AI coding agent: Software that uses a language model to plan and carry out changes to a codebase, such as editing files and running commands, within permissions a person grants.
Air-gapped network: A network with no connection to outside networks. Topsoil needs a reachable model endpoint, so it is not designed for a fully disconnected network; see the explainer.
Amazon Bedrock: AWS's managed service for using foundation models from several providers through one API, in your AWS account. Topsoil builds on it.
Command allowlist: A list of command prefixes that are allowed to run. In Topsoil, commands run only if they start with an allow-listed prefix.
ATO (authority to operate): A formal decision by an organisation to accept the risk of operating a system. With Topsoil, the authorization boundary and the ATO remain the customer's.
AWS GovCloud (US): Isolated AWS Regions that AWS describes as designed to allow U.S. government agencies and customers to move sensitive workloads into the cloud.
AWS budget action: An AWS Budgets feature that applies a response, such as an IAM policy, when a budget threshold is reached. Topsoil's template uses one to deny Bedrock to the Topsoil role.
Data residency: Where data is physically stored and processed, usually expressed as a cloud Region. With Topsoil, the Region you configure in your own AWS account.
Data sovereignty: Keeping data under the control and rules of the organisation that owns it, including who operates every system it passes through. See the guide to data sovereignty for AI coding.
Git worktree: A second working directory attached to the same repository, on its own branch. Topsoil does handed-over work in one so your working tree is untouched.
Human-in-the-loop: A design where a person approves consequential actions. In Topsoil: plan approval, diffs for edits and prompts before commands.
IAM Identity Center: AWS's service for workforce sign-in across AWS accounts (SSO). Topsoil can sign in with it.
Inference profile: A Bedrock resource that routes model requests, sometimes across more than one region. In AWS GovCloud (US), us-gov profiles span both GovCloud regions.
MCP (Model Context Protocol): An open protocol for connecting tools to a model. Topsoil uses MCP servers over stdio, HTTP or WebSocket, enabled per project.
Plan mode: A read-only mode where the agent researches and proposes a plan. In Topsoil nothing changes until you approve the plan.
AWS PrivateLink: Private connectivity from a VPC to AWS services through interface endpoints, without traversing the public internet.
Prompt injection: Instructions hidden in content a model reads, such as an issue or web page, that try to make it act against the user's intent.
Private AI coding agent: An AI coding agent whose model calls, identity and data stay in infrastructure the customer controls, with no vendor service in the request path.
Verify stage: The step of a Topsoil run that builds, tests, lints and typechecks the change; new tests must fail without the change.

Glossary.

See it against your own codebase.