Glossary

This glossary covers Syntax-specific terminology you'll see across the wiki and the product UI. It deliberately stays at capability level — public, user-visible names — so it's safe to share with anyone evaluating Syntax.

Agent Handoff

A structured checkpoint Syntax writes when a session approaches the context-window limit. A fresh agent picks up from the snapshot, so the session continues cleanly instead of in-place compacting. See Concepts → Agent Handoff.

Bridge

The local OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible endpoint every Syntax integration talks to. See Differentiators → First-class inter-compatibility.

Catalog

The set of models Syntax knows how to deploy. Includes hundreds of open-weight and provider-hosted models across many model purposes.

Default Sub-Agent

The cheaper model in a multi-model party that the main agent delegates routine work to.

dUX

The cloud-GPU orchestrator Syntax integrates with for managed remote inference. Syntax submits deployment intents; dUX handles GPU placement, scaling, drivers, and ingress inside your cloud accounts — you remain the sole admin of the underlying machines.

Exposed endpoint

A per-deployment OpenAI-compatible URL plus a bearer token (sk-syntax-…) that lets external clients reach a single deployed model. Issued and revoked from the desktop app.

Harness

A coding assistant that talks to an LLM. The Syntax CLI, Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode, and Pi are the five supported harnesses. See Harnesses → Overview.

Local inference

Running a model on your own machine — GPU, Apple Silicon, or CPU.

Main Agent

The model your harness primarily talks to in a multi-model party. The main agent can call specialists as tools.

Managed Remote

dUX-backed cloud GPU deployment.

Modality

The kinds of input/output a model handles. Common modalities include text, image, video, and audio.

Model Purpose

A coarse classification of what a model is for. Examples: text generation, embedding, OCR, image processing, video processing, image generation, video generation, segmentation, TTS, audio generation, mesh recovery, UI grounding, audio transcription, speech-to-speech, time-series forecasting.

Party

A deployment with a Main Agent, a Default Sub-Agent, and up to six Specialists composed together. See Concepts → Party Builder.

Plan Mode

A two-phase agent workflow: the agent proposes a structured plan, you accept, and a fresh execution context carries it out. See Concepts → Plan Mode.

Preset

A schema-versioned ready-to-deploy party definition. Lets a team share a common multi-model configuration in one click.

Remote Self-Hosted

A deployment target where Syntax controls a remote box you've provided (your own server, your own GPU, your own SSH).

Runtime Mode

The three-state cycle (Default / AutoEdit / Bypass) that controls how cautious Syntax is about running tool calls without asking. See Concepts → Runtime Modes.

The three states are:

• Default — asks before running anything that touches your filesystem, runs a shell command, or makes a network call. Reads are usually unattended.
• AutoEdit — auto-approves common edits and routine commands; only asks for genuinely risky operations.
• Bypass — approves everything without asking. Entering Bypass requires an explicit Y/N confirmation; it is not the default mode you cycle into accidentally.

Specialist

A model in a party, beyond the main agent and the sub-agent, that provides a specific capability and is exposed to the main agent as a tool.

Strategy

On multi-host deployments, the choice between Performance (one model per host) and Economy (pack onto the fewest hosts).

Tier (deployment)

For managed remote, Latency vs Throughput — two different optimization profiles dUX uses when placing your deployment.

syntax connect / syntax disconnect

CLI commands (and equivalent UI buttons) that wire a coding assistant to the local Bridge — and unwire it cleanly.