Glossary
This document defines key terms used throughout the requirements and architecture documentation.
People and Roles
Only freelancers have accounts. A freelancer's clients and their stakeholders never log in.
Freelancer
The person or business using the platform and the owner of a workspace. The only kind of platform user. A freelancer signs up as the Admin of a new workspace and may add Members.
Admin
The Freelancer who owns a workspace. Full CRUD on clients, projects, and user stories; adds and removes Members; manages API keys; exports requirements. Each workspace has exactly one Admin.
Member
A teammate added by the Admin. Can do everything the Admin can with clients, projects, user stories, and AI refinement, but cannot manage the team or rename the workspace.
Workspace
The tenant boundary: it owns its clients, projects, and stories, and every user belongs to exactly one. A record of another workspace behaves as if it does not exist.
Client
The Freelancer's customer, a person or organization, stored as a record on a project. A Client has no account and never logs in.
Stakeholder
A person at the Client who reviews and validates the requirements. Not stored in the system and has no account: a Stakeholder opens the Client Review Portal with a Project Access Code. A Client can have several Stakeholders, and all of them use the same code.
End User
A user of the software being built for the Client, for example the "clinic patient" in "As a clinic patient, I want...". Appears only inside user stories and personas. Never a platform user.
Client Review Portal
The public, read-only page (/viewer) where a Stakeholder enters a Project Access Code to see the project's approved user stories. No login. Shows nothing that identifies the workspace, the Client record, or any user.
Project Access Code
The key a Stakeholder types into the Client Review Portal, for example PRJ-7K3M9XQ2. Generated by the system, unique across all workspaces, and unguessable by design. Distinct from the Project Code. The Admin or a Member can regenerate it at any time, which revokes the old code and any link built from it.
Project Lifecycle
Active Project
Project with status "active"; counts toward the 3-project limit per Admin account. Can have user stories added and edited.
Archived Project
Project with status "archived"; does not count toward project limit. Read-only; can be reactivated by changing status to active.
Deleted Project
Soft-deleted project; inaccessible to Admin, Member, and the Client Review Portal within 24 hours per NFR-X02. Recoverable via support for limited time.
User Stories
User Story
Approved requirement in standard format: title + "As a [persona], I want [capability], so that [benefit]" + acceptance criteria. Visible in the Client Review Portal once approved.
Draft Story
Unapproved AI-refined story pending Admin review. Held only in the Admin's browser tab (session storage) and never stored server-side, so it cannot appear in exports or in the Client Review Portal. Can be edited, approved (which saves it as a User Story), or discarded by Admin.
Epics & Backlog
Epic
Grouping container for related user stories within a project. Maps to an implementation phase or feature area. Each epic has a unique key (e.g., EPIC-0), priority, and lifecycle status (open, in_progress, done). User stories reference their parent epic via epic_id.
Epic Key
Human-readable identifier for an epic, unique per project. Follows the convention EPIC-{n} (e.g., EPIC-0, EPIC-1). Used in story_id prefixes (US-EP0-BE-001) and for Jira integration.
Backlog
Structured view of user stories organized by epic, priority, and status. Supports filtering and reordering per FR-004. Approved stories with acceptance criteria form the backlog deliverable.
Projects & Clients
Project
Container for user stories; associated with one Client. Supports discovery and planning phases in MVP; limited to 3 active projects per workspace.
Project Code
Short identifier the Freelancer chooses for a project (for example WEB), unique within a workspace only. Used by the Freelancer's own team. Not what a Stakeholder types; see Project Access Code.
Project Status
Enum: active (counts toward limit), archived (excluded from limit), deleted (soft-deleted, inaccessible).
AI & Credits
Platform Provider
AI service using the platform's API keys; consumes the user's free credits (5 per Admin or Member). Limited to those refinements unless the user adds their own API key.
User Provider
AI service using user's own API key (Gemini, OpenAI, or DeepSeek). Unlimited refinements; does not consume platform credits.
AI Refinement
Process of submitting raw notes to AI service and generating structured user story with title, standard format, and acceptance criteria.
AI Credit
Unit of platform AI usage; 1 credit consumed per successful refinement using platform provider. Admins and Members receive 5 free credits each on email verification (one-time); a workspace grants at most 25 in its lifetime.
Authentication & Sessions
Verification Code
6-digit alphanumeric code (0-9, A-Z, excluding O/0/I/1) for email verification during account creation or password reset. Expires after 5 minutes for sign-up verification, 24 hours for Admin-added accounts, and 30 minutes for password reset.
Session
Authenticated user connection; standard sessions expire after 24 hours, extended sessions after 7 days per NFR-X09. Managed via JWT access tokens and refresh tokens.
Technical Terms
MVP Load
Expected system capacity for minimum viable product: 10 concurrent Admins with up to 5 users per workspace, 100 requests/min peak, 3 active projects per Admin, 200 total user stories (per NFR-X05).
RLS (Row Level Security)
Database-layer access control enforcing that users can only query data they have permission to access. Used to keep each workspace's data separate and to confine the Client Review Portal to the project its access code names.
Cross-Cutting NFR
Non-functional requirement applying to multiple features; defined in README Cross-Cutting Quality Baseline section (e.g., NFR-X01 through NFR-X10).
Version: 1.2
Last Updated: 2026-10-02
Owner: Product Owner