grove

Glossary

Short definitions for terms that recur across the docs. Link target for first uses elsewhere.

Active task

The task currently focused in the task rail. Drives which worktree the diff overlay points at and which task the hover-card actions operate on. The workspace file tree itself is not per-task — it's workspace-rooted, with per-task activity stripes. See File tree and viewer.

Agent / agent provider

A coding-agent CLI Grove launches as a terminal subprocess: Claude Code, Codex, or opencode. Each provider declares its own config format, resume behavior, and capabilities. See Chat and terminal.

Anchor

A content-based pointer — a hash of the surrounding lines plus a tree-sitter semantic path — that lets a comment or link survive file rewrites instead of being pinned to a raw line number. Stale anchors are flagged, not deleted. The same primitive powers code-targeting wikilinks. See Comments and Wikilinks.

Auto-rename

Replaces the placeholder task name (Task <digits>) with a title derived from your first prompt to the agent. No-op once any non-placeholder name exists. Surfaces on the task rail.

Base / base branch

The single canonical branch every task worktree in a workspace forks from — detected as main, falling back to master, falling back to the current branch. See Design philosophy.

Chat

One agent conversation. Renders as a terminal-mode agent session, with its metadata and transcript stored under the task's chats/ folder. See Chat and terminal.

Directive

:grove-* syntax embedded in a note that renders as a live panel — a task status pill, a diff, a comment inbox, a board of running agents. See Directives.

Grove store (grove.db)

The per-workspace sqlite database at <workspace>/.grove/grove.db holding every comment, reply, walkthrough, anchor, and doc-metadata row across all tasks. Source of truth for the comment overlay, the comments panel, and the MCP tool surface. See Comments.

Cursor

Per-agent "I've read up to here" marker over the comment log. Advances as the agent processes comments through MCP. See Comments.

Lazy materialization

Default worktree behavior: git worktree add --no-checkout at task create, then the worktree is populated automatically on the first agent or terminal spawn. Note-only tasks never materialize. See Tasks and worktrees.

MCP

Model Context Protocol — the tool-calling protocol agents speak. Grove embeds an in-process MCP server exposing its comment, note, task, walkthrough, and code-navigation tools. See MCP.

Note-only task

A task that never spawns an agent. Costs essentially zero working-tree disk because the worktree stays at --no-checkout.

Quick-create placeholder

Task name used at create time (Task <digits>) before auto-rename replaces it.

Task

The unit of agent work: a folder under .grove/workspace/<name>/ whose meta.json makes it a task. Owns its notes, its chats, and a linked worktree on branch task/<slug>-<hash>. See Tasks and worktrees.

Unified view

The cross-task overview that aggregates every active task's changes against the same base, so you can scan all agent activity in one place. See Diff view.

Vault

The .grove/workspace/ tree of tasks and freeform notes that renders in the left rail. Notes support wikilinks, backlinks, and directives. See Task rail and Markdown editor.

Walkthrough

An ordered, multi-step explanation of code pinned across files. Authored by an agent through MCP and rendered as a navigable card. See Walkthroughs.

A [[Note]]-style link that resolves across the workspace and every task's notes. Variants include [[Note|Alias]], [[Note#Heading]], and [[fn:Symbol]] (which targets a code symbol via tree-sitter). See Wikilinks.

Worktree

A git working tree backed by git worktree. One per task, at .grove/workspace/<name>/worktree/, lazily materialized. See Tasks and worktrees.

Workspace

A git repository opened in Grove. Per-workspace state lives at <workspace>/.grove/ (sqlite + JSON). Grove is single-workspace per window.