Context: Technology Foundations

General technology terms that appear throughout Spec Kitty documentation. Included here so that readers unfamiliar with these concepts have a clear reference point.

API

Definition Application Programming Interface — a defined way for one piece of software to talk to another. Instead of a human clicking buttons, an API lets programs send requests and receive structured responses.
Context Technology Foundations
Status candidate
Applicable to 1.x, 2.x

CLI

Definition Command Line Interface — a text-based way to interact with software by typing commands into a terminal, rather than clicking through a graphical interface. Spec Kitty's primary interface is a CLI.
Context Technology Foundations
Status candidate
Applicable to 1.x, 2.x
Related terms UI

UI

Definition User Interface — any surface through which a person interacts with software. This can be graphical (buttons, windows) or text-based (a CLI).
Context Technology Foundations
Status candidate
Applicable to 1.x, 2.x
Related terms CLI

Markdown

Definition A lightweight text formatting language that uses simple symbols (like # for headings and ** for bold) to create readable documents. Files use the .md extension.
Context Technology Foundations
Status candidate
Applicable to 1.x, 2.x

YAML

Definition A human-readable configuration file format that uses indentation and key-value pairs to structure data. Files use the .yaml or .yml extension. Used in Spec Kitty for mission definitions and project configuration.
Context Technology Foundations
Status candidate
Applicable to 1.x, 2.x
Related terms JSON

JSON

Definition A structured data format using curly braces and key-value pairs, commonly used for machine-to-machine communication. Less human-readable than YAML but widely supported by programming tools.
Context Technology Foundations
Status candidate
Applicable to 1.x, 2.x
Related terms YAML

SHA256

Definition A hashing algorithm that produces a fixed-length checksum from any input. Even a tiny change in the input produces a completely different checksum, making it useful for detecting whether content has been modified.
Context Technology Foundations
Status candidate
Applicable to 1.x, 2.x
Related terms Content Hash, Parity Hash