Glossary¶
Domain terms used across lAIfe, in one place.
Each entry links to where the concept is explained or implemented.
Terms are listed alphabetically.
Action¶
A single thing the brain decides to do: move, build, craft, interact, complete, or plan.
An action is an intention, not a guarantee; a good one moves the mission forward, possibly across several turns.
See entities/action.py and the game loop.
Brain¶
The LLM chain that, given an observation and the current mission, returns the next action. This is the core decision step of a player's turn. See the llm package.
Building¶
A placed structure in the world, such as a house, farm, or factory. A building is an instance; its category and fixed size come from its building type. See the entities package.
Building type¶
Master data for a category of building: its name, description, and size, shared by every instance of that category.
See entities/building_types.py.
Judge¶
See world judge.
Mission¶
A goal a player works toward, with an objective, a status, and a history of actions and results.
Missions can nest into sub-missions and are generated by an LLM rather than scripted.
See llm/mission.py and the game loop.
Mission generator¶
The LLM chain that proposes a fresh mission objective from the current world observation, so a player without a goal can find one. See the llm package.
Observation¶
A structured spatial snapshot of the world centred on a player: the nearby entities with their type, name, relative position, and distance.
It renders to text using cardinal directions so the LLM reasons in spatial language.
See entities/world_map_observation.py.
Planner¶
The LLM chain that decomposes a hard mission into ordered sub-missions, using the mission history as context. Triggered by the plan action. See the llm package.
Player¶
An agent in the world, owning its position, state, inventory, and current mission. A player perceives the world, asks its brain for an action, and turns that action into a world request. See the entities package and the architecture.
Replier¶
The LLM chain that produces an in-character reply to a message from another player, without touching world I/O. See the llm package.
Sub-mission¶
A mission nested under a parent mission, produced by the planner when a goal is too complex to solve directly. See Mission.
Terrain¶
A region of the map with a type, such as forest, lake, or fertile land, used for prompt context and rendering. See the entities package.
Utensil¶
A tool a player can hold and use, such as a bucket, axe, hammer, or hoe.
A mission may require a utensil that the player must find or craft.
See entities/utensil.py.
World¶
The authority over all state: players, buildings, and terrain. A player changes the world only by sending a request and awaiting the answer; the world validates every request and never tells a player what to do. It is run by the world runner. See the architecture.
World channel¶
The typed contract a player and the world communicate over: requests and responses, with no loose dict payloads. See world request and world response.
World judge¶
The LLM chain the world uses to decide whether a build or craft action is valid, returning a success flag with feedback.
This is the world's reasoning, distinct from the player's brain.
See entities/world_judge.py.
World request¶
A typed message a player sends to the world to act: build, craft, move, observe, interact, or complete.
Called WReq in the code.
See entities/world_channel.py.
World response¶
A typed message the world returns for a request, carrying a status and a payload specific to the action, or an error.
Called WRes in the code, with concrete subclasses per action.
See entities/world_channel.py.
World runner¶
The object that holds world state and runs the simulation loop: it reads requests, validates them, runs collision and judging, mutates state on success, and returns responses. See the entities package.