Dictionary

This page is the project dictionary for the Style Guide. The linter zig build lint-docs reads the same files. The lists are the work of this project. They do not copy the dictionary of ASD-STE100.

Technical nouns

Nouns that name project concepts (ASD-STE100 rule 1.5, categories 15 and 19). Use one noun for one concept.

PN-1 protocol nouns

• server
• client
• host
• tool
• resource
• resource template
• prompt
• sampling
• elicitation
• root
• capability
• request
• response
• notification
• result
• error
• message
• JSON-RPC
• method
• params
• progress token
• cursor
• page
• subscription
• completion
• logging level
• annotation
• content block
• protocol version
• authorization server
• access token
• bearer token
• scope

PN-2 transport nouns

• transport
• stdio transport
• Streamable HTTP transport
• gRPC transport
• stream
• endpoint
• connection
• header
• event stream
• TLS
• port
• socket
• frame
• payload

PN-3 Zig and build nouns

• allocator
• arena
• module
• package
• build graph
• build step
• comptime
• slice
• struct
• union
• enum
• error set
• error union
• optional
• reader
• writer
• buffer
• byte
• thread
• cache
• artifact
• target

PN-4 repository and process nouns

• repository
• wiki
• wiki page
• commit
• signed commit
• GPG key
• branch
• pull request
• issue
• tag
• release
• changelog
• workflow
• job
• runner
• contributor
• maintainer
• reviewer
• bibliography
• reference
• style guide
• dictionary

Technical verbs

Verbs that name project actions (rule 1.12, category 2).

• boot
• build
• compile
• link
• run
• install
• download
• upload
• load
• save
• store
• delete
• clear
• copy
• paste
• open
• close
• enable
• disable
• validate
• encode
• decode
• serialize
• deserialize
• parse
• format
• log
• debug
• update
• upgrade
• abort
• initialize
• negotiate
• register
• subscribe
• unsubscribe
• list
• call
• invoke
• send
• receive
• cancel
• retry
• resume
• stream
• authenticate
• authorize
• redirect
• sign
• verify
• commit
• push
• pull
• merge
• rebase
• tag
• release
• support
• return
• free
• allocate
• configure
• enter

Approved verbs

General verbs that the prose of the project uses. Use the simple present, the simple past or the future of these verbs (rule 3.4).

AV-1 verbs of action

• accept
• add
• answer
• apply
• ask
• become
• change
• check
• come
• contain
• continue
• count
• cover
• declare
• define
• describe
• do
• drop
• end
• fail
• fetch
• find
• follow
• get
• give
• go
• have
• hold
• keep
• know
• let
• lose
• make
• mark
• move
• name
• need
• obey
• pass
• put
• refuse
• reject
• remove
• replace
• report
• require
• set
• show
• skip
• start
• stay
• stop
• take
• tell
• try
• use
• wait

AV-2 verbs of state

• agree
• be
• cause
• differ
• exist
• fit
• match
• mean
• own
• permit
• prevent
• see
• seem

Restricted words

Approved words that have one meaning in this project.

Word	Meaning or replacement
support	technical verb, "provide an implementation of a protocol feature"
handle	prefer "process" or "receive"; "handle" is also a technical noun for an opaque identifier
return	technical verb for the value a function gives back
free	technical verb for releasing memory

Project word list

Words that this project does not use in prose, with the replacement (rule 1.1).

Word	Meaning or replacement
should	must (when it is a requirement) or "We recommend that" (when it is advice)
shall	must
may	can
ensure	make sure
ensures	makes sure
however	but
utilize	use
utilizes	uses
via	through, or with
session	(forbidden: the protocol is stateless; describe the request or the stream)
following	these, or that follows
implement	write, or provide
implements	provides

Synonyms

Terms that the project does not use, with the project term (PRJ-4). One concept has one term.

Term	Project term
plugin	extension
plugins	extensions
plug-in	extension
reply	response
replies	responses
invocation	call
invocations	calls
tool invocation	tool call
method call	request
rpc call	request, or gRPC call
multi-round-trip	multi round-trip
e-mail	email
whitelist	allowlist
blacklist	denylist
filesystem	file system
subprocess	child process
subprocesses	child processes
web socket	WebSocket
websockets	WebSocket connections
json schema draft 2020-12	JSON Schema 2020-12
lib	library
repo	repository
config	configuration

Phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs that the project does not use, with a verb of one word (PRJ-5).

Phrasal verb	Replacement
set up	configure, or prepare
sets up	configures, or prepares
find out	find
finds out	finds
carry out	do
carries out	does
look up	find
looks up	finds
point out	show
points out	shows
fill in	write
fills in	writes
fill out	complete
turn on	enable
turns on	enables
turn off	disable
turns off	disables
switch on	enable
switch off	disable
shut down	stop
shuts down	stops
start up	start
starts up	starts
clean up	remove, or release
cleans up	removes, or releases
hand off	give
hands off	gives
give up	stop
gives up	stops
go through	examine
goes through	examines
come back	return
comes back	returns
figure out	find
figures out	finds
time out	expire
times out	expires, or has no response in the time limit
fall back	use ... instead
falls back	uses ... instead
back off	wait
backs off	waits
pick up	get, or read
picks up	gets, or reads
end up	become
ends up	becomes
tear down	remove
tears down	removes
spin up	start
spins up	starts
wake up	wake
wakes up	wakes
log in	authenticate
logs in	authenticates
opt in	enable
opts in	enables
opt out	disable
opts out	disables

US spelling

The project uses US spelling (PRJ-3). The table gives the British spelling and the US spelling.

British spelling	US spelling
acknowledgement	acknowledgment
acknowledgements	acknowledgments
analyse	analyze
analysed	analyzed
analyses	analyzes
artefact	artifact
artefacts	artifacts
authorisation	authorization
authorise	authorize
authorised	authorized
authorises	authorizes
behaviour	behavior
behaviours	behaviors
cancelled	canceled
cancelling	canceling
catalogue	catalog
centre	center
colour	color
customise	customize
customised	customized
defence	defense
deserialise	deserialize
deserialised	deserialized
dialogue	dialog
emphasise	emphasize
favour	favor
finalise	finalize
finalised	finalized
grey	gray
honour	honor
honoured	honored
honours	honors
initialisation	initialization
initialise	initialize
initialised	initialized
initialises	initializes
judgement	judgment
labelled	labeled
labelling	labeling
learnt	learned
licence	license
licences	licenses
maximise	maximize
minimise	minimize
modelled	modeled
modelling	modeling
neighbour	neighbor
normalisation	normalization
normalise	normalize
normalised	normalized
offence	offense
optimisation	optimization
optimise	optimize
optimised	optimized
organisation	organization
organise	organize
prioritise	prioritize
programme	program
recognise	recognize
recognised	recognized
recognises	recognizes
sanitise	sanitize
sanitised	sanitized
serialisation	serialization
serialise	serialize
serialised	serialized
serialises	serializes
signalled	signaled
signalling	signaling
specialise	specialize
spelt	spelled
standardise	standardize
summarise	summarize
synchronise	synchronize
tokenise	tokenize
tokeniser	tokenizer
travelled	traveled
whilst	while
amongst	among

Abbreviations

Abbreviations and names with a fixed case that the prose can use (PRJ-2). A sentence can start with a name of this list that starts with a lowercase letter (PRJ-1).

Abbreviation	Meaning
API	application programming interface
ASCII	the 7-bit character set of RFC 20
CR	carriage return, the ASCII control character 0x0D
DEL	delete, the ASCII control character 0x7F
LF	line feed, the ASCII control character 0x0A
NUL	null, the ASCII control character 0x00
CIMD	client ID metadata document, a client registration method of MCP
DCR	dynamic client registration (RFC 7591)
DNS	Domain Name System
HPACK	the header compression format of HTTP/2 (RFC 7541)
HTML	HyperText Markup Language
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol
HTTP/2	version 2 of HTTP (RFC 9113)
HTTPS	HTTP over TLS
ID	identifier
IP	Internet Protocol
JSON	JavaScript Object Notation
JSON-RPC	the remote procedure call protocol that MCP uses
JWK	JSON Web Key
JWKS	JSON Web Key Set
JWS	JSON Web Signature
JWT	JSON Web Token
MCP	Model Context Protocol
MRTR	multi round-trip request
PKCE	proof key for code exchange (RFC 7636)
POSIX	the portable operating system interface
RPC	remote procedure call
SEP	specification enhancement proposal of MCP
SSE	server-sent events
TCP	Transmission Control Protocol
URI	uniform resource identifier
URL	uniform resource locator
UTC	Coordinated Universal Time
UTF-8	the 8-bit encoding of Unicode
UTF-16	the 16-bit encoding of Unicode
GET	the HTTP method that reads a resource
GIF	Graphics Interchange Format
JPEG	the image format of the Joint Photographic Experts Group
MIME	Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, the media type system
PNG	Portable Network Graphics
POST	the HTTP method that sends a request body
SVG	Scalable Vector Graphics
UI	user interface
YAML	the data format of the skill frontmatter
ECMA	Ecma International, the publisher of ECMA-262
BSD	the Berkeley Software Distribution family of operating systems
AEAD	authenticated encryption with associated data
AEGIS	a family of AEAD algorithms on the AES round function (draft-irtf-cfrg-aegis-aead)
AES	Advanced Encryption Standard
ALPN	application-layer protocol negotiation (RFC 7301)
CA	certificate authority
CRL	certificate revocation list (RFC 5280 section 5)
CVE	an entry in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures list
DER	Distinguished Encoding Rules of ASN.1
DPoP	Demonstrating Proof of Possession, the sender constraint of OAuth access tokens (RFC 9449)
ASN.1	Abstract Syntax Notation One
ECDSA	elliptic curve digital signature algorithm
ES256	ECDSA with P-256 and SHA-256
GCM	Galois/Counter Mode
HMAC	hash-based message authentication code
HS256	HMAC with SHA-256
IV	initialization vector
OCSP	Online Certificate Status Protocol (RFC 6960)
PEM	the text form of keys and certificates (RFC 7468)
PS256	RSA-PSS with SHA-256
PSS	the probabilistic signature scheme of RSA
RS256	RSA PKCS #1 version 1.5 signature with SHA-256
RSA	the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman public key algorithm
SEC1	the elliptic curve private key format of SECG
SASL	Simple Authentication and Security Layer (RFC 4422)
SHA	Secure Hash Algorithm
SNI	server name indication
SPIFFE	Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone, a standard for workload identities
TLS	Transport Layer Security
CRT	the Chinese remainder theorem form of an RSA private key
EMSA-PSS	the encoding method of RSASSA-PSS (RFC 8017)
ES384	ECDSA with P-384 and SHA-384
ID-JAG	identity assertion JWT authorization grant
JAG	JWT authorization grant, in ID-JAG
JOSE	JSON Object Signing and Encryption
KEM	key encapsulation mechanism
MGF1	the mask generation function of RSA-PSS (RFC 8017)
ML-KEM	the module-lattice key encapsulation mechanism (FIPS 203)
ML-KEM-768	the ML-KEM parameter set of security category 3
RS384	RSA PKCS #1 version 1.5 signature with SHA-384
RS512	RSA PKCS #1 version 1.5 signature with SHA-512
RSASSA	RSA signature scheme with appendix (RFC 8017)
PKCS1	PKCS #1, in names such as RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5
X25519MLKEM768	the hybrid TLS key exchange group of ML-KEM-768 and X25519 (RFC 10024)
XOR	the exclusive or operation
ASD	the association that publishes ASD-STE100
ASD-STE100	the specification of Simplified Technical English
CI	continuous integration
CPU	central processing unit
GPG	GNU Privacy Guard
GR	a general rule of the project profile, in rule ids such as STE-GR-6
IETF	Internet Engineering Task Force
PRJ	a project rule, in rule ids such as PRJ-1
README	the first page of the repository
RFC	request for comments, a document of the IETF
SDK	software development kit
STE	Simplified Technical English
US	United States
VS	Visual Studio, in the name VS Code
WHATWG	Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group
gRPC	the remote procedure call framework that the gRPC transport uses
stdio	standard input and standard output
zig-sdk	the name of this project
curl	the command line HTTP client
openssl	the command line tool of OpenSSL
npx	the package runner of Node.js
macOS	the operating system of Apple computers

Participles as adjectives

Past participles that tell a state after "is" or "are" (rule 3.6).

• closed
• connected
• disabled
• enabled
• expired
• finished
• gone
• installed
• limited
• malformed
• signed

Approved -ing words

Technical nouns and adjectives that end in -ing (rule 3.5).

ING-1 technical nouns: the name of a process or of a thing

• backtracking
• binding
• bindings
• buffering
• building
• caching
• decoding
• encoding
• finding
• findings
• framing
• hardening
• heading
• headings
• logging
• mapping
• matching
• meaning
• mirroring
• nesting
• padding
• polling
• processing
• rebinding
• routing
• sampling
• setting
• settings
• signing
• spelling
• spoofing
• stapling
• streaming
• tampering
• testing
• tooling
• versioning
• warning
• warnings

ING-2 technical adjectives: a state or a position

• existing
• incoming
• leading
• missing
• outgoing
• pending
• remaining
• trailing

ING-3 words that end in -ing but are not -ing forms of a verb

• anything
• bring
• during
• everything
• nothing
• ring
• something
• spring
• string
• strings
• thing
• things