---
title: Glossary
description: Core Evidence Lab terms.
reviewedOn: 2026-09-08
sourceRefs: [evidence-lab-hub, evidence-lab-methodology, evidence-lab-plugins]
---

## Result

Participants use the same words for the project's artifacts, responsibilities, and acceptance states, so a handover record or support request can be understood without the original conversation.

## Actions

1. **Research environment** — the project files, instructions, tools, access boundaries, and verification rules used for a bounded research workflow.
2. **Scenario** — a repeatable chain from a defined trigger and inputs to an inspectable output and acceptance decision.
3. **Task brief** — the current task's goal, input versions, permitted sources and tools, required output, acceptance criteria, and confirmation boundaries.
4. **Project instruction** — a durable rule in `AGENTS.md`, `CLAUDE.md`, or another scoped instruction file that applies across sessions.
5. **Skill** — a packaged method and sequence an agent can discover and apply repeatedly; it does not itself grant service access.
6. **MCP server or connector** — a controlled interface through which an agent can read or change an external service or dataset.
7. **Plugin** — a distributable bundle of skills, tools, MCP servers, or app connections with its own source and permission boundary.
8. **Evidence package** — the task, source locations, transformations, checks, limitations, and decision needed to trace and review an output.
9. **Acceptance criterion** — an observable condition written before review that can pass, fail, or require a named expert judgment.
10. **Accepted baseline** — the exact configuration and artifact version that passed the recorded criteria and can be restored.
11. **Independent use** — completion, verification, and recovery on a comparable task without consultant takeover.
12. **Handover manifest** — the inventory of accepted artifacts, components, versions, ownership, dependencies, update rules, and recovery actions transferred to the client.

## Check

Search the project instructions, scenario cards, evidence packages, and handover manifest. Each term is used in the sense defined here, acceptance states identify a specific version, and “evidence” never means only a confident agent response.

## If it fails

If a term remains ambiguous, add a project-specific definition at first use and link it to the artifact or field it controls. Do not rotate synonyms for defined terms merely to vary the prose.

**Next:** return to the [home page](/en/).