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Seven failure domains: a guide to the glossary

A plain-language route through seven distributed-systems failure domains and their relationship to SSOAR, with links to the complete 147-term glossary.

From the public website’s September 2026 source edition. This is architectural analysis and commentary. For current status and source documents, use the publication record.

The seven domains describe where coordination breaks. SSOAR is the proposed governing primitive. AI agents are one application of that broader idea.

The same review can begin with a person, a device, a service, a media stream or an agent: what is changing, who has authority over that change, and which obligations must continue to hold?

The full paper brings together 147 terms used across these domains. This page is a reading guide. The definitions, sourcing markers and author’s qualifications remain in the complete glossary.

Choose the problem you recognize

  • Accessibility

    A participant needs an accommodation while the interaction continues. The review question is whether the service can change with that need while preserving the participant’s permissions and the session context.

  • Zero-trust security

    A permission that was valid at entry may no longer be valid later. Follow the decision that changes what a participant or service may do during the interaction.

  • AI coordination

    A model, tool or delegated agent proposes an action. Follow the authority that can admit or refuse that action before it changes shared state.

  • Data residency and sovereignty

    A processing location or route changes. Examine how the decision remains constrained by the requirements governing the interaction.

  • Mobile network complexity

    A device moves between network conditions or service contexts. Examine what must remain valid as the connection and available resources change.

  • Efficiency paradox

    A local optimization can increase work elsewhere. Examine the coordination and reconciliation cost of the complete interaction, as well as the cost of each component.

  • Concurrency control

    Several independently managed conditions change together. Examine which state is authoritative when those changes overlap.

Connect the domains to the architecture

SSOAR means Session-Scoped Orthogonal Authority and Routing. Its architectural proposition is to keep governing authority in force as the interaction changes, with decisions and resulting state tied to that interaction. The glossary organizes the failure vocabulary; the white papers develop the argument for a shared control boundary.

The seven failure domains and the seven governance siblings serve different purposes. The domains classify recurring problems. The siblings describe proposed invention functions. They are not a one-to-one mapping.

Start with the plain-language explanation, then the white papers and the family’s actual functions and patent statuses.

When the problem crosses a boundary

A failure can involve several domains at once. A tool invocation, for example, can raise questions about permission, processing location, evidence and cost in the same interaction. Use the glossary’s cross-domain entries to follow those connections.

For Agentic Tool Sovereignty Erosion, read the source definition and domain mapping.

For the Governance Implementation Gap, read the source definition and domain mapping.

Complete A-to-Z index: 147 terms

The industry terminology index contains the full domain sections. Use your browser’s Find function to locate a particular term. The paper also links its downloadable source and Zenodo archive.

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Read the qualifications with the terms

The original glossary distinguishes established terminology from the author’s analytical synthesis. Keep those sourcing markers with any definition you quote. The taxonomy is an analytical framework; patent scope must be assessed against the applicable claims.

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