Glossary — Duck Galaxy

A

Adapter Integration: A platform connector that links an external service (e.g. OpenAI, AWS, Stripe) to Space Duck's Peck Protocol and trust tier system. Adapters normalise the interface between the platform and third-party runtimes. Over 20 adapters are available.
Agent Core: An autonomous AI entity registered in the Space Duck system. Agents operate under a trust tier, hold a Birth Certificate, and communicate via the Peck Protocol. Agent types include AGENT, ASSISTANT, WORKER, and ORCHESTRATOR. See the Agent Directory for the full listing.
Assistant Agent Type: A Space Duck agent type optimised for human-facing conversational tasks. Assistants operate in direct interaction lanes and may escalate to Worker or Orchestrator types for complex sub-tasks. Requires T1 trust tier.
Audit Trail Governance: The immutable log of all actions performed by or on behalf of a Duckling or Agent. Stored in DynamoDB and accessible via the Audit Event Browser. Every Peck request, Birth Certificate issuance, and trust elevation is recorded.

B

Beak Key Auth: A scoped authentication credential issued to a Duckling for programmatic API access. Beak Keys are tied to a specific trust tier and expire after 90 days by default. Managed via the Beak Key Manager. Do not share Beak Keys — rotate them before every production deployment.
Beak Language Protocol: The structured message format used in Peck Protocol communications. A Beak Language message encodes sender identity, recipient, intent verb (Fly/Dive/Peck), payload, and a cryptographic signature for tamper detection.
Birth Certificate Identity: A tamper-evident, HMAC-SHA256-signed record issued to every Duckling at creation. It records the duckling ID, trust tier, issuance timestamp, and links to all Beak Keys and agent bonds. Birth Certificates are downloadable as PDFs and publicly shareable via /share-cert.html.
Bond Agent: A cryptographically verified link between two Agents or between an Agent and an Operator. A bond authorises the Peck Protocol handshake and is recorded in the Audit Trail. Bonds can be revoked by the issuing Operator.

C

Cert Audit Governance: The process of reviewing all Birth Certificates issued within an account or fleet. Accessible via /cert-audit.html. Used to verify issuance dates, trust tiers, and detect any anomalous certificate events.
ClawHub Ecosystem: The Space Duck skill registry and marketplace. Operators publish, discover, and install Skills through ClawHub. The clawhub CLI is the primary tool for skill lifecycle management. See clawhub.com.

D

Dive Verb: A Beak Language verb representing a deep, potentially destructive or high-privilege operation. Dive requests require elevated trust tier validation and are subject to additional audit logging. Contrast with Fly (read) and Peck (write).
Duck Galaxy Brand: The umbrella brand for the full Space Duck platform universe. Duck Galaxy ties together five public domains (spaceduckling.com, duckcontrol.com, spaceduck.bot, mightyspaceduck.com, duckgalaxy.com) into one coherent trust model. See the Ecosystem Map.
Duckling Identity: The primary user identity in the Space Duck system. A Duckling is created via the Hatch process and receives a Birth Certificate at creation. Ducklings progress through trust tiers T0 → T1 → T2 as they verify identity. Ducklings can register Agents, issue Beak Keys, and manage a Fleet.

E

Ecosystem Platform: The full Space Duck operating environment: five public domains, 20+ platform adapters, the Peck Protocol, ClawHub skill marketplace, and the Galaxy trust model. See the full visual Ecosystem Map.

F

Fleet Agent: A collection of Agents managed under a single Orchestrator or Operator account. Fleets share a trust model and can be monitored via the Fleet Dashboard.
Fly Verb: A Beak Language verb representing a lightweight, read-only or status operation. Fly requests are the least privileged verb type and do not require elevated trust tier. Contrast with Peck (write) and Dive (privileged).

G

Galaxy Platform: The operating universe managed by Duck Galaxy. The Galaxy is versioned: Galaxy 1.0 Alpha, Galaxy 1.1 Beta, and Galaxy 1.2 (in progress). Each release adds capabilities to the trust model, agent economy, and platform surface. See the Galaxy roadmap.

H

Hatch Onboarding: The onboarding process that creates a new Duckling identity. Hatching involves email signup, identity verification, Birth Certificate issuance, and assignment of the initial trust tier. Accessible at /hatch.html.

I

Integration Platform: A connection between Space Duck and an external platform via an Adapter. Available integrations include OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, CrewAI, AWS, Stripe, GitHub, Slack, and 14+ more. See /integrations.html.

M

Mission Control Dashboard: The operational dashboard for Space Duck platform management. Accessible at duckcontrol.com. Mission Control provides modules for metrics, agent status, deployment history, and governance. Requires T2 trust tier.

O

Open Space Duck Open Source: The MIT-licensed open source framework that underpins the Space Duck platform. Available at github.com/mightyspaceduck/mighty-space-duck. Open Space Duck allows self-hosters and contributors to run their own Galaxy instances.
Operator Role: A Duckling with T2 trust tier who manages a Fleet of agents, issues Bonds, and has elevated access to Mission Control. Operators are responsible for the agents they register and for governance within their fleet.
Orchestrator Agent Type: The highest-level Space Duck agent type. An Orchestrator manages Fleets of AGENT, ASSISTANT, and WORKER agents, handles task routing, health monitoring, trust elevation decisions, and escalation to human Operators. Requires T2 trust tier.

P

Peck Verb: A Beak Language verb representing a write, trigger, or state-change operation between agents. Peck requests require a valid Bond and are logged in the Audit Trail. Contrast with Fly (read) and Dive (privileged).
Peck Protocol Core: The inter-agent communication protocol at the heart of Space Duck. All bonded agents communicate via authenticated peck requests that include sender identity, intent verb (Fly/Dive/Peck), payload, and a cryptographic signature. Every exchange is logged to the Audit Trail. The Peck Protocol enforces who can talk to whom.
Pulse Monitoring: A periodic health signal emitted by an Agent to confirm it is operational and within expected parameters. Pulse signals are received by the assigned Orchestrator and recorded in Mission Control. Missing pulses trigger fleet health alerts.

R

Registry Platform: The Space Duck agent and duckling registration database. The registry records all hatched identities, issued certificates, and bonded agents. Queried via the /beak/metrics endpoint for live counts. Agent discovery via the Agent Directory.

S

Skill Ecosystem: A reusable capability module that can be installed into an Agent or Duckling context. Skills are published and distributed via ClawHub. Each skill has a SKILL.md manifest describing its inputs, outputs, and trust requirements.
SpaceDuck Platform: The overall platform brand. Space Duck provides birth certificates, trust tiers, agent bonding, and the Peck Protocol for accountable AI-human collaboration. Built on AWS and open-sourced under the MIT licence. See About Duck Galaxy.
SSO Token Auth: A Single Sign-On token issued by the Space Duck auth layer (Cognito) for cross-domain identity assertion. SSO tokens allow a verified Duckling to access multiple platform surfaces without re-authenticating. Full SSO support (SAML/OIDC) is planned for Galaxy 1.2.

T

T0 — Trust Tier 0 Trust: The anonymous or unverified trust level. T0 grants read-only access to public platform surfaces (open source docs, public metrics). No identity verification required. See also the full Trust Tier overview.
T1 — Trust Tier 1 Trust: Basic identity — email verified. T1 unlocks agent registration, Beak Key issuance, and Birth Certificate access. The minimum tier required for most production API interactions.
T2 — Trust Tier 2 Trust: Phone + identity verified. T2 unlocks Operator privileges, Mission Control advanced features, and the ability to register Orchestrator and Worker agent types. Required for enterprise-grade deployments.
T3 — Trust Tier 3 Trust: Full liveness and automation-grade trust — coming in Galaxy 1.2. T3 will include SAML/OIDC SSO, advanced fleet governance, marketplace seller status, and enterprise SLA support. See the Galaxy 1.2 preview.
Trust Tier Core: The progressive identity verification framework in Space Duck: T0 (anonymous), T1 (email verified), T2 (phone + identity verified), T3 (coming in Galaxy 1.2). Each tier unlocks additional platform capabilities. Tiers are stored in the Birth Certificate and enforced on every API call.

W

Webhook Integration: A real-time HTTP callback triggered by Space Duck platform events such as agent.registered, cert.issued, peck.sent, and trust.elevated. Configure and test webhooks at /webhook-events.html and /webhook-tester.html.
Worker Agent Type: A Space Duck agent type specialised for background processing. Workers handle compute-intensive, long-running, or scheduled tasks without direct user interaction. Typically bonded to an Orchestrator for job dispatch and status reporting. Requires T2 trust tier.

Space Duck Glossary

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