Limen Glossary¶
Status: Living document.
Version: 0.1
Date: 2026-08-08
This document defines the vocabulary used across Limen. Consistent language is critical for a platform that spans engineering, actuarial, operations, and investor audiences.
A¶
Actuarial view
The read model optimized for actuaries: cohort cash flows, experience variances, IFRS 17 feeds, and mortality analysis. Built from the ledger and contract versions.
AIR-OS
A retired internal codename. Not used in external communication. See LIMEN-001.
Append-only ledger
A financial ledger where every movement is recorded as a new entry. No row is ever updated or deleted. Corrections are reversing entries. The core principle of Fluid-GL.
Authorization
The act of proving that a command sender has permission to perform an action. Authorization is handled at the gateway and service layer, not in the core engines.
B¶
Backdated correction
A change applied with an effective date in the past. Limen handles this by creating a new fork from the historical version and appending the financial delta.
Batch
A legacy pattern of processing many records together at a scheduled time. Limen prohibits batch processing for core operations; events are processed continuously. Regulatory extracts may still be periodic.
Bi-temporal versioning
The practice of recording both when a change takes effect (effective time) and when it was recorded (system time). This allows historical reconstruction and audit.
Blast radius
The scope of impact when a failure occurs. Cellular multi-tenancy limits blast radius to a single cell.
Broker
A party role: an intermediary who sells or services insurance contracts. In Graph-E, a broker is a party with a broker edge and a hierarchy position.
C¶
Cell
An isolated deployment of Limen for a specific client or jurisdiction, containing local data stores (PostgreSQL, Redis, event store) and stateless compute. The unit of multi-tenancy and data sovereignty.
Claim
A request for payment under a contract. In Limen, a claim is a lifecycle event that triggers DMN rules, ledger entries, and communications.
Command
An intention to change state. Commands are processed on the write path. They carry idempotency keys and are transformed into events.
Component
A risk/cover/benefit item within a contract. Examples: life cover, critical illness rider, building cover, vehicle cover. Components are nested in the Quantum-Tree contract document.
Contract
The legal agreement between parties. In Limen, the contract is the root entity of the Quantum-Tree and the anchor for all versions, components, and ledger entries.
CQRS
Command Query Responsibility Segregation. Limen separates the write model (optimized for correctness and speed) from read models (optimized for specific queries).
Cross-cell request
Any data movement between cells. Denied by default. Allowed only through explicit governance and consent mechanisms.
CSM (Contractual Service Margin)
An IFRS 17 concept representing the unearned profit in a group of insurance contracts. Limen provides the granular data needed to calculate CSM, typically in an external actuarial engine.
D¶
Decision model
A DMN representation of insurance logic. Pricing, splits, eligibility, loadings, commission rules, and claims triage are decision models. See also DMN.
Delta
The financial difference between an original timeline and a corrected fork. Deltas are calculated by Kinetic and appended to Fluid-GL.
DMN (Decision Model and Notation)
The OMG standard for decision models. Limen uses Kogito DMN to execute deterministic, versioned, auditable rules.
DMN version
An immutable version of a decision model. Every ledger entry references the DMN version that produced it.
E¶
Effective date
The date on which a change applies to a contract or relationship. Part of bi-temporal versioning. See also system date.
Effective-time edge
A relationship in Graph-E that has an effective date and a termination date. Used to model party roles, hierarchy assignments, and other time-bound relationships.
Entry
A single record in the Fluid-GL ledger. Each entry is immutable.
Event
A record of something that has happened. Events are emitted by the write path and consumed by read models, communications, and other services.
Event-driven saga
A pattern for managing long-running or multi-step processes (e.g., bank rejection after 4 days) using events and compensating actions instead of distributed transactions.
F¶
Failure mode
A way the system can fail or behave incorrectly. Documented so that mitigations can be designed. See Failure modes.
Financial view
The read model optimized for finance: trial balances, ledger-to-ledger extracts, and general ledger reconciliation.
Fluid-GL
Limen's append-only financial sub-ledger. The source of truth for all money movement.
Fork
A new timeline branch created for a backdated correction. The original timeline remains intact.
G¶
GMM (General Measurement Model)
An IFRS 17 measurement model for long-term insurance contracts. See also VFA, PAA.
GitOps
A deployment pattern where infrastructure and code changes are managed through Git. Limen uses GitOps to deploy uniform stateless code and DMN rules across all cells.
Governance API
The controlled interface for cross-cell requests, data exports, and other operations requiring explicit authorization.
Graph-E
Limen's party, hierarchy, and relationship engine. One party model with time-bound relationship edges.
H¶
Hydrated state
A fully populated document containing the current state of a contract and its components. Stored in Redis. The opposite of reconstructing state from many joined tables.
Hot state
Contract state that is accessed frequently and kept in Redis RAM for the fastest lookups.
I¶
Idempotency
The property that processing the same command multiple times produces the same result as processing it once. Limen enforces idempotency for all mutating commands.
Idempotency key
A unique identifier attached to a command to guarantee idempotency. Scoped to cell and operation type.
IFRS 17
The international accounting standard for insurance contracts. Limen is designed to provide the granular, auditable data required by IFRS 17.
Inforce
A contract status indicating active coverage.
Insurable item
Any object or risk that can be insured: a person, building, vehicle, flight, credit line, etc. Modeled as a component in Quantum-Tree.
K¶
Kinetic
Limen's lifecycle, time, and amortization engine. Handles escalations, expiries, renewals, UPP/EPP, and cover-on-demand.
Kogito
The cloud-native DMN/BPMN engine from Red Hat. Limen uses Kogito for DMN rule execution.
L¶
Lapse
A contract status indicating that coverage has ended due to non-payment or other condition. The timeline records the lapse event and the reason.
Ledge
A common misspelling of ledger. Not used.
Ledger
See Fluid-GL.
Limen
The platform. The operating system for risk. Built by Fordsworth.
M¶
Material change
A change to a contract that affects money, risk, or lifecycle. Material changes create a new version. Non-material changes (e.g., contact details) do not.
Micro-duration cover
Insurance cover for a very short period, such as a flight or a single day. Limen handles this through Kinetic scheduled events and on-demand components.
MTA (Mid-Term Adjustment)
A change to a contract during its term. Limen creates a new version and appends a financial delta for the adjustment.
Mutual exclusion
A coordination mechanism to ensure that commands for the same contract are processed in order. Limen uses per-contract serialization or optimistic locking to avoid conflicting writes.
O¶
One model for all lines
The principle that all insurance lines (life, short-term, credit life, etc.) use the same Contract + Component + Participation + Ledger primitives. Differences are configuration and DMN rules.
Operational view
The read model optimized for day-to-day operations: search, 360-degree views, customer service, and dashboards. Typically built on Elasticsearch or OpenSearch.
Outbox pattern
A pattern for reliably publishing events from a database transaction. Limen uses the outbox pattern to maintain consistency between the write model and event consumers.
P¶
PAA (Premium Allocation Approach)
An IFRS 17 measurement model for short-term insurance contracts. See also GMM, VFA.
Participation
The share of a component that is retained, ceded, or co-insured. Used in reinsurance and co-insurance modeling.
Party
A person or organization that can play a role in a contract. Parties are stored in Graph-E and referenced by contracts.
POPIA
The Protection of Personal Information Act in South Africa. Limen's cellular model helps clients comply with POPIA by keeping PII within sovereign cells.
Premium
The amount paid for insurance cover. In Limen, premium receipt, split, adjustment, and reversal are all ledger entries.
Projection
A read model built from events. Projections are specialized for operational, financial, or actuarial use.
Q¶
Quantum-Tree
Limen's contract and component engine. Stores fully hydrated, versioned JSON documents.
Quote
The initial state of a contract, before underwriting and inforce. Quotes are versioned and can be converted to inforce or lapsed.
R¶
Read model
A specialized view of the data optimized for a particular query pattern. Limen uses read models for search, finance, and actuarial reporting. Read models are eventually consistent.
Reinstatement
The restoration of a lapsed contract to active coverage. Limen creates a new version and records the reinstatement event and any arrears.
Reinsurance
The practice of transferring risk to another insurer. Limen models reinsurance as participations on components, with cession entries in the ledger from day one.
Reversal
A ledger entry that negates a previous entry. Reversals are append-only; they do not delete the original entry.
Role
A relationship type in a contract or hierarchy. Examples: POLICYHOLDER, LIFE_ASSURED, BROKER, MANAGING_BROKER. Roles are edges in Graph-E.
S¶
Saga
A sequence of local transactions and compensations that together implement a long-running business process. Limen uses event-driven sagas for processes like bank rejection handling.
Scheduled event
A future event registered by Kinetic when a contract is created or modified. Examples: escalation, expiry, pre-alert, renewal.
Shadow execution
A migration phase where Limen runs calculations alongside the legacy system and compares outputs without affecting live operations.
Shadow ingest
A migration phase where legacy transactions are replicated into Limen without touching the legacy system.
Snapshot
A complete contract state at a point in time. In Limen, historical snapshots are stored as versioned documents.
Stateless compute
The principle that compute pods do not hold business state between requests. State lives in Redis, PostgreSQL, and event stores.
Synapse
Limen's AI-assisted layer. Ingests unstructured data and proposes decisions. The DMN rule makes the final decision.
System date
The date and time when a change was recorded. Part of bi-temporal versioning. See also effective date.
T¶
Tagline
A short phrase that expresses the platform's value. The primary tagline is "Risk is just data. Run it on Limen." For business audiences, the tagline is "Run insurance like a modern business." Both refer to the same platform but emphasize different angles.
Technical tagline
The primary tagline: "Risk is just data. Run it on Limen." Used for engineering, product, and technical investor contexts.
Telemetry
Real-time data from external sources (gym check-ins, telematics, weather, IoT). Telemetry feeds into Synapse and DMN rules to adjust risk modifiers.
Tenant
See cell. Limen prefers "cell" to emphasize isolation and sovereignty.
Threshold
The concept behind the name Limen: the boundary between one state and another. The brand and the architecture both center on crossing from legacy to modern risk management.
Timeline
The visual and data representation of a contract's lifecycle as a sequence of versioned states. A first-class interface in Limen.
U¶
Underwriting
The process of evaluating risk and deciding whether to offer coverage. In Limen, underwriting is a combination of Synapse proposal and DMN rule decision.
UPP (Unearned Premium Provision)
An accounting provision for premium that has been received but not yet earned. Limen calculates UPP through Kinetic and records it in the ledger.
Use case
A real insurance scenario used to validate the architecture. See Failure modes.
V¶
VFA (Variable Fee Approach)
An IFRS 17 measurement model for contracts with direct participation features. See also GMM, PAA.
Version
An immutable contract state at a point in time. Created by every material change. Versions are linked in a timeline or forked for backdated corrections.
W¶
Warm state
Contract state that is accessed less frequently and stored in Redis on Flash or similar tiered storage.
Write path
The sequence of steps that processes a command and changes state. The write path is optimized for correctness and speed.
Z¶
Zero-locking ledger
The claim that the Fluid-GL ledger has no in-place updates and therefore no row locking for updates. Ordering and consistency are handled by idempotency and sagas, not by locking balance rows.