The Kynetra Lexicon
A proposed vocabulary for KynetraDB — 100 terms used to discuss product directions. Terms and examples are not a compatibility or availability guarantee.
Two primitives
Every write is an append to one log. Nothing is ever updated in place.
// One log. Every write lands at the tail.
APPEND products {
id: "sku-1024",
attrs: { title: "Trail Runner", price: 129 },
EMBED: [0.02, -0.91, ...] // vector attached at write time
}
SEAL // fsync — durable past crashEvery read is served from state rebuilt by replaying that same log.
// Read shapes all resolve against one replayed state. FETCH products "sku-1024" // by id SEARCH products "trail running" // BM25 full-text NEAR products EMBED(query) TOPK 10 // vector cosine FUSE products "trail" + EMBED(query) // hybrid, rank-fused TAIL products FROM seq:48213 // follow the log
The lexicon
Write
The log-write verbs. Every mutation is an append; history is never rewritten.
Write a new record to the tail of the log — the atomic unit of durability.
proposed mapping: INSERT
Create or replace an entity by id.
proposed mapping: UPSERT
Merge fields into an existing entity without rewriting the whole record.
proposed mapping: UPDATE
Retire an entity by writing a tombstone — the log records the deletion, never erases it.
proposed mapping: DELETE
Force pending writes to durable storage.
proposed mapping: COMMIT / fsync
Group writes so they apply atomically or not at all.
proposed mapping: TRANSACTION
Attach a vector embedding to an entity at write time.
proposed mapping: vector column write
Label a record with a kind for routing and isolation.
proposed mapping: set type / label
The monotonic sequence and timestamp the log assigns each record.
proposed mapping: LSN + ts
Issue a new unique id for an entity.
proposed mapping: generate primary key
Read
The retrieval verbs. All of them resolve against state replayed from the log.
Read a single entity by id.
proposed mapping: SELECT by PK
Read a range or page of entities in log order.
proposed mapping: SELECT … LIMIT/OFFSET
Return entities matching a predicate.
proposed mapping: WHERE
Number of entities matching a query.
proposed mapping: COUNT(*)
Return only a chosen subset of fields.
proposed mapping: SELECT columns
Resolve related entities inline in one read.
proposed mapping: JOIN / embed
Follow the log forward from an offset — the streaming read primitive.
proposed mapping: CDC / change feed
Rebuild in-memory state by re-reading the log from the start.
proposed mapping: WAL replay
A consistent point-in-time view of the state.
proposed mapping: snapshot read
Read without advancing a cursor or causing side effects.
proposed mapping: non-consuming read
Search & Rank
Relevance, in-process. Full-text and vector share one ingest — no second service.
Full-text BM25 query over indexed text.
proposed mapping: full-text search
Vector nearest-neighbour search by cosine similarity.
proposed mapping: ANN / vector search
Combine text and vector results with reciprocal rank fusion.
proposed mapping: hybrid search
The relevance ordering applied to results.
proposed mapping: ORDER BY score
The numeric relevance of a single hit.
proposed mapping: rank score
Fraction of true neighbours an approximate search returns.
proposed mapping: recall@k
Case and accent normalization applied before indexing.
proposed mapping: text normalization
The unit of indexed text.
proposed mapping: term
The number of results a query asks for.
proposed mapping: k / LIMIT
The derived structure that makes a query shape fast (BM25, HNSW).
proposed mapping: index
Cache
Read-shaped requests warmed at the edge, invalidated the instant a write lands.
Preload a query result into the edge cache before it is asked for.
proposed mapping: cache warm
Keep an entry resident, exempt from eviction.
proposed mapping: pin
Remove an entry to reclaim space.
proposed mapping: evict
Invalidate cached entries by tag — fired automatically on mutation.
proposed mapping: invalidate
An entry past its freshness window.
proposed mapping: stale
An entry still within its TTL.
proposed mapping: fresh
A request served from cache.
proposed mapping: cache hit
A request that fell through to origin.
proposed mapping: cache miss
How long an entry stays fresh before revalidation.
proposed mapping: ttl
Refresh a stale entry in the background while still serving it.
proposed mapping: stale-while-revalidate
Replicate & Cluster
One primary assigns sequence; many replicas tail the same log and serve reads.
One primary log read by many replicas.
proposed mapping: replication
The single node that assigns sequence and accepts writes.
proposed mapping: leader
A read-only node tailing the primary log.
proposed mapping: read replica
How many records a replica trails the primary by.
proposed mapping: replication lag
Turn a replica into the primary.
proposed mapping: failover promote
A replica forwarding a write to the primary.
proposed mapping: write forwarding
The live map of primary and replicas.
proposed mapping: cluster topology
The periodic liveness signal between nodes.
proposed mapping: heartbeat
Divergence between a replica state and the primary.
proposed mapping: divergence
The geographic pool a read is routed to at the edge.
proposed mapping: regional routing
Log & Storage
The append-only log is the single source of truth. Everything else is derived.
The append-only sequence that is the one source of truth.
proposed mapping: WAL
The monotonic position of a record in the log.
proposed mapping: LSN / offset
A cursor position within the log.
proposed mapping: offset
A contiguous chunk of the log on disk.
proposed mapping: WAL segment
A periodic durable snapshot that bounds replay time.
proposed mapping: checkpoint
Reclaim space by dropping superseded records.
proposed mapping: compaction
The log marker for a deleted entity.
proposed mapping: tombstone
Cut the log back to a sequence.
proposed mapping: truncate
Where the log physically lives — file, Postgres, or D1.
proposed mapping: storage engine
Written past the point of loss on crash.
proposed mapping: fsynced
Shape & Schema
Entities are kind-prefixed, so cross-tenant reads are impossible by construction.
The type that partitions entities and enforces isolation.
proposed mapping: table / type
One record: id, attrs, and an optional embedding.
proposed mapping: row / document
The JSON payload of an entity.
proposed mapping: columns / fields
A typed attribute within a collection schema.
proposed mapping: column
A named, schema-bound set of entities.
proposed mapping: table
A collection schema — fields, types, and rules.
proposed mapping: schema
An access predicate on a collection.
proposed mapping: RLS policy
A link from one entity to another.
proposed mapping: foreign key
A latitude/longitude point field.
proposed mapping: geo point
Evolve a collection shape over time.
proposed mapping: migration
Identity & Access
Service keys bypass rules; user JWTs and anon keys respect them transparently.
A bearer credential that authorizes a caller.
proposed mapping: API key
Give a role a capability.
proposed mapping: GRANT
The boundary a token or role may act within.
proposed mapping: scope
A named permission set — User, Admin, SuperAdmin.
proposed mapping: role
An assertion inside a JWT — sub, role, exp.
proposed mapping: JWT claim
Replace a key while briefly accepting the old one.
proposed mapping: key rotation
Invalidate a token or grant.
proposed mapping: revoke
An unauthenticated identity with restricted rights.
proposed mapping: anonymous
The authenticated subject id rules evaluate against.
proposed mapping: auth.uid()
The auth check a request must pass before it runs.
proposed mapping: auth middleware
Operations & Health
A node proves it can serve, not just that the process is up.
A health check that proves a node can actually serve.
proposed mapping: health probe
A circuit breaker that fails fast on a downed dependency.
proposed mapping: circuit breaker
The tamper-evident hash-chained record of every admin mutation.
proposed mapping: audit log
The hash links that make the audit tamper-evident.
proposed mapping: hash chain
p50 / p95 / p99 request latency.
proposed mapping: latency percentile
The bounded buffer of recent latency samples.
proposed mapping: ring buffer
Rate-limit a caller at the edge.
proposed mapping: rate limit
The edge guard filtering IPs, user-agents, and headers.
proposed mapping: WAF
The state where a node can accept traffic.
proposed mapping: readiness
Serving, but with a failing check.
proposed mapping: degraded
Connect & Edge
One engine, many ways in — SDK, REST, MCP, CLI, and serverless edge bridges.
A serverless worker that speaks the API over a Cloudflare store.
proposed mapping: edge adapter
The Cloudflare POP layer in front of the origin.
proposed mapping: edge / CDN
The typed client — @kynetra/client.
proposed mapping: client library
The JSON-RPC tool surface agents connect through.
proposed mapping: MCP server
The CLI remote protocol to a node.
proposed mapping: remote CLI
An outbound webhook fired when a mutation lands.
proposed mapping: webhook
HMAC-sign a webhook payload so the receiver can verify it.
proposed mapping: payload signing
The node the edge forwards a request to.
proposed mapping: origin server
The rule mapping a hostname or path to a worker.
proposed mapping: route
An outbound destination the log streams to.
proposed mapping: CDC sink