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Glossary

Definitions used throughout the Sightmap docs and spec. Alphabetical.

A maintainer or contributor task that compares the live .sightmap/ directory against the actual codebase to catch drift — stale routes, missing components, dead memory entries. Audits are typically run before a release or after a large refactor.

The first generation of a .sightmap/ directory for a project — usually produced by an agent reading the codebase and proposing an initial set of views, components, and requests. The author then curates the output. See Curator vs consumer.

A named DOM subtree, identified by one or more CSS selectors. The unit of UI naming Sightmap surfaces to agents. Defined under components: either at the file root (global) or inside a view (scoped). See Components.

The contract a Sightmap SDK implementation honors. Conforming SDKs are validated against the language-agnostic conformance fixtures and the SDK requirements in the schema reference.

A program that reads a sightmap at runtime — typically an agent, a snapshot enricher, or a network-trace tool. Consumers honor the spec; they do not produce sightmap files. Contrast with Curator.

A human (or human-supervised agent) who authors and maintains the .sightmap/ directory. Curators choose which UI surfaces are worth naming, write memory entries, and keep the file in sync as the app evolves. Contrast with Consumer.

Where these terms are defined. If a term is missing, open a Discussion.

Model Context Protocol — the protocol Sightmap-aware tools use to expose sightmap data and authoring actions to agents. The reference MCP server is @sightmap/sightmap mcp.

Short freeform notes attached to a file, view, component, or request. Memory carries context that isn’t recoverable from the source code: quirks, invariants, “you have to click this twice” lore. See Memory.

The SemVer version of the sightmap/spec repo (currently 0.1.0). Tracks docs, schema clarifications, examples, and tooling cadence. Independent of the spec stream version. See Versioning policy.

A named API endpoint described in the sightmap. Carries the route glob, HTTP method, payload shape, and optional memory. Defined under requests:. See Requests.

A CSS selector (or array of alternatives) that locates a component’s root element. Child selectors are scoped to the matched parent’s subtree. See Selectors.

A single YAML document under .sightmap/ that conforms to the v1 schema. “A sightmap” can also refer to the whole .sightmap/ directory, depending on context.

The conventional location for a project’s sightmap files. Lives at the repo root. All *.yaml and *.yml files inside (recursively) are discovered and merged.

The integer in a sightmap file’s version: field — currently 1. Identifies which spec stream the file conforms to. Bumps only on a breaking change to the YAML format. Independent of the project semver. See Versioning policy.

A named screen in the app, identified by a URL route glob. The unit of routing Sightmap matches against the current page. Defined under views:. See Views.