Glossary — every settled term

These five concept pages paint one shared mental model. If you are new, read them in order — each one slots into the last:

#	Page	One line
1	The mental model (start here)	The whole picture on one page — Scenario → Scenes → Scene source → Logic → effect families → truth model → reuse.
2	The Scene (the Scene source)	A Scene is a node baked into one low-level Scene source of three stacked layers: Markup, Bindings, Logic Blocks.
3	Logic — when, if, do	One rule shape — WHEN a trigger, IF/WHILE a condition, DO effects — with five triggers, three effect families, and plain-word operators.
4	State & the truth model	The Playthrough log is the single source of truth; Memory, Content, and Context are views rebuilt from it (the bank line).
5	Reuse — Logic Blocks & the Workspace Library	Build once and reuse: Logic Blocks, Components, and Blueprints live as definitions in the Workspace Library, placed as linked instances.

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The work and its parts

Term	Plain definition
Scenario	The whole work: a graph of nodes. The tool is named for it.
Scene	A node. What an author builds at each point in the scenario.
Interactive Document	The generic noun for the Scene surface.
Scene source	The low-level Custom surface every Scene is baked into — one markup-centric material: Markup, with Bindings and Logic embossed from it (abstractions of the one Scene source, not co-equal sibling layers).
Mode	An authoring projection of the same Scene source — how you author, never the underlying data. Decision · Slides · Quiz · Video · Custom, mutually exclusive per Scene. Each Mode targets a Scene rendering (the rendering rides with the Mode). Mode → Custom is lossless; Custom → Mode is fit-gated.
Scene rendering	How the Scene source is drawn and played — a pluggable rendering process (a pipeline: parse → resolve Bindings → run Logic/effects → transform markup → render via an engine), invoked while previewing and while playing (one pipeline, two moments). Curated / system-level — not user-authorable. A Mode targets one. “Slides” is this Scene source run through the slides rendering process (SlidesNG), not a different document type.
Source view (“Edit as code”)	The Custom/code-like view of a Scene. A view of the same Scene — never “the code”, “a script”, or “an eject”.

The three Scene source layers (inside one Scene)

Term	Plain definition
Markup	Layer 1: content, structure, media — Markdoc plus a safe, sandboxed HTML subset.
Bindings	Layer 2, the templating layer: dynamic bits woven into the markup — insert a value ({score}), show/hide a block by a condition. Bindings only read state.
Logic Block (in a Scene)	Layer 3: a reusable WHEN/IF/DO rule pack you place or reference; each takes inputs you fill in.

Logic (the rule layer)

Term	Plain definition
Logic	The layer of rules. One shape: WHEN <trigger> [IF/WHILE <condition>] DO <effects>.
Trigger	The “when ___” that fires a rule. Five kinds (below).
when you click this	Trigger: the player activates this element/choice. Self-selecting; no priority.
when you arrive	Trigger: on entering the Scene.
when you leave	Trigger: on exiting the Scene, regardless of which path is taken.
as soon as <condition> becomes true	Trigger: automatic. A discrete boundary check at the moment an interaction triggers — never a live watcher. Badged automatic.
if / while <condition>	A gate, not a trigger — a standing state condition that allows or blocks, never fires a one-shot.
Effect	The DO. Changes exactly one of the three primitives: Memory, Content, or Context.

The three effect families (the only primitives)

Term	Plain definition
Memory	Facts the run remembers. The effect family “remember…” (set a fact, add to a number, add/remove a list item, flip a flag).
Content	What’s shown right now. The effect family “show / style…” (show/hide a block, mark an element with a token, substitute a value).
Context	Where you are in the scenario — space/time-neutral. Replaces the old word “Location”. The “go to” effect family.

The truth model

Term	Plain definition
Playthrough log	The recorded sequence of what happened. The single source of truth.
View	A live state the engine keeps but always rebuilds from Memory + the log: Memory (facts), Content (what’s shown), Context (where you are).
The bank line	The one plain-language aside: Cynario saves your transactions (the log), not your balance, and totals them on demand — which is why undo / replay / share work and recorded randomness replays identically.

Operators

Term	Plain definition
Operators	Plain-word building blocks for conditions/values, no iteration: compare (is / is more than / at least…), combine (and / or / not), list (contains / is in / count / is empty), math (add / subtract / multiply / divide / min / max), range (between, inclusive).

Reuse and the Library

Term	Plain definition
Logic Block	A reusable rule pack (pure WHEN/IF/DO).
Component	A reusable content + logic bundle.
Blueprint	A curated, fill-in-the-form preset (scored-gate, hotspot-triage, decision-table).
Workspace Library	Where reusable objects live — a panel in the Explorer. Stores definitions.
Definition / Instance	A unit is authored once as a definition; every placement is a linked reference instance, never a copy.
Inputs / blanks to fill in	The fill-in slots of a Logic Block / Component / Blueprint. Never “parameters / props / arguments”.
Library object actions	Make · Place/Insert · Override · Detach · Push-to-definition · Swap · Find-usages · Rename. Never “Extract”.
Grouping	Cosmetic precedence boxes (the indented and/or sub-boxes). Not reuse — a group box is never a Library object.

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Two hard rules

1. CONTEXT, not Location (and not Step/Playhead). Context is the settled word for “where you are in the scenario” — space/time-neutral. The “go to” effect family is the Context family. Never use Location, Step, Playhead, navigate, position, or move-the-player on the author surface.
2. No “read-only axis” / no “Remembered vs Shown” lifespan ontology. The only effect taxonomy is the three families — Memory · Content · Context. Do not add a second axis (no “saved vs this-moment-only”, no lifespan/sticky/momentary badges, no read-only/write labels). Teach “only Memory is stored; Content and Context are rebuilt” via the bank line, not a lifespan axis. Engine-only words (read-only, write, derived, fold, projection, CQRS, macrostep, cascade, CRDT, awareness) stay out of author-facing copy.