APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ACRONYMS

TERMS BEGINNING WITH P Package scanning: automatically checking downloaded software packages for known problems or hidden malicious code. Paging: returning results in small pages. Parallel execution: running several steps or tool calls at the same time instead of one after another. Parallelism: doing independent tasks at the same time. Parameter: an adjustable internal number set during training. Parent span: a span that contains other spans. Parsing: splitting structured data into named parts. Partial success: some goals met and others not. Pass rate: the share of test items that a system answers correctly. Pattern: a reusable shape for solving a kind of problem. Pause and resume: stopping and later continuing exactly where left off. Payload: the actual data carried inside a request or message. Percentile: a value below which a given percent of measurements fall. Permission: a rule that says what an agent is allowed to do. Permission gate: a checkpoint in the harness that blocks any action the rules do not allow. Permission resolver: the harness component that decides whether the agent may take a requested action. Persistent permission: an approval that is remembered so the user is not asked again for the same action. Pinning: locking to a specific reviewed version. Pipeline: an automated assembly line from code change to release. Pipeline pattern: arranging agents or steps in a straight line, where each one passes its output to the next. Pitfall: a known trap that has caused mistakes before. Plan-and-execute: a style in which the agent writes a full plan first and then carries out the steps. Planner and executor: the reasoning agent and the acting agent in a dual-agent design. Platform: a broad offering that bundles several services. Platform team: a team that runs shared infrastructure for other teams. Policy engine: software that checks actions against rules. Position bias: a grading habit of favoring an answer because of where it appears in the list, not because of its quality. Postmortem: a written review of a failure that explains what happened and what to change. Practice Lab: the hands-on project built across Chapters 65 through 69, called the Resume Review Agent. Precision and recall: measures of how accurate and how complete retrieval is. Pre-execution hook: a hook that runs just before an action so it can check or block it. Primary source: an original document or data rather than a summary of it. Privacy: the right of people to keep their personal information from being collected or shared without permission. Procedural memory: memory of how to do things. Production: the real, live environment where actual users depend on the system. Production readiness checklist: a list of conditions that must be met before a system is trusted with real users. Production-readiness checklist: an item-by-item list of whether a system is fit for real use. Progress notes: a file where the agent writes down what it has finished so it can resume after an interruption. Progressive disclosure: loading detail only when needed. Prompt: the text given to a model to tell it what to do. Prompt caching: reusing the repeated front part of a prompt so it costs less and runs faster. Prompt composition: building a system prompt out of separate, reusable blocks. Prompt compression: shortening a prompt to use fewer tokens while keeping its meaning. Prompt engineer: a person who crafts the wording of instructions to a model. Prompt engineering: the skill of writing clear instructions for a single interaction with a model. Prompt injection: hidden instructions placed in text with the aim of hijacking an agent. Prompt-level guardrail: an instruction written into the prompt that limits what the model should do. Protocol: an agreed set of rules for programs to talk. Prototype: an early rough version. Provenance: the origin and date of a piece of information. Provider: a company that offers models or services that you use. Publish and subscribe: sending messages by type and receiving only the types you chose. Pull request: a proposal to merge code changes.