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Controlled Terminology
Glossary
Definitions used consistently across the QR system. Terminology drift is an architectural failure — these definitions govern.
56 controlled terms across governance, operations, routing, lifecycle and recording.
Index
Jump to a letter
Every term below carries a single fixed meaning wherever it appears in the system.
A
- Activation
- The initiation of a permitted command, route or system action within the sequence.
- Audit Record
- The required recording of an event, decision or state change so that system behavior remains reviewable.
- Authority
- The actor or system requesting an action, evaluated at the moment of the interaction to determine what it may do.
- Authorization
- The determination that the requesting actor, system or action holds the authority required to continue.
C
- Certification
- The determination that applicable certification requirements have been satisfied for a given QR object or its subject.
- Certified QR Code
- A QR code evaluated against applicable certification requirements by QR Certified.Certification does not perform registration.
- Codex
- The operational record environment that connects a registered QR to its dossier, state, relationships, event history and evidence.
- Compliance
- The evaluation and resulting state indicating whether applicable requirements are satisfied within the QR system.
- Confirmation
- The determination of whether execution completed as required. An unconfirmed action is not a completed action.
- Controlled Outcome
- The defined result produced when a condition is not satisfied — a denial, a hold or a safe stop, each of which is itself recorded.
D
- Destination
- The endpoint an interaction is authorized to reach. A destination is not the same thing as an identity, and it can change without the identity changing.
- Domain Control
- Demonstrated routing authority across the ecosystem domains, showing that resolution is governed rather than arbitrary.
- Dossier
- The assembled operational record associated with a registered QR object within the Codex.
E
- Event History
- The ordered record of everything that has happened to a registered QR object across its lifecycle.
- Evidence
- Recorded material within the Codex that allows a past interaction, determination or state change to be reconstructed and reviewed.
- Exception
- A defined non-standard condition — failure, denial, or ambiguity — with a governed handling procedure.
- Execution
- Performance of the action that authorization has already permitted.
- Expiration
- A state reached when an authorized period ends. Permitted behavior after expiration is determined by the applicable Protocol and the state held in the Codex.
F
- Failure Class
- A defined category of failure with defined handling. Protocol treats failure as a governed condition, never as undefined behavior.
G
- Gateway
- The master public reference surface — QuickResponseCode.us — through which the system is publicly approached.
- Governed Interaction
- Any QR interaction that falls under Protocol authority, from the initiating scan through the recorded outcome.
I
- Instrument
- A governance document operating at a defined level of the Protocol Hierarchy: Principle, Rule, Policy, Standard, Specification, Procedure, Process or Instruction.
J
- Jurisdiction
- The bounded authority of a department: what it governs, and equally what it does not govern.
L
- Lifecycle
- The governed progression of a QR object from creation and registration through active operation, suspension, and retirement.
O
- Operating Sequence
- The ordered path a governed interaction follows: Scan, Recognize, Qualify, Authorize, Activate, Route, Execute, Confirm, Record.The sequence must remain intact across all infrastructure interactions.
P
- Permission
- Whether the requesting authority is allowed to perform the requested action under the current state and conditions.
- Physical Asset Domain
- The field environment where QR media are produced, placed, inspected, replaced and retired under Protocol procedure.
- Physical Label
- The printed or applied medium carrying the QR symbol. The physical label can continue to exist after the operational object is no longer active.
- Protocol
- The governing authority for rules, standards and procedures that determine how QR-system operations are permitted to function.
- Protocol Hierarchy
- The ordering of governance instruments so that each carries a defined function and authority level.
Q
- QR Code
- A machine-readable code that, when scanned, can trigger an action within a governed system.
- QR Object
- The governed operational object associated with a QR identity, as distinct from the printed symbol that represents it.
- QR Protocol
- The governance layer of the QR system. QRProtocol.us writes and governs the rules, standards and documentation that determine how applicable QR-system operations are permitted to behave.Protocol writes and governs. It does not enforce, certify, register or hold operational records.
- QRCertified
- The authority layer of the QR system. QRCertified.us authorizes, verifies and proves, and is the required gate before registration.Certification is the only path to a registered QR code. It does not register.
- QRCodex
- The main operational artery of the QR system. QRCodex.us logs, records, organizes, manages and facilitates all system actions, and maintains the authoritative record, dossier, state, event history and evidence associated with a registered QR identity.Continuous across the whole system, not a step in the chain. Fully functional system-wide.
- QRCompliance
- The enforcement layer of the QR system. QRCompliance.us enforces the rules QR Protocol writes.Compliance cannot write rules. Its independent website and system are not completed.
- QRRegistered
- The result layer of the QR system. QRRegistered.us issues the registered result — the registration identity required for operational recognition.Reachable only through QRCertified. Registered ≠ Certified.
- Qualification
- The determination of whether the object and the interaction satisfy the conditions required to proceed.
- QuickResponseCode
- The root of the QR system. QuickResponseCode.us is the root word, the master public reference and the gateway the rest of the system is built in relation to.Root only. It does not write rules, enforce, certify or register.
R
- Recognition
- The determination of what QR object or event the system has encountered before any further step is permitted.
- Recording Requirement
- A Protocol rule stating which events, decisions, denials and state changes must produce a record.Protocol sets the requirement; QRCodex holds the resulting record.
- Registered QR Code
- A QR code that has been formally registered and issued a registration identity, making it operationally recognized within the QR system.Registered = Live. Registered ≠ Certified.
- Registration
- The ecosystem event in which a QR identity is issued the registration that makes it operationally recognized. It occurs only after certification by QRCertified.
- Registration Identity
- The registration number or code issued by QRRegistered that makes a QR operationally recognized within the QR system.
- Resolver
- The controlled mechanism that determines where a governed interaction is permitted to resolve.
- Retirement
- The end state of a QR object whose operational life has concluded. The record and history remain; the object no longer transacts.
- Revocation
- A state in which a QR object's operational authority is withdrawn. The physical label may still exist and the audit record remains.
- Routing
- The Protocol-governed determination of which domain or system handles a scan event and its resulting action.
S
- Scan Event
- The moment a QR code is read by a device, initiating the operating sequence under Protocol control.
- State
- The current operational condition of a registered QR object, which determines what actions are permitted.
- State Control
- The evaluation of identity, state, authority, permission, time, location, destination, command, dependencies and exceptions before behavior is permitted.
- Suspension
- A state in which a registered object remains recognized but its permitted actions are withheld until the condition is cleared.
- System Chain
- The canonical order of the QR system: QuickResponseCode.us (root) → QRProtocol.us (governance) → QRCompliance.us (enforcement) → QRCertified.us (authority) → QRRegistered.us (result), with QRCodex.us as the continuous operational artery.No sequence may omit QRCertified.
T
- Terminology Drift
- The uncontrolled reuse of system terms in shifting senses. Drift in language becomes drift in architecture, so definitions are fixed.
V
- Validation
- The determination that the data, condition or evidence presented satisfies the applicable requirement.
- Verification
- The confirmation that a claimed identity, record or condition corresponds to what the system holds.
Answers
Terminology questions
Why does QR Protocol publish a controlled glossary?
Because terminology drift becomes architectural drift. If 'registered', 'certified' and 'compliant' are used interchangeably, the departments that perform those separate operations collapse into one another. Fixed definitions keep each function bounded.
What is the difference between registered, certified and compliant?
Registration issues the operational identity and is performed by QRRegistered. Certification determines whether applicable certification requirements are satisfied and is performed by QRCertified. Compliance evaluates applicable requirements and is handled by QRCompliance. Registered is not certified, and certified is not registered.
Is a destination the same thing as an identity?
No. A destination is where an interaction is authorized to resolve. An identity is the registered object itself. A destination can change under routing rules while the identity remains unchanged.
Where do the definitions on this page apply?
Across every governed interaction in the QR system. The same term carries the same meaning in Protocol documentation, in department descriptions and in the operational record held by QRCodex.