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Glossary

Tempest borrows plain words — workspace, session, channel — for very specific machinery. This page defines each term once, alphabetically, and links to the page with the full story.
New to Tempest? The Quickstart gets a first session running, and Architecture explains how the pieces below fit together.
  • Agent / agent session — A CLI coding agent such as Claude Code or Codex CLI, run by Tempest in a PTY. Each agent session belongs to a workspace. See Agents.
  • Agent manifest — The registry of supported agents at config/agents.json, extended in place by a minisign-signed remote patch channel. See Agent manifest.
  • Atlas — Tempest’s semantic code graph and MCP server, shipped as the @usetempest/atlas npm package. Agents query the graph instead of scanning files from scratch. See Token Intelligence.
  • Attribution — The co-author git trailer Tempest adds to commits on your behalf. Configure it in Settings → Attribution.
  • Automations — Scheduled, repeatable agent runs that execute headlessly, without a visible session. See Automations.
  • Base image — In dbiso, a committed PostgreSQL container that database branches are created from, built once from your project’s real database. See Database branches.
  • Branch prefix — A string set in Settings → Git that is prepended to the branch name of every new worktree.
  • BYOK — “Bring your own key”: provider API keys you supply yourself, stored in the OS keyring under the service name tempest-byok. See API keys.
  • Channel — A typed Tauri streaming primitive. Tempest streams PTY output to the frontend over a per-session channel.
  • Chat node — A conversation node on the Threads canvas, powered by BYOK providers, CLI bridges, or the experimental Warp backend. See Chat and Threads.
  • Conversation ID — A persistent agent UUID used to resume a conversation in a later session. Distinct from the session ID, which is ephemeral.
  • DB Clones panel — The right-sidebar panel listing a project’s active database branches. See Database branches.
  • Hephaestus — Tempest’s process isolation layer (crates/hephaestus): Job Objects on Windows, Seatbelt on macOS, bubblewrap on Linux. See Security.
  • Hook / lifecycle hooks — A precise agent-status mechanism: agents report lifecycle events to a loopback HTTP receiver instead of Tempest inferring status from terminal output. See Hooks.
  • invoke — Tauri’s request/response IPC call from frontend to backend. Every backend command is invoked this way. See Tauri commands.
  • Junction — A Windows directory reparse point. Tempest uses junctions to share node_modules and .venv into worktrees instead of copying them.
  • Knowledge Base — The in-app, visual view of the Atlas graph. See Knowledge Base.
  • Lifecycle job — An always-on, kill-on-close Job Object attached to every session, even unsandboxed ones, so child processes never outlive Tempest.
  • MCP — The Model Context Protocol — the standard Tempest uses to expose Atlas tools to agent CLIs.
  • Message Queue — The per-session queue of prompts, drained automatically when work-done detection fires. See Agents.
  • Models manifest — The chat model registry at config/models.json, updated through an unsigned remote patch channel. See Models.
  • PTY — Pseudo-terminal — the terminal Tempest allocates with portable-pty for every session.
  • Provider presets — Ready-made provider recipes for MiniMax and Z.ai GLM shipped in config/providers.json. See Supported agents.
  • Ring buffer — The sessionManager scrollback store: 2 MB while a session is attached, 128 KB once detached. Agent sessions restore their recent output from it after a restart.
  • Root session — A session running in the project root instead of a worktree.
  • Runtime state — The preferences blob persisted in SQLite under the app_state key "runtime": settings, keybindings, theme, and more. See App state internals.
  • SandboxSpec — The per-session isolation spec: a mode (off, monitor, enforce, or lifecycle) plus allowed hosts, paths, and resources. See Security.
  • Session ID — The ephemeral identifier of a running PTY session. Contrast with conversation ID.
  • Splits / pane tree — The binary split layout that arranges sessions and panes inside a workspace. See Panes.
  • Threads canvas — The spatial, node-based workspace where chat, text, agent, and terminal nodes live side by side. See Threads.
  • Token Intelligence — The umbrella for Atlas, semantic search, and context compression: a local code-knowledge graph shared across every parallel agent session. See Token Intelligence.
  • Warm pool — Three pre-created worktree slots with a 5-minute TTL, staged so a new workspace opens near-instantly. See Worktrees.
  • Worktree — A git feature that checks a branch out into a separate directory while sharing the project’s .git directory. Tempest places them under .tempest/<name>. See Worktrees.
  • Workspace — Tempest’s UI term for one worktree together with its session. See Workspaces.
  • Zen window — A secondary frameless window. The infrastructure is present; the UI entry point is disabled (“coming soon”).