Reference

Authoritative command, term, and artifact reference surfaces for WitnessOps operators, integrators, and reviewers.

Reference is the contract lookup surface for WitnessOps. Use it when you need exact command entry points, stable artifact names, and shared term definitions for execution or review.

Quick reference links

1. Problem this page solves

Concept pages explain why mechanisms exist. Reference pages define what to call them and where to find the contract.

Without a stable reference map, teams drift on command names, artifact labels, and review language. This page prevents that drift by routing you to the source-of-truth surfaces.

2. What you should understand after reading

After this page, you should know:

where command truth lives
where artifact-class truth lives
where shared term definitions live
which claims this section does not make
which page to open next for command-level execution detail

3. Truth map: commands, terms, and artifacts

Surface	Truth defined here	Use when
Commands	Operator command entry points, flags, produced artifacts, and lifecycle sequencing	You need exact command behavior and invocation shape
man witnessops(7)	Non-indexed operator manual rendering of command semantics and lifecycle boundaries	You need terminal-style manual semantics without changing primary docs indexing posture
Proof Artifact Classes	Current artifact classes, ownership lanes, and status labels (`live / public`, `retained-reference / corpus class`, `planned, not live`)	You need class naming discipline across docs, app, and review
Glossary	Shared term definitions used across governance, operations, and evidence docs	You need precise meaning of recurring terms before interpreting workflow pages

If conceptual pages and reference pages differ in wording, treat reference pages as naming authority and conceptual pages as mechanism explanation.

4. Bounded claims and explicit scope limits

This section is intentionally narrow.

It defines reference routing and terminology boundaries; it does not authorize actions.
It does not replace Governance, Authorization Model, or escalation policy pages.
It does not widen this reference surface beyond the current receipt-oriented public lane.
It does not freeze canonical bundle-verification or corpus-only vocabularies as universal live-web guarantees.
It keeps /docs/man/witnessops as a non-indexed supplemental reference, linked from reference surfaces instead of promoted as a primary-flow entry point.
It does not prove conclusion correctness; receipts and verification prove bounded artifact integrity claims, not perfect operational judgment.

5. Workflow crosslinks

Operator workflow links

Reviewer and approver workflow links

6. Next-page handoff

Next, read Commands for the exact operational entry points and command-by-command artifact outputs.