| activity |
Work done in a process: a task, a sub-process or a call activity. Drawn as a rounded rectangle. |
| ad-hoc sub-process |
A sub-process whose activities run in any order, as the performers decide (adhoc). |
| association |
A dotted line that links an annotation or data to an element. |
| attribute |
A key=value pair on a statement, such as message="Order" or timer=P3D. |
| black-box pool |
A pool without a process inside, standing for a participant whose work is not modelled (pool ID "Label" without a block). |
| boundary event |
An event attached to the border of an activity: it catches something that happens while the activity runs (boundary ID on=ACTIVITY …). It interrupts the activity unless it is noninterrupting. |
| BPMN |
Business Process Model and Notation, the OMG standard (version 2.0.2, ISO/IEC 19510) for process diagrams and their XML files. |
| BPMN conformance class |
One of the subsets of BPMN the standard defines: descriptive, analytic, common executable, full. tok check --class checks a document against one. |
| business knowledge model |
A reusable piece of decision logic, a function that decisions invoke (bkm). |
| business rule task |
A task whose result comes from a decision (rule … decision=). |
| call activity |
An activity that runs another process or a global task (call … process= or task=). |
| canonical form |
The one way tok fmt prints a model: indentation, order of attributes, quoting. Two models with the same meaning print identically. |
| catching event |
An event that waits for something to happen (outline icon). |
| choreography |
A model of the messages exchanged between participants, without their internal processes (choreography). |
| collaboration |
Several pools that exchange messages. |
| compensation |
Undoing the effect of work already done, by a handler activity bound to the activity it undoes. |
| conformance case |
A document of the tok repository with its expected outputs (BPMN, SVG, DMN, diagnostics), which every implementation must reproduce byte for byte. |
| conversation |
A group of message exchanges between pools about one subject, drawn as a hexagon. |
| data object |
Information that exists while a case of the process runs, such as a request or a decision letter (data). |
| data store |
Information that outlives the process, such as a catalogue or a register (store). |
| decision requirements graph |
The decisions of a model with the input data, knowledge sources and business knowledge models they require (DMN). |
| decision table |
A table of rules that maps input values to outputs, with a hit policy. |
| default flow |
The flow a gateway takes when no condition of its other flows is true (default). |
| diagnostic |
A message of tok check: a code, a severity (error, warning, note), a line and a text. |
| DMN |
Decision Model and Notation, the OMG standard for decisions (version 1.5). |
| engine |
The program that does the work of tok: the Rust library that parses, checks, prints, exports, imports, evaluates and simulates. The command line, the Python, R and Julia packages, the language server, the MCP server and the playground all call it. |
| event |
Something that happens during a process: a message arrives, a time passes, an error occurs. Drawn as a circle. |
| event sub-process |
A sub-process started by an event at any moment while its process runs (eventsub). |
| event-based gateway |
A gateway after which the first of several events to happen decides the path (eventgw). |
| executable document |
A document with the flag executable, whose processes carry what Camunda 8 needs to run them. |
| export |
Writing a model in another format: BPMN, SVG, DMN, Camunda forms. |
| FEEL |
Friendly Enough Expression Language, the expression language of DMN, used in conditions, decisions and mappings. |
| flag |
An attribute without a value, such as noninterrupting or parallel. |
| form |
A Camunda form shown to the person who works on a user task or starts a process (form). |
| gateway |
A point where paths split or join. Drawn as a diamond. |
| header |
The first line of a document: tok 1.0 "Title". |
| hit policy |
The rule that says what a decision table returns when several rules match (unique, first, any, priority, collect, rule-order, output-order). |
| identifier |
The name of an element for programs: ASCII letters, digits, _ and -, unique in the document. |
| import |
Reading a BPMN or DMN file into a tok model (tok import). |
| job |
Work that Camunda 8 hands to a program (a worker): service tasks, message throw events. |
| label |
The name of an element for people, in quotes, in any language. |
| lane |
A partition of a pool, usually a role or a department (lane). |
| language level |
A subset of the language for teaching (basic, analytic, full); tok check --level rejects what is outside it. |
| layout sidecar |
The file MODEL.tok.layout that keeps the drawing of an imported diagram, so exports keep its geometry. |
| LSP |
Language Server Protocol: the protocol editors use to get diagnostics, formatting and navigation from a language server (tok-lsp). |
| MCP |
Model Context Protocol: the protocol AI agents use to call tools; the tok MCP server is tok mcp. |
| message flow |
A dashed line between pools: one participant sends something to another (message A -> B). |
| multi-instance |
An activity done once for every item of a collection, in parallel or in sequence (parallel, sequential). |
| pool |
A participant of a collaboration, with the process it performs (pool). |
| process |
The order of work of one participant: events, activities, gateways and flows. |
| sequence flow |
A solid arrow: what comes next in one process (flow A -> B). |
| simulation |
Running many cases of a process with random durations, arrivals and choices to estimate times and workloads (tok sim). |
| skill |
A folder of instructions and references that teaches an AI agent a task; the tok skill is tok-modelling. |
| sub-process |
An activity with its own inner process (sub). |
| throwing event |
An event that makes something happen, such as sending a message (filled icon). |
| transaction |
A sub-process whose work is completed together or undone together (transaction). |
| trigger |
What starts or is caught by an event: message, timer, signal, error, escalation, condition, link, compensation, cancel. |
| user task |
Work a person does in a system, for example by filling in a form (user). |
| XES |
eXtensible Event Stream, the IEEE standard format of event logs for process mining (IEEE 1849-2016). |