Glossary

The manual uses a set of terms that carry precise meaning in Golato. This page defines them in one place, grouped by topic, with links to the chapters that explain them in full.

Conversation and messages

Term	Meaning	More
Message	one message.Message unit of the model-visible conversation	Building messages and content
UserMessage	a message.UserMessage containing user input, text, or images	Building messages and content
AssistantMessage	one message.AssistantMessage reply, with text, thinking, tool calls, and provider facts	Building messages and content
ToolResultMessage	the model-visible message.ToolResultMessage paired with one tool call	Building messages and content
content block	one part of a message, such as message.TextContent, message.ThinkingContent, message.ImageContent, or message.ToolCall	Building messages and content
ToolCall	a model-requested message.ToolCall, holding an ID, a name, and raw JSON arguments	Defining tools
StopReason	the message.StopReason explaining why a reply ended, such as stop, length, tool_use, error, or aborted	Building messages and content
Usage	provider-reported token counts in message.Usage	Building messages and content

Generation

Term	Meaning	More
Generator	the generation.Generator entry point for one model request and one reply	Using a Generator
Stream	the live generation.Stream returned by a Generator, carrying both events and the final reply	Using a Generator
terminal event	the final generation.DoneEvent or generation.ErrorEvent that decides the result	Observing generation events
authoritative	the answer returned by generation.Stream.Result or stored in agent.Result.Final, not a display-only delta	Observing generation events
result mode	consumption by calling generation.Stream.Result first, waiting for the terminal fact	Observing generation events
event mode	consumption by calling generation.Stream.Next first, reading events until io.EOF	Observing generation events
Partial	the complete cumulative assistant message carried by each content event	Observing generation events
delta	a display-only fragment, not a reconstruction of the answer	Observing generation events
Snapshot	an immediate copy returned by generation.Stream.Snapshot that never claims the stream	Observing generation events

Agent

Term	Meaning	More
Agent	an immutable reusable agent.Agent definition of the tool loop	Running an Agent
Run	one agent.Run execution created from an agent.Agent, started with Start and settled with Wait	Running an Agent
turn	one assistant reply together with its tool executions	Running an Agent
tool loop	the cycle of validating calls, executing them, and requesting the next turn	Running an Agent
tool batch	the tool.Call values from one assistant reply, executed in parallel or in sequence	Using tools and the built-ins
Terminate	the tool.Result.Terminate flag on a final tool result. The loop stops after the batch only when every call requests it	Using tools and the built-ins
event	one agent.Event entry of the run's live stream, from agent.RunStartEvent to agent.RunEndEvent	Observing Agent events

Context and compaction

Term	Meaning	More
Context	the agent.Context continuation state passed between runs, with SystemPrompt, Summary, and Messages	Storing and continuing conversation state
compaction	replacing an older message prefix with one summary	Compacting conversation context
threshold maintenance	proactive compaction when the local estimate crosses the configured ratio	Compacting conversation context
overflow recovery	compaction after the provider rejects a request for exceeding the context window	Compacting conversation context
Plan / Apply	the Plan and Apply methods on compaction.Compactor, covering decision and execution for one compaction	Compacting conversation context
Record	the immutable facts in a compaction.Record for one successful rewrite	Compacting conversation context

Providers and the adapter

Term	Meaning	More
provider	the model service behind the HTTP calls	Configuring the OpenAI-compatible adapter
adapter	the package that translates provider formats into Golato's types	Configuring the OpenAI-compatible adapter
sentinel	a package error value tested with errors.Is	Configuring the OpenAI-compatible adapter
typed error	an error struct read with errors.As for its fields	Configuring the OpenAI-compatible adapter
embedding	a vector for one text input	Embedding a batch of text

Host and policy

Term	Meaning	More
host application	the program using Golato, which owns storage, access, and product policy	Manual index