Glossary
Last updated: 2026-06-28
Common Cortensor terms are grouped by protocol/runtime, API, product, ecosystem, and legal context.
Protocol And Runtime
| Term |
Meaning |
| Router Node |
API-facing coordinator that submits work to sessions and returns results or verdicts. |
| Router Pool |
Managed set of router targets behind gateway or proxy routing. |
| Miner |
Node role that executes assigned inference work. |
| Oracle |
Node role that watches and coordinates lifecycle transitions. |
| Validator |
Node role family for network task checking after execution. Cortensor runs validatorv1 for network task-level checking/regulation, validatorv2 for quantitative post-result validation, and validatorv3 for qualitative post-result validation. |
| Quality oracle |
qualityv1; user task quality sampling oracle that runs heartbeat-style sampling and is separate from validator v2/v3 post-result checking. |
| Private session |
Session using privacy and encryption controls. |
| Dedicated session |
Session tied to known node(s) or stricter routing. |
| Ephemeral session |
Session using dynamic assignment. |
PrivacySettingData |
Contract module for privacy and allowed-miner state. |
SessionQueueValidation |
Queue validation lifecycle module. |
SessionPaymentStaking |
Payment/staking module for staking-linked payment flows. |
| PoI |
Proof of Inference, Cortensor's inference verification concept. |
| PoUW |
Proof of Useful Work, Cortensor's usefulness/quality concept. |
API And Agent Surfaces
| Term |
Meaning |
| A2A |
Agent-to-agent discovery/protocol surface exposed by router integrations. |
| MCP |
Model Context Protocol surface for agent and tool integrations. |
| x402 |
Payment-gated HTTP flow for pay-per-call endpoints. |
| Portal |
Hosted developer product for API keys, usage, billing surface, docs, and profile. |
| Portal Gateway |
API layer that verifies keys, maps models to router pools, forwards requests, and records usage. |
| Corgent |
Agentic trust and execution surface for delegate/validate/arbitrate workflows. |
| Bardiel |
Virtual-first product agent built on Cortensor/Corgent patterns. |
| Delegate |
Execution primitive: send work to Cortensor under a policy. |
| Validate |
Trust primitive: check a claim, result, or proposed action under a policy. |
| Factcheck |
Claim-checking route family with standard/realtime modes. |
| Agent app |
Application that delegates work to Cortensor or asks Cortensor to validate an agent result/action. |
| API key |
Credential issued by the hosted product layer for Portal/API gateway access. |
| Corgent policy |
Product-level routing or verification policy for delegate/validate workflows. |
| Evidence artifact |
Structured output, logs, references, or metadata used to support a validation or factcheck verdict. |
| Off-chain payload |
Blob stored outside contracts and referenced by URN/hash. |
| URN |
Provider-agnostic blob reference such as urn:blob:{version}:{storage_type}:{provider}:{bucket}:{file_name}. |
Models And Sessions
| Term |
Meaning |
| Model ID |
Numeric model identifier used by dashboard/session configuration. |
| Model capacity |
Count or availability signal for nodes that can serve a model ID. |
| Pay-to address |
x402 payment recipient address configured for payment-gated routes. |
| Precommit |
Miner lifecycle step that commits to a result hash before revealing final output. |
| Replica |
One of several session executions used for redundancy or consensus. |
| Session pool |
Configured set of sessions used by router v3 delegate/validate or gateway routing. |
Networks And Roadmap Terms
| Term |
Meaning |
| Testnet-0 |
Arbitrum Sepolia-oriented testnet path. |
| Testnet-1 |
COR-gas L3-oriented testnet path. |
| Mainnet-Lite |
Arbitrum mainnet production path. |
| Mainnet-Full |
COR L3 appchain path. |
AI And Ecosystem Terms
| Term |
Meaning |
| AI inference |
Using a trained model to produce a prediction, classification, embedding, or generated output from new input. |
| AI marketplace |
Long-term ecosystem concept for sharing, selling, or consuming AI models/services. |
| Blockchain integration |
Contract-backed coordination for sessions, payments, incentives, identity, and transparent state. |
| Classification service |
AI service that categorizes text, images, logs, documents, or other inputs into predefined classes. |
| Embedding comparison |
Similarity check over vector representations, used in PoI-style consistency checks. |
| Fine-tuning |
Adapting a model for a domain or task; covered as a long-term ecosystem capability before product packaging. |
| Governance |
Decision-making process for protocol/community changes; distinguish policy from deployed voting contracts. |
| IPFS |
Distributed file storage protocol used by some storage/off-chain payload flows. |
| Model quantization |
Lower-precision model packaging that reduces memory/compute requirements and broadens hardware participation. |
| Prediction service |
AI service for forecasting or risk/analytics workflows. |
| Synthetic data |
Artificial data generated for training, testing, privacy-preserving analytics, or rare scenario simulation. |
| TEE |
Trusted execution environment used to describe confidential-compute options for private inference. |