# Repo Understanding Shared Vocabulary

> Shared repository vocabulary — what "repo rules", the four content trees, delivery units, and governance surfaces actually cover. Auto-loads when a task involves repository rules, governance scope, plans, delivery units, agent or skill boundaries, or any judgement about whether a rule reaches a given file.

- Skill: `wahidyankf/repo-understanding-shared-vocabulary` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add wahidyankf/repo-understanding-shared-vocabulary`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/wahidyankf/repo-understanding-shared-vocabulary/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: wahidyankf (https://skillmd.com/u/wahidyankf)
- Updated: 2026-09-10
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/wahidyankf/repo-understanding-shared-vocabulary

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# Shared Repository Vocabulary

Delegated agents do not inherit the canonical instruction file, so this Skill is how the shared
vocabulary reaches them. It carries operative meanings only; where it and the glossary differ, the
glossary wins.

Most scope disputes are vocabulary disputes in disguise: two readers who disagree about whether a
rule applies usually agree on the rule and disagree on one word in it.

## The terms

- **Repo rules** — every surface that binds how work happens, wherever it sits. Not a synonym for
  one directory: governance prose, the root instruction surfaces, agent and skill definitions,
  generated mirrors, the config's machine-readable declarations, the hooks and pipeline jobs
  enforcing them, and the language style guides. A sweep scoped to one tree skips most of it. The
  test for anything unlisted: editing it changes what someone is _required_ to do, and that
  requirement outlives the work that prompted it. Declarations bind; the code enforcing them is an
  application, reviewed as product code. See
  [Repo Rules — Scope Boundaries](../../../repo-governance/glossary/repo-rules-scope.md) and
  [Membership Test](../../../repo-governance/glossary/repo-rules-membership-test.md).
- **Content trees** — four trees differing by who is bound and for how long, not by subject: one
  describes the product, one binds contributors, one holds work that expires, one holds acceptance
  criteria. See
  [Content Trees](../../../repo-governance/glossary/content-trees.md).
- **Delivery unit** — the unit a branch and a PR map to: a contiguous run of phases that ships on
  its own. A phase is smaller, and mapping a PR to a phase is the common error. See
  [Plan Vocabulary](../../../repo-governance/glossary/plan-vocabulary.md).
- **Surface and binding** — a surface is the file class a gate measures; a binding is the
  harness-specific configuration, one hand-authored and the rest generated. "Autoloaded" is
  narrow — a link inside an autoloaded file is not itself autoloaded. See
  [Governance Surfaces](../../../repo-governance/glossary/governance-surfaces.md).
- **Agent, skill, gate, workflow** — distinguished by what holds the knowledge and who decides when
  it runs. See [Agent Vocabulary](../../../repo-governance/glossary/agent-vocabulary.md).

## Related Skills

- `repo-understanding-repository-architecture` — orthogonal: that Skill covers how the six
  governance layers relate, this one what individual terms cover. Consult both when placing a new
  document.

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**Note**: [the governance glossary](../../../repo-governance/glossary.md) is the source of truth;
this Skill is its delivery vehicle for delegated agents.