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Glossary

This page documents the canonical names for the objects, places, and behaviors in IAPM (3D & VR), and where each one sits. Use these terms and positions exactly; they are the same across every surface and document. This page is the source of record: when another page describes an object, a direction, or a color, it matches what is written here.

Spatial layout (canon)

The whole environment is one continuous vertical space. You change altitude to move between views rather than switching tabs. From bottom to top:

Altitude What is there
Bottom The service graph (structure: service nodes and their dependencies)
Middle The Core (the hub you land on, with the four cardinal cubes and the Portal Room beneath it)
Above the Core The grid (live activity: the Trace and Log Aggregate Blocks over the last ~60 seconds)

Inside the Diagnostics cube, a single trace un-flattens onto two walls, each at a fixed compass direction:

Wall Direction What is on it
Span waterfall North The trace's spans as a 3D waterfall (bar length = span duration)
Logs wall West The trace's logs as stacked bars, colored by log level

The Portal Room is a floor below where you spawn on the Core, in the basement directly beneath it. It holds the portals to the various cubes in the environment (Research, Security, Zen). It does not hold a portal to Diagnostics: the Diagnostics cube is reached only by selecting a trace on the grid, not from the Portal Room.

Entering the Diagnostics cube is always done from the grid: click the rhombus on a Trace Aggregate Block to zoom deeper into that trace. You descend into the trace (the block is not carried with you), and Tessa's context focuses on that trace while you are inside. The Diagnostics cube returns you to the grid position you came from; the other cubes return you to the Portal Room.

Objects

Term What it is
Service node A single service in the service graph, drawn as a glowing ring. Its color is its health (see Color legend).
Trace Aggregate Block On the grid, the block aggregating all spans that share one trace ID. It grows in size with the combined duration of all the spans in the trace, so slower traces stand taller. Red if a span in the trace errored.
Log Aggregate Block On the grid, the block aggregating all logs that share the same trace ID. Red if a log in the trace was an error log.
Span Block Inside the Diagnostics cube, a single span from the trace, laid out in the span waterfall. Red if that span errored.
Log Block Inside the Diagnostics cube, a single log line from the trace, on the logs wall. Colored by log level.

Both aggregates key on trace ID: the Trace Aggregate Block holds every span with that trace ID, and the Log Aggregate Block holds every log with the same trace ID. On the grid, a trace occupies one position as these two adjacent aggregate blocks. Inside the Diagnostics cube, that trace un-flattens into its individual Span Blocks (the span waterfall) and Log Blocks (the logs wall).

Blocks take the color of the highest-severity status they contain. A single error span turns the whole Trace Aggregate Block red. A single warning log turns the Log Aggregate Block orange. If a Log Aggregate Block contains both a warning and an error, it is red, because error outranks warning. See Color legend for the full severity order.

Places and views

Term What it is
Lobby Where you land when you log in. It holds the Select a Grid panel and is the entry point to the grid flow. Open to anyone; free to enter.
Grid The temporal view of your system: a live, roughly 60-second window of traces, rendered as a skyline of Trace and Log Aggregate Blocks. The Traces & Logs Camera View (M) is a top-down view of the field; click a trace cube to port down onto the grid at that spot. You can also travel into it through the NE portal on the Core.
Service graph The structural view of your system: services as nodes, dependencies as edges. The Services & Dependencies Camera View (N) is a top-down flattened overview; click a node to port down onto it (the graph then returns to its organic 3D form). You can also travel into it through the SW portal on the Core.
Core The hub you land on when you enter a grid. The Home button ("Teleport to the Core") returns you here.
Diagnostics cube The workspace you send a trace to for deep inspection, where it un-flattens into a logs wall and a span waterfall. One of the four cardinal cubes on the Core.

Motion and effects

Term What it is
Photons Points of light that fly between service nodes to show live traffic (a request emits a photon to the target; a response sends one back). Performance-gated: they appear when the frame rate is high enough.

Time controls

Term What it is
Time stop The play/pause transport. Pausing freezes the world (traffic, blocks, and nodes hold still) while you keep moving, so you can walk through a frozen moment and study it. Available everywhere.
Time travel Replaying your system's state at a past moment, on both the grid and the service graph. Currently disabled while replay is being reworked; it is not available today.

Naming notes

  • Grid is the current public term for the temporal view. The DeepCube naming is held until the trademark lands and is not used in public copy.
  • Time travel is documented as a returning feature, never as a present-tense capability, until replay ships again.

Colloquial terms and their canonical names

In running prose you may use the short colloquial noun. Use the full on-screen camera-view label when you introduce the shortcut or the toolbar control.

Colloquial (use in prose) Canonical on-screen label Shortcut
the grid Traces & Logs Camera View M
the service graph Services & Dependencies Camera View N
first-person Avatar Camera View Escape
the console Console F12

Do NOT use "Grid view" or "Graph view" as terms; they are ambiguous. Say "the grid" and "the service graph", or the full camera-view label.