GLOSSARY.md

Glossary of command words and terms

One word, one meaning, in every WireCat CLI: tg, max, memo, drive and zm. This page lists the words for commands, resources and JSON keys, the one meaning of each, the words it replaces, and where a CLI uses it differently today.

• STANDARD.md binds all five CLIs. The verb, resource and flag meanings live in cli-base's vocabulary and are shown in its tables; this page repeats a word only to show where it applies and where it is broken.
• Each CLI starts from its own lint baseline (lint/baseline/), which only shrinks; each repository fixes its violations in its own change.
• A rule changes in STANDARD first, in its own pull request, and the owner approves new wording. This page follows.
• "Current violations" were found on 2026-10-12 from <cli> commands --json (tg 0.51.0, max 0.48.0, memo and drive at their installed builds) and by reading the source. Nothing was renamed. Renames come in later pull requests, one per decision.

Verbs

The last word of a command. Columns: CLIs where the verb applies today; Not the synonyms it replaces; Violations the command paths that use another word for this meaning, or this word for another meaning.

Verb	One meaning	CLIs	Not	Violations
list	show many	all	ls	drive shared-drives (a list with no verb)
show	show one	all	get, view	tg/max metadata get, max bot comments get, drive documents get, files get, comments get, permissions get, revisions get
search	find by text, under search <resource>	all	find, query	drive search (root leaf, no resource), memo/drive memories search (a resource's own search leaf), tg/max runs search
create / delete	make or destroy a thing	all	mkdir, trash, rm	drive files mkdir, files trash (see NEED-991)
add / remove	put an existing thing into a set, or take it out	all	rm, attach	tg/max contacts alias rm; memo folders attach
update	change a thing's fields	all	plan, edit for fields	tg/max tasks plan (sets title, due date)
set / unset	one named key	all	configure	drive models configure
sync	bring the local store up to date from the source: only what changed, or the whole list where the source cannot say; --all for every chat or source (owner, 2026-10-12)	all	import for a catch-up, refresh, store fetch	tg/max store fetch (to become messages sync), memo import and notes import (to become memo sync), memo mail <account> import, tg/max metadata refresh, stats messages counters refresh; tg/max contacts sync help says "forget where the last sync left off and take the whole list again" — its help still describes a full re-read of the list, not only what changed
fetch	one bounded pull of one named thing from the messenger, not a catch-up	tg, max	refresh, get	tg/max store fetch (a catch-up, see sync); bot store fetch (STANDARD rule 10 wants the personal name, bot messages sync); --refresh options (contacts context, search conversations)
import	bring a file or list the user gives into the store or the messenger, once	all	—	memo import, notes import (a repeatable catch-up: sync)
export	write from the store to a file	all	—	none
extract	read the text inside files already on this machine into the store	tg, max	—	drive memories extract (sends text to a model and proposes memories: another meaning)
link / unlink	record that two identities are one person, or undo it	tg, max	—	tasks link (a task and what it concerns; with a task: target, task to task), memo projects meetings link, drive people link (a Google user to a person); tg/max messages link (a view: the permalink)
confirm	the owner accepts what an agent proposed	memo, drive	accept, approve	memo facts accept, actions approve vs relationships confirm, memories confirm (three words, one meaning)
reject	the owner refuses what an agent proposed	memo	decline, deny	none in memo; tg/max chats requests decline, replies consents deny are the messenger's own words
start / stop	a running process or a login session	all	on / off, enable	tg/max replies on / off, memo auto on / off, tg topics enable
pause / resume	stop and restart what a running process does, without stopping it	tg, max	snooze for a process	none
check	verify, change nothing	tg, max	audit, preflight	tg/max chats members audit, memo vocabulary audit, vocabulary preflight
cancel	stop a job or a pending thing	all	—	none
status	how a thing stands right now	all	readiness	memo tasks readiness
info	facts about a singular thing itself	tg, max	—	none
move / copy	a file in the source	drive	—	none; not in STANDARD (drive only)
restore	put a backup back, or take a thing out of the trash	tg, max, drive	—	drive files restore (out of the trash: a second meaning)
rebuild	compute again, from what the store holds, what the tool derives from it, keeping the owner's decisions	tg, max	—	none; tg/max store reindex is not in STANDARD's list

Verbs used but not in STANDARD's list, by CLI. Each needs a row above or a rename.

• tg/max: accept, allow, answer, audit, build, decline, decrypt, deny, enable, exec, get, grant, mute, unmute, next, off, on, order, plan, press, put, refresh, reindex, retry, revoke, rm, run, send-as.
• memo: about, accept, ack, approve, ask, assign, attach, audit, poll, preflight, propose, ready, readiness, reject, relations, resolve, reverse, schedule, snooze, stale, suggest, on, off.
• drive: configure, copy, get, mkdir, move, trash, stale, extract (another meaning).

Nouns and terms

Term	One meaning	Not	Used wrongly
store (local store)	the one SQLite database tg, max, memo and drive share on this machine	archive, cache, message database, shared store	memo help says "shared store"; drive help says "cached sources"; max keeps a per-profile cache, a different thing (STANDARD rule 7)
message	one post in a messenger chat, or one email	item, post (except a channel post), hit	none
attachment	a file of a stored message	file, media	max chats media (the messenger's media list: allowed as the messenger's word)
file text	the text read from an attachment and kept in the store, found by content:	extracted text, OCR text	attachments text set is the right place; no conflict found
transcript	the text of speech: a voice message or a meeting recording	—	tg/max store export --format markdown calls a day-by-day export "a transcript"
note	text the owner writes, or a file from a notes folder	memo, annotation, document	tg/max contacts notes are notes about a contact (same table, fine); drive help says "local shared memos about a source document"
document	a file imported from Google Drive or Docs	source, note	drive help says "imported sources" for documents; drive keeps documents as note: rows (drive-cli/src/store.ts:111), so one thing has two names
folder	open (NEED-988): three different things share the word	—	tg chats folders (Telegram chat folders), memo folders (notes folders), drive folders (Google Drive folders chosen to sync)
tag	a label the owner puts on a thing; a topic is a tag kind only the owner makes	label	memo help says "labels" for tags; tg tags auto makes tags from rules
topic	open (NEED-989): two meanings	—	tg topics, search topics (forum topics in a group); memo vocabulary create (a kind of tag)
project	the owner's work unit with a task key	entity	entity: references still parse for old files
organization	a company, team, family or community	entity	none
person	one human, across every messenger and mail (person:<uid>)	user, people	tg bot help: "user: for a person", "the person's user id"; drive people
contact	one identity in a messenger's contact list	user	none found beyond the above
identity	one way to reach a person or an organization: an account in a messenger or mailbox, an e-mail address, a phone (contact:<provider>/<id>)	contact (when meaning the account), user	memo note <identity> takes <messenger>:<name>
key document	open (NEED-990): no CLI, help text or doc defines it today	—	—
fact	what happened: a statement, question, decision or promise, with evidence	memory	none
memory	what an agent concluded, with evidence and scope	fact, summary	none
relationship	a confirmed or suggested link between a person, organization or project	relation, link	memo tasks relations (task to task); drive links (links between references)
mention	a phone, e-mail address, link, document or known person's name found in one place of a stored text, normalized; found → linked or dismissed	extraction, entity, link (links joins two stored records)	none
reference	the typed name of any stored thing: msg:, chat:, contact:, note:, document:, person:, task:, fact:, memory: (src/domain/references.ts)	ref, id	see Output keys
locator	the reference of one message: msg:<provider>/<account>/<chat>/<message> only (src/domain/locator.ts)	ref	memo search puts note: and task: references in locator (cli-memo/src/search/command.ts:82,123)
profile	the name of one login of this CLI on this machine; chosen, never assumed	account (for this meaning)	memo mail <account>, --account; drive help "account profiles"; tg/max contacts profile (a person's card: another meaning)
account	the messenger or mail account behind a profile; also provider/account in the store key	profile	tg/max account list lists profiles
source	where stored data came from: a messenger, a mailbox, a notes folder, Google Drive	—	memo tags add "Put labels on one source" (means one stored thing); drive "imported sources" (means documents)
search hit	one result of a search	result, match, item	JSON key is items in some searches and hits in others; see below
context	open (NEED-987): two meanings	—	entity card: memo context, projects context, organizations context, drive documents context, tg/max contacts context; messages around one message: tg/max messages context

Output keys

Read from source, not run.

Kind	Canonical key	Deviations
A list	{ items, page, limit, hasMore } (STANDARD, Output rule 1)	search notes answers { query, by, hits, hasMore, nextOffset, linked } (src/cli/messenger/search-command.ts:196, src/services/notes-search.ts:232); drive search the same (drive-cli/src/store.ts:109); drive lists answer { items } alone (drive-cli/src/program.ts:243,313); memo and drive commands --json add items beside commands (drive-cli/src/program.ts:527)
A message	locator (msg: only)	none in tg/max
Any other stored thing	open (NEED-986): ref or reference	ref: search notes hits, memo tasks list (cli-memo/src/tasks/command.ts:171), drive documents show (drive-cli/src/program.ts:326); reference: drive documents list (drive-cli/src/program.ts:315); locator holding a non-message: memo search
A command to run next	a field that names its purpose, such as next	chats show and the members audit answer fetch: "<cli> store fetch <chat>" (src/services/chats.ts:269,310): the key is a verb
A page cursor	page and hasMore	searches add nextOffset; MCP search_notes says it returns hits (src/mcp/tools/search-tools.ts:152)

Decided (owner, 2026-10-12)

• store fetch becomes messages sync. sync means "bring the local store up to date from the source, only what changed; --all for every chat or source". memo import becomes memo sync. drive sync already has this meaning: it keeps a change cursor and reads everything only on the first run. fetch stays for a bounded pull of one named thing (chats members fetch). STANDARD's verb list says so. The renames come in their own pull requests; the violation rows above change when they merge.

Open questions for the owner

• NEED-985 · May store fetch and memo import keep working for three releases after the rename, against STANDARD rule 9 ("No aliases")? Proposed wording for rule 9: "store fetch and memo import keep working for three releases after their rename, hidden from help, print one line on stderr that names the new path, and then stop working. This is the only exception." Saved background jobs and schedule command records do not need it: they are rewritten to the new path when they run. What needs it: memo's installed timer (it runs memo import; without the old name it fails before it can rewrite its own unit, and with it the unit is rewritten to memo sync on its first run), hand-written scripts, and agents' skills such as tg-cli's skills/tg-cli/SKILL.md.
• NEED-986 · A reference key: ref or reference for a non-message thing? ref is shorter and used more; reference matches the domain type and the plain-word rule for options.
• NEED-987 · context: keep it for the entity card (memo, drive, contacts context) and rename messages context (for example messages around), or the reverse?
• NEED-988 · folders: three meanings (Telegram chat folders, notes folders, Drive folders). Keep folders for the messenger's and prefix the others (notes folders, drive folders), or accept one word per CLI?
• NEED-989 · topic: Telegram forum topics and memo's topic tags. Rename memo's kind (for example subject), or keep both?
• NEED-990 · key document: what does it mean, and which CLI has it?
• NEED-991 · drive file verbs: keep Google's trash, mkdir, move, copy, get (they mirror the Drive API), or map them to delete, create, show?
• NEED-992 · One permission for syncing: messages sync (like store fetch before it) is checked against the read key messages, but --sync-first on a search is the write key messages.sync-first. A read-only profile can sync directly but not through --sync-first. Make both reads, or both writes?