The question behind the term
Architecture language compresses assumptions. “Offline,” “tenant,” “audit,” “encrypted” and “realtime” can sound precise while different readers attach incompatible meanings.
A reviewable approach
Define a term beside its scope and counterexample. A durable cursor is a stored position in an ordered change stream; it does not guarantee that every event in the whole system shares one global order. Forced row-level security is database policy applied even to table owners unless explicitly bypassed; it does not control every external store.
- E2EE: only participant endpoints hold content-reading keys
- Idempotency: repeating an operation does not repeat its effect
- Tenant isolation: one organization cannot observe another’s scoped state
- Tamper-evident: unauthorized change can be detected, not made impossible
The boundary to keep visible
A glossary supports shared review but does not replace a threat model, protocol specification, clinical safety case or deployment agreement.
Terms that need a boundary
A safety number is a human-comparable fingerprint of key material; matching it through an independent channel helps check a contact’s displayed key, but does not protect an unlocked device. ML-KEM-768 is a standardized key-encapsulation parameter set, not a whole messenger or an independent audit. “Post-quantum” describes a security objective against specified future cryptanalytic threats, not protection from every attack.
A durable cursor is a saved position in an ordered event stream; it helps recover a defined gap after reconnecting. Idempotency means a retried logical operation does not repeat its effect. Neither guarantees that every event in every system has one global order. A tenant is an organization-specific scope; row-level policy can constrain database rows while file storage and caches still need their own checks.
References and further reading
Frequently asked questions
Is tamper-evident the same as tamper-proof?
No. Tamper-evident means a change can be detected within the stated verification boundary; it does not make unauthorized change impossible.