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Glossary

The words ai-coach uses, in plain language.

Buzzword​

A word you may not hide behind when you explain an idea, such as "synergy" or "best practice". The coach asks you to rephrase when you use one. You set them per concept note, and globally with sparring.buzzwords.

Coaching style​

How the coach pushes you: feynman, socratic, cornell or devil. See Coaching styles.

Concept note​

A note holding one idea, in your own words, with its core assertions, buzzwords and quotes from the book. Concept notes live in 3.Resources/Concepts/ and are what you spar. You make them with coach synthesize.

Core assertion​

One of the key points of a concept note: what your explanation must cover to pass. They are drafted from your own summary and answers, never from the book, and you approve each one.

Distill​

Marking a chapter in Obsidian: bolding what matters, highlighting the best of it, and summarising the chapter in your own words.

Judge​

The online model (Gemini) that gives a second, stricter verdict on your sparring answers. Also called Tier 2. It sees only the questions and your answers, never your notes.

kb-template​

A separate project that owns your vault. Its vault server (docs-mcp) is the only program that reads or writes vault files; ai-coach and the planning skills both ask it.

PARA​

The folder layout of your vault: Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive, plus an Inbox. ai-coach numbers them 0.Inbox to 4.Archive. See how your vault is laid out.

Raw material​

Converted books and other sources under 3.Resources/0.Raw/. You read, mark and quote them, but never spar them directly.

Review​

Coming back to an idea when it's due. Each pass pushes the next review further out; a fail brings it back tomorrow.

Session​

One recorded sparring round on one note: the questions, your answers and the verdict. Sessions live in your vault under Coach/sessions/.

Spar​

Explaining an idea to the local model, which asks follow-ups and gives a verdict. Also called Tier 1. It runs offline.

Study​

Working through the gaps of a failed round, with hints and the author's own words.

Synthesize​

Turning your marks on a book into concept notes, one idea each.

Tier 1, Tier 2​

The two models. Tier 1 is the local sparring partner (Gemma on Ollama), which sees your notes and runs offline. Tier 2 is the online judge (Gemini), which never sees your notes.

Vault server​

kb-template's docs-mcp program. ai-coach starts it for each command and talks to it over the Model Context Protocol.