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Glossary

This glossary provides precise definitions for all domain-specific terms used in Zenzic's documentation, CLI output, and source code. Terms are listed alphabetically.

Terms

Glossary of key technical and domain concepts in alphabetical order.

Adapter

A build-engine-specific module that implements the BaseAdapter protocol. Adapters translate between a documentation engine's file conventions (nav structure, locale directories, URL mapping) and Zenzic's engine-agnostic core. Built-in adapters: MkDocsAdapter, ZensicalAdapter, StandaloneAdapter.

See: Architecture -- Adapter Protocol

Audit Mode

A formal compliance reporting mode invoked via zenzic audit. It generates a deterministic ledger of evaluated policies, DQS calculation, technical debt (suppressions), and architectural state.

See: CLI Reference

Credential Scanner Violation

An exception raised by the credential scanner's IO Middleware (safe_read_line) when a secret is detected during metadata extraction. ShieldViolation is intentionally fatal — it prevents secrets from entering any parser by halting processing immediately (Exit 2).

Dark Page

A documentation page that exists on disk and is listed in site navigation, but cannot be reached by following links from any other page. Dark Pages are structurally valid but functionally invisible to readers following link paths.

Document Quality Score (DQS)

A deterministic 0–100 quality score computed across four weighted categories: Structural (30%), Navigation (25%), Content (20%), and Governance & Brand (25%). Each category accumulates per-code penalty deductions. The score incorporates Governance Escalation (exponential penalty amplification for excess Z6xx findings), Gravity Cap, and flat-cost Technical Debt deductions.

See: Scoring Algorithm Specification

Enterprise SARIF

An enriched SARIF v2.1.0 output format that includes Zenzic-specific metadata (properties.category, properties.penalty, helpUri) for integration with enterprise security dashboards.

Exclusion Zone

The strict boundary within Zenzic's file discovery model where scanners are intentionally inhibited, governed by the Layered Exclusion hierarchy.

Ghost Route

A URL path that the build engine's navigation configuration declares but that has no corresponding source file on disk. Ghost Routes result in 404 errors when clicked and are detected during Virtual Site Map (VSM) construction.

Hex Pattern Detector

The credential scanner pattern that detects hex-encoded byte sequences (e.g. \x40\x41 · \x42 escape sequences) used to obfuscate payloads or credentials.

Layered Exclusion

The 4-level hierarchy that determines which files and directories Zenzic scans:

  • L1 System Guardrails: Hardcoded immutable exclusions (.git, .venv, node_modules).
  • L2 VCS: .gitignore and VCS rules.
  • L3 Config Exclusions: excluded_dirs and excluded_file_patterns in .zenzic.toml.
  • L4 CLI Overrides: --exclude-dir and --include-dir flags.

Path Traversal Guard

A security classification applied when a documentation link resolves to an OS system directory (/etc/, /var/, /sys/). Fires Z202/Z203 and forces non-suppressible Exit 3.

Policy-as-Code

A declarative governance engine configured via the [policies] table in .zenzic.toml. It enforces metadata schemas (e.g., Z612, Z613) and Zero-Trust linking (e.g., Z614, Z615, Z616) without executing arbitrary Python code.

See: Configuration Reference

Reference Map

A per-file data structure populated during Pass 1 of the Three-Pass Pipeline storing [id]: url reference definitions, used IDs, duplicate IDs, and orphan definitions.

System Guardrails (L1)

The immutable set of directories (.git, .venv, node_modules, __pycache__) that Zenzic always excludes unconditionally.

Three-Pass Pipeline

Zenzic's core analysis pipeline processing each Markdown file in three sequential passes:

  1. Pass 1 (Harvest & Secret Scan): Stream lines, extract [id]: url definitions, run credential scanner.
  2. Pass 2 (Cross-Check): Resolve [text][id] usages against the Reference Map.
  3. Pass 3 (Integrity Report): Compute integrity score and assemble diagnostic findings.

Virtual Site Map (VSM)

An in-memory, deterministic adjacency matrix representing the entire navigable topology of the documentation repository. Used for O(1) path resolution and cross-namespace boundary enforcement.

See: Advanced Features