
| 42 Commandments |
Finnest's engineering principles document (ADR-013-F / 42-COMMANDMENTS.md). |
| 10 Guardrails |
Finnest's enforcement catalogue (177 individual gates) (10-GUARDRAILS.md). |