| operating subject | The exact entity, relation, case subject, material, service, account, or other concern whose state or relation changes the operating decision. This is a reading position, not a new universal kind. |
| case | One bounded continuing Work situation organized around a named subject, commitments, current facts, evidence, authority, permissible next Work, and closure conditions. The case is neither its file nor every Work item within it. |
| Work occurrence | Actual dated Work admitted through its governing pattern. A ticket, plan, or event record does not establish that Work occurred. |
| Work item | A bounded item admitted to a selected workflow or coordination account with stated start, finish, subject/result relation, and receiving use. |
| queue membership | An obtaining relation placing one eligible item in one named waiting or service order under a policy and time window. A column or list is a representation. |
| buffer membership | An obtaining relation to a bounded protective or coordination reserve with purpose, policy, extent, and receiving use. It is not inferred from spare inventory or a board column. |
| resource relation | The exact availability, access, consumption, support, allocation, or other relation through which a System, capability, material, information, time, or condition is used by Work. The resource and relation remain distinct. |
| event | An occurrence or change under its subject rule and time boundary. An event record or timestamp is evidence about it, not the event by identity. |
| record or trace | A claim-bearing episteme about subjects, Work, events, relations, or decisions, recorded on an identified carrier. Its claims have stated sources and scope limits. |
| state claim | A qualified claim about one subject at a stated time or horizon with provenance, uncertainty, conditions, and authority. A status label is one possible representation. |
| control participant meaning | Observer, controller, plant, or supervisor as the participant meaning in one actual direct relation and selected control structure. The label is not a universal kind or proof that the relation obtains. |
| operating-subject account | The smallest relation-specific set of identities, direct relations, records, state claims, and explicit gaps needed by the current operating decision. |