Reference
Glossary
The method's words, and what SwiftCNS calls the same thing in the app and in your agent's replies.
Before you start
These docs use plain words for the method and SwiftCNS names only where you'll see them. This page connects the two.
Steps
Find the word you saw, then read across.
| Method word | In SwiftCNS | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Idea | Project, Conversation | The choice you're testing. A project holds its work; a conversation is one thread of it. |
| Assumption | Assumption | Something that must be true for the idea to work. Rated 1 to 5 for importance and for evidence you already have. |
| (testable assumption) | Hypothesis | The assumption rewritten as a prediction a test could prove wrong. |
| Experiment | Experiment | The smallest test that could prove the prediction wrong. Has an owner, optional due date and status: Draft, Approved, Running, Completed. |
| Success criteria | Success criteria, Key metrics | The number, sample and time window that count as success, set before the experiment runs and fixed on approval. |
| Evidence | Data tracker, Evidence snapshot | Results logged as rows. Complete tracker saves them as a snapshot that can't change. |
| Result | Met, Not met, Unclear | Your call on whether the evidence met the success criteria. Part of the Learning. |
| What you learned | Learning | Your result and narrative, plus the observations and Insights SwiftCNS drafted from the snapshot. Fixed once published. |
| Decision | Decision | The question, your choice (Move forward, Change course, Test again, Drop it), why and what happens next, and links to the evidence. |
| Record | Decision Record | The decision together with everything behind it. Listed under the project's Decisions. |
Other terms:
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Workspace | Your team's space in SwiftCNS. Holds projects and members. Created in the app. |
| MCP | Model Context Protocol, the open standard your AI tool uses to connect to SwiftCNS. |
| MCP client access | The settings page where you copy the MCP URL, open setup instructions and remove authorized applications. |
| Action card | A choice waiting in the thread, such as Select assumptions or Complete tracker. Over MCP it's an Action Request. |
| Now, Data tracker, Lineage | The workbench's right-hand tabs: the next step, the evidence, and the full record. |
| Permissions | Read CNS, Update CNS, Make decisions, Read connected sources. Granted per client when it signs in. |
| Plugins | Connections to Google Drive, GitLab and Atlassian that SwiftCNS can search and import from as project documents (context, not tracker evidence). |
| Replace (supersede) | Record a new decision that replaces an earlier one, keeping both on record. |
What you get
One vocabulary across the method, the app and your AI tool.
Done when
- You can map any word your AI tool uses back to a step of the method.
For agents: MCP tools and gotchas
Public IDs are prefixed by type: wks_ workspace, prj_ project, cnv_ conversation, asm_ assumption, hyp_ hypothesis, exp_ experiment, dtk_ data tracker, ins_ insight, lrn_ learning, dec_ decision, doc_ document, usr_ user. Reference types for decisions: learning, insight, experiment, hypothesis, assumption, document, decision.