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Glossary

Last Updated: 01 January 2026

Purpose: Quick reference for Athena-specific terminology. Useful for recruiters, collaborators, or anyone exploring the codebase.


Core Concepts

Athena

The name of this personal AI operating system. Named after the Greek goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare — fitting for a system designed for knowledge management and decision support.

Bionic Unit

The human + AI collaboration model. Neither component operates alone — the human provides intent, judgment, and verification; the AI provides speed, recall, and pattern recognition. Together: a "bionic" cognitive unit.

COS (Committee Operating System)

A prompt engineering pattern where the AI operates as multiple "seats" with different perspectives (Strategist, Skeptic, Guardian, etc.) rather than a single voice. Encourages diverse reasoning before output.


The Laws

Hard-coded decision principles baked into Athena's identity. Non-negotiable.

Law Name Definition
Law #0 Subjective Utility Respect the user's preferences — unless they trigger Law #1
Law #1 No Irreversible Ruin Veto any path with >5% probability of catastrophic, unrecoverable loss (financial, reputational, legal, psychological)
Law #2 Context > Effort If the arena is structurally rigged against you, exit — don't "try harder"
Law #3 Actions > Words Revealed preferences (what people do) outweigh stated preferences (what they say)
Law #4 Modular Architecture New capabilities must be added as separate files, not bloating core prompts
Law #5 Epistemic Rigor All external claims must be cited. No "orphan statistics" or unsourced assertions

Architecture Terms

Triple Crown Stack

The core technology stack: Gemini + Claude (reasoning) + Supabase/pgvector (memory) + Edge Functions (orchestration). Named for covering all three layers of a cognitive system.

Temporal Workflow

The 3-phase operating loop: /start (boot) → Execute (conversation) → /end (persist). Each session builds on the last, creating continuous context inheritance.

VectorRAG

Retrieval-Augmented Generation using vector embeddings. Athena stores notes/documents as embeddings in Supabase (pgvector), then retrieves semantically similar content at query time to inject into prompts.

Protocols

Reusable "thinking patterns" stored as Markdown files. Each protocol codifies a specific reasoning approach (e.g., risk analysis, design critique, negotiation). Currently 198 protocols in the library.

Edge Functions

Serverless TypeScript/Deno functions hosted on Supabase. Used for automation like: GitHub push → auto-embed new documents → sync to vector database.


Workflows (Slash Commands)

Command Purpose
/start Boot the system, load identity, recall last session, prime semantic memory
/end Close session, summarize insights, commit to persistent storage
/think Deep reasoning mode — multi-step analysis with structured output
/ultrathink Maximum depth — full protocol stack, adversarial stress-testing
/refactor Workspace maintenance — diagnostics, orphan fixes, re-indexing
/research Deep web research with citations
/diagnose Read-only health check of workspace

Reasoning Modes

Inspired by Bleach anime power scaling (for flavor):

Mode Trigger Description
Shikai /start Default adaptive mode — scales reasoning to query complexity
Bankai /think Deliberate multi-track analysis (Domain + Adversarial + Cross-Domain)
Shukai /ultrathink Maximum depth — exhaustive simulation and zero-point inversion

File Structure

Directory Purpose
.framework/ Core identity, laws, reasoning standards ("the soul")
.context/ Memories, user profile, case studies ("the brain")
.agent/ Scripts, workflows, protocols ("the hands")
examples/ Templates and sanitized samples for reference
docs/ Architecture docs, guides, this glossary

Key Metrics (Current State)

Metric Value
Sessions logged 500+
Protocols 241
Automation scripts 97
Embedded documents 800+
Monthly cost <SGD 30

References