Glossary
A plain-language guide to the names and concepts used in GOAT. Follow the links for setup instructions and technical detail.
Inference
Running a model to generate a response. An external engine performs inference; GOAT sends the request and displays the result.
Engine
A server that hosts models and answers GOAT’s requests. It can run on your Mac or at a configured network endpoint; compatibility depends on its API and the selected model.
oMLX
The recommended engine: a native menu-bar app that downloads, manages and serves MLX models on Apple Silicon. GOAT is its client, not its replacement.
MLX
Apple's array framework for machine learning on Apple Silicon. Engines like oMLX use it to run models fast on the unified memory of an M-series Mac.
OpenAI-compatible
An API format model servers use for chat requests and responses. GOAT requires a compatible streaming chat endpoint and model list; support for tools, images and reasoning varies.
Model
The weights an engine loads and runs. Models live with the engine, never inside GOAT or its repo; GOAT lists what the engine serves and picks one per chat.
Streaming
Showing a reply as it is generated, token by token. GOAT coalesces those updates to the display's cadence and checkpoints the transcript to disk about once a second.
Token
A chunk of text a model reads or writes. Its size varies with the model, language and content. Context windows and effort budgets are measured in tokens.
Context window
How much text a model can attend to at once: system prompt, memory digest, tool schemas and transcript together. The pasture meter shows how full it is.
Thinking
A model's visible reasoning before its answer, when the model exposes it. GOAT shows it as a collapsed disclosure; long reasoning stays folded by default.
Effort
The dial that sets response budget and sampling per turn: Graze, Trot, Climb or Summit, ⌘1 to ⌘4. The server determines which requested controls it supports.
Vision model
A model that accepts images as well as text. Paste a screenshot into the composer and GOAT sends it along when the model can see.
MCP
Model Context Protocol, the open standard for giving a model tools and resources from external servers. GOAT is an MCP client; every tool call passes a permission gate you control.
Tool
A capability the model can call during a turn: an MCP server tool, a memory tool, a skill loader or a bundled extension tool. Tools are typed routes; a name never grants permission.
Skills
Read-only Agent Skills, folders with a SKILL.md, loaded from the built-in bundle, ~/.goat/skills and each Pen. Instructions are context for the model, never executable code.
Memory
What GOAT remembers between chats. One app-wide provider: Markdown notes in a folder you own (default), a local LLM Wiki, or a Hindsight server. Scoped to Global or one Pen, never both.
LLM Wiki
A curated local knowledge base the model maintains: immutable sources in raw/, curated pages in wiki/, an index and a log. An optional memory provider.
Hindsight
An optional external memory service. GOAT can recall knowledge and retain chat context in a configured bank; the server’s storage and network behaviour are controlled separately.
Herd Guarantee
The product invariant: GOAT's own code never phones home. No analytics, no update pings, no crash reports. Configured services, permitted preview content and explicitly approved command networking have separate network boundaries.
Herd
The whole flock: the project, the release codename family, and your Herd workspaces, the real working folders a Pen can bind to.
Pen
A project that groups chats, instructions, skills and memory. Its configuration lives under ~/.goat/projects/; it can also bind to a working folder with separate file and command permissions.
Paddock
The inspector for HTML, SVG, Mermaid, Markdown and code produced during a chat. Web previews run with a separate content and connection policy.
Off-grid previews
A Paddock setting that restricts preview connections to permitted local resources. JUDAS can impose stricter restrictions; blocked resources may leave a preview incomplete.
JUDAS
GOAT’s connection policy for engines, MCP, Hindsight and preview content, with decisions recorded in the Activity Log. It is not a system firewall or a complete network traffic capture.
Activity Log
The read-only log panel (⌃`): engine, MCP, memory and JUDAS events with timestamps. Not a terminal, and not a tamper-evident journal.
Shepherd
The actor that runs one turn: plan the prompt, stream, run tool calls behind the permission gate, persist, hand off to memory. The only place inference, tools and memory meet.
GOATed
GOAT Extension Dynamics: the typed, in-process extension runtime. Scoped, atomic, revocable registrations; bundled Swift only in Kid. Surfaced as Settings → Extensions.
Hitch
The optional local control API and the goat command line tool. A Unix socket owned by the running app, same user only, off by default. No TCP, no daemon.
Herder
The built-in extension for workspace file operations and confined commands. File and command permissions are controlled separately for each Pen, with approval scopes for individual actions, a chat or future Pen work.
Pronk
The bundled example extension: one fictional goat per Pen that accepts treats and counts adventures. A pronk is a goat's celebratory stiff-legged jump.
Tether
A proposed inspector module for configuring image and video generation. Documented in ADR-0029, not yet built.
Caprine
Of or relating to goats. Also GOAT's design language: semantic colour tokens, a 4 pt grid, spring motion and a personality budget.
Theme
A look for GOAT as data: one folder, one theme.json in the GOAT Theme Format. Built-ins are System, Light, Pasture and Midnight; duplicate one to edit it.
Liquid Glass
Apple's macOS 26 material: translucent, refractive surfaces that show what sits behind the window. GOAT uses the real thing, not a blurred screenshot.
Kid
Release 0.1, the first of the herd. Then Yearling, Billy, Nanny, Wether, Ram, Capra and Ibex at 1.0.
GOAT home
The folder GOAT keeps your files in: ~/.goat by default, or GOAT_HOME. Config, memory, skills, Pens and themes all live here, in plain files you own.
1337
The unlockable playful presentation: type 1337 in About for the alternate icons, the 1337 theme and the mascot. A preference only; it never changes behaviour.
Bleet
The chat domain module. Owns session and message state, streaming display revisions and incremental live metrics. Shepherd coordinates its turns.
Hoofprint
The activity and diagnostics module. Owns the bounded in-memory Activity Log and local Instruments signposts. It sends no telemetry.