Glossary of Essential FCC Terms¶

The 30 most important terms you need to know when working with the FCC Agent Team Framework, organized alphabetically.

A¶

Action¶

A specific operation that a persona can perform within a workflow. FCC defines 312 actions across 6 types: scaffold, refactor, debug, test, compare, and document. Actions are executed through the Action Engine.

Example: The "scaffold_project_structure" action creates a new project layout.

Action Engine¶

The component that executes workflow actions. It takes an action ID and context, runs the action (optionally with persona awareness), and returns an ActionResult with status, output, and duration.

Archetype¶

One of the 10 components of the R.I.S.C.E.A.R. specification. The archetype describes the persona's fundamental behavioral pattern (e.g., "The Explorer", "The Guardian", "The Builder"). It helps define how the persona approaches problems.

C¶

Category¶

A grouping of related personas. FCC has 20 categories including core, integration, governance, champions, ml_lifecycle, data_engineering, and more. Each persona belongs to exactly one category.

Champion¶

An elevated persona that orchestrates a team of base personas. Champions have a champion_of field indicating which FCC phase they lead (FIND, CREATE, or CRITIQUE) and an orchestrates field listing the personas they coordinate. FCC includes 4 champion personas.

Collaboration Session¶

A structured interaction between humans and AI personas managed by the Collaboration Engine. Sessions have turns (messages), scoring (quality evaluation), and approval gates (checkpoints that must pass before proceeding).

Constitution¶

A set of behavioral rules assigned to a persona through the Constitution Registry. Constitutions have three tiers: - Hard-stop: Rules that can never be violated - Mandatory: Rules that should be followed unless explicitly waived - Preferred: Best practices that are recommended but optional

Cross-Reference Matrix¶

A data structure that maps relationships between all personas. For each persona, the matrix records its upstream sources, downstream targets, peer connections, and relationship types (handoff, feedback, coordination, governance, champion-of).

D¶

Dimension¶

One of 56 measurable attributes that describe a persona's behavioral profile. Dimensions are organized into 9 categories: core, behavioral, communication, cultural, decision-making, professional, market, innovative, and advanced.

Discernment Matrix¶

A rating system with 6 traits (Humility, Professional Background, Curiosity, Taste, Inclusivity, Responsibility) each rated across 7 dimensions. Used to evaluate persona judgment and decision-making quality.

E¶

Event¶

A structured message published through the Event Bus. Each event has a type (one of 66 types), a timestamp, optional source information, and a data payload. Events enable loose coupling between FCC components.

Event Bus¶

The in-process, thread-safe pub/sub messaging system that connects FCC components. Publishers emit events, and subscribers receive events they are interested in. Supports filtering, serialization, and replay.

F¶

FCC Cycle¶

The core workflow pattern: Find (discover and research), Create (synthesize and build), Critique (review and improve). This cycle can repeat through REFINE and DELIVER phases.

Federation¶

The system for connecting FCC instances across projects. Federation includes namespace registration (11 ecosystems), entity resolution, and change tracking. It enables cross-project knowledge sharing.

K¶

Knowledge Graph¶

A graph data structure that captures relationships between FCC entities. Uses 9 node types (PERSONA, CATEGORY, WORKFLOW, ACTION, EVENT_TYPE, PLUGIN, DIMENSION, SCENARIO, CONSTITUTION) and 9 edge types. Can be exported to RDF, OWL, SKOS, or JSON-LD.

M¶

Mock Mode¶

The deterministic simulation mode that works without API keys. Mock mode produces the same output given the same inputs, making it ideal for testing, learning, and reproducibility.

O¶

Observability¶

The tracing and metrics system that monitors FCC operations. Includes span-based tracing (compatible with OpenTelemetry), 7 pre-defined metrics, and exporters for console and JSON output.

P¶

Persona¶

A defined AI "expert" with a specific role, skills, and behavioral profile. Each persona has a unique ID, belongs to a category, and has a full R.I.S.C.E.A.R. specification. FCC includes 147 personas: 102 core across 20 categories plus 45 vertical across 6 industry packs.

Persona Registry¶

The central store for all persona definitions. Loaded from YAML files, the registry supports queries by ID, category, champions, and more. Accessed via PersonaRegistry.from_package_data().

Plugin¶

An extension module that adds functionality to the FCC framework. FCC supports 10 plugin types: personas, engines, templates, scorers, validators, providers, governance, scenarios, workflows, and subscribers.

Q¶

Quality Gate¶

A checkpoint in a workflow that validates deliverables against defined criteria. FCC includes 30+ quality gates covering schema validation, coverage checks, scoring thresholds, and governance compliance. A gate returns a pass/fail result with a score.

R¶

RAG Pipeline¶

Retrieval-Augmented Generation pipeline for document-based question answering. Consists of a DocumentChunker (6 strategies), SemanticRetriever (embedding-based search), and the RAGPipeline controller that supports persona-aware queries.

R.I.S.C.E.A.R.¶

The 10-component specification that defines every persona: 1. Role -- What the persona does 2. Input -- What information it needs 3. Style -- How it communicates 4. Constraints -- What limits its behavior 5. Expected Output -- What it produces 6. Archetype -- Its fundamental behavioral pattern 7. Responsibilities -- Its specific duties 8. Role Skills -- Its technical capabilities 9. Role Collaborators -- Its interaction partners 10. Role Adoption Checklist -- Steps to activate it

S¶

Scenario¶

A pre-defined sequence of steps that specifies which personas to use, in what phases, and with what prompts. FCC includes 29 built-in scenarios organized into starter, advanced, and EAIFC categories.

Semantic Search¶

The ability to search for personas, actions, or documents by meaning rather than exact keywords. Uses embedding providers to convert text into numerical vectors and find semantically similar items.

Simulation¶

The process of executing a scenario through the FCC cycle. A simulation produces a trace that records every step. Simulations can run in "mock" mode (deterministic, no API key) or "ai" mode (uses an AI provider).

T¶

Trace¶

The complete record of a simulation run. A trace includes the scenario ID, a list of steps (each with phase, persona ID, and summary), the total duration, and any metadata. Traces enable reproducibility and analysis.

W¶

Workflow Graph¶

A directed graph that defines the structure of an FCC workflow. Nodes represent steps (labeled with phase and persona), and edges represent the flow between steps. FCC provides 7 graph variants from 5 nodes (base) to 55 nodes (extended_84).