Language and Operating States
Guide status: Foundation contract. Last reviewed 14 August 2026. Visible labels can evolve, but they should preserve the distinctions defined here.
Purpose
Liva 7 uses a shared language so that evidence, decisions, actions and outcomes are not collapsed into one ambiguous status. This guide defines the core terms used across the operating system.
Evidence terms
- Observed: directly recorded from an authorised source for a stated scope and time.
- Derived: calculated from observed inputs using a defined rule.
- Inferred: estimated from patterns or a model and subject to uncertainty.
- Experimental: estimated through a controlled comparison designed to support a causal decision.
- Confidence: the strength assigned to a conclusion under a stated method; it does not change the evidence class.
Decision and work terms
- Opportunity: a qualified commercial question supported by evidence and limitations.
- Recommendation: a reviewable proposal with scope, reasoning, constraints and a suggested action.
- Decision: the merchant or authorised system response to a recommendation, including the reason.
- Policy: the explicit authority and limits under which a class of actions may occur.
- Action: a requested or completed change tied to a decision or policy.
- Outcome: what was later observed; an outcome is not automatically caused by the action.
Lifecycle terms
- Prepared: the content, decision or configuration exists but has not been applied.
- Configured: settings point to the intended scope or placement.
- Published: the required platform-controlled change has been saved to the target environment.
- Verified: the expected result has been checked in the target environment.
- Eligible: a visit, product or context satisfies the applicable rules.
- Exposed: an eligible customer experience was actually delivered.
- Measured: valid events have been processed for the stated window.
Authority terms
- Observe: analyse without proposing or making changes.
- Recommend: prepare proposals without executing them.
- Ask First: require an authorised approval for each applicable action.
- Auto-execute: allow a defined action class inside an approved policy.
How to use these terms
Use the narrowest accurate term. Do not say “live” when something is only configured, “result” when a value is modelled, “customer preference” when a segment is inferred, or “no activity” when the actual state is Unknown. When a visible label differs, the supporting detail should still reveal the underlying state.
You are finished when
A second team member can tell what is known, what was decided, what changed, what customers could receive and what was measured without relying on unstated assumptions.