Glossary
This glossary defines key terms used throughout the Scion documentation and ecosystem.
An isolated worker instance running an LLM harness. Each agent has its own identity, workspace, and configuration.
A project-level grouping of agents and configuration, typically corresponding to a git repository and a .scion directory.
Harness
Section titled “Harness”An adapter that allows an underlying LLM tool (like Gemini CLI or Claude Code) to run within the Scion orchestration layer.
The centralized control plane in a hosted Scion deployment. It manages identity, grove registration, and dispatches tasks to Runtime Brokers.
Profile
Section titled “Profile”A set of configuration overrides that define how a runtime should execute an agent (e.g., resource limits, environment variables).
Runtime
Section titled “Runtime”The underlying technology used to execute agent containers (e.g., Docker, Podman, Apple Virtualization, Kubernetes).
Runtime Broker
Section titled “Runtime Broker”A compute node that executes agents. It connects to a Hub to receive instructions and reports agent status.
sciontool
Section titled “sciontool”A helper utility bundled with Scion that is injected into agent containers to provide status reporting, metadata access, and task management.
Template
Section titled “Template”A versioned blueprint for an agent, defining its base image, system prompt, tools, and initial state.
Grove ID
Section titled “Grove ID”A unique identifier for a grove. Git-backed groves use deterministic UUID v5 identifiers derived from the normalized git URL. Hub-native groves use random UUID v4 identifiers.
Plugin
Section titled “Plugin”An extension module built on hashicorp/go-plugin that provides additional capabilities (e.g., message broker or agent harness implementations) without modifying the Scion core.
Shared Directory
Section titled “Shared Directory”A persistent, mutable storage volume shared between agents within a single grove. Backed by host filesystem directories (local) or Kubernetes PersistentVolumeClaims (K8s).
Workspace
Section titled “Workspace”The working directory mounted into an agent container, typically managed as a Git worktree (local mode) or provisioned via git init + git fetch (Hub mode) to ensure isolation from other agents.