Glossary

The screen where the person running the auction opens and controls the lot, including the hammer.

Explained in /docs/start/demo

See also Hammer, Room

The record of what happened in an auction, built on the ledger. A redacted public export of it can be checked with the verifier, so an edited entry shows up.

In the product the audit trail is the view of the ledger for a reviewer: a timeline of the accepted events, a summary and the ledger entries. Rejected bids are kept in the room log only, not in the ledger.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/engine-and-ledger

See also Ledger, Hash chain, Verifier

PayPal's promise to keep an amount available on a buyer's account for a seller. An authorization is a hold: nothing is charged until it is captured.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/registration-and-holds

See also Hold, Capture, Void

A price offered within the bidder's ceiling. The engine accepts or rejects it and the ledger records an accepted bid. A bid is never a payment.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/bid-lifecycle

See also Ceiling, Hold, Ledger

Taking money from an authorization. GAVEL captures only the winning price from the winner's hold, with final_capture, never the ceiling.

Capture is the one step where money moves, and in this project it only ever runs against the PayPal sandbox.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/settlement-saga

See also Hold, final_capture, Void, Settlement

The most a bidder may bid, and the amount PayPal holds for them. Bids above the ceiling are blocked.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/registration-and-holds

See also Hold, Bid

A question put to a bidder before a spoken bid is placed, for example whether they meant 150 for paddle 12. A yes is checked again against the live price.

Spoken bids always go through a confirm prompt in the current setup: no code path auto-accepts a spoken bid.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/voice-and-confirm

See also Paddle, STT (speech to text), G5

The deterministic auction core: three pure functions (decide, evolve and replay) with no Node built-ins, so the same events always give the same result.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/engine-and-ledger

See also Ledger, Replay

The project's built-in test double for PayPal. What it shows is evidence about GAVEL's code, not about PayPal.

Explained in /docs/judges/real-vs-simulated

See also Sandbox, Simulated

A flag on a PayPal capture that says this is the last capture on the authorization. After it, gate G1 observed the authorization closed as CAPTURED.

Explained in /docs/proof/gate-g1

See also Capture, G1

Gate G0 asks: does the sandbox app authenticate, and can it create an AUTHORIZE order?

Explained in /docs/proof/gate-g0

See also Gate, Sandbox

Gate G1 asks: after authorizing 500.00 and capturing 350.00 with final_capture, is the 150.00 remainder released or still active?

Explained in /docs/proof/gate-g1

See also Gate, final_capture, Capture

Gate G2 asks: does an Orders v2 AUTHORIZE flow work for card and guest checkout buyers in the sandbox?

Explained in /docs/proof/gate-g2

See also Gate, Authorization

Gate G3 asks: how long does an authorization stay capturable, and does reauthorize extend it? Read its current status on the gate page.

Explained in /docs/proof/gate-g3

See also Gate, Honor period, Reauthorization

Gate G4 asks: does signature verification against the sandbox webhook id accept real events and reject tampered ones?

Explained in /docs/proof/gate-g4

See also Gate, Webhook

Gate G5 asks: is speech-to-text accuracy on noisy bid audio high enough to accept bids without manual confirmation?

Explained in /docs/proof/gate-g5

See also Gate, STT (speech to text), Confirm prompt

A run that answers one question about the real PayPal sandbox or the speech pipeline, numbered G0 to G5. A gate is closed only on PASS or FAIL with a recorded decision; PARTIAL stays open.

Each gate reads PASS, PARTIAL, FAIL or NOT RUN in docs/GATES.md, which is the record. The docs read the status from that file when the site is built.

Explained in /docs/proof/gates

See also G0, G1, G2, G3, G4, G5

The moment the lot closes and the winner and winning price are fixed. Settlement starts from the hammer.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/auction-states

See also Soft close, Settlement, Capture

Each ledger entry carries a hash of the entry before it, so changing any entry breaks every link after it and the verifier reports the first bad one.

A chain on its own cannot show that its tail was cut off. A cut tail shows as not closed, and is proven only against a head hash published elsewhere.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/engine-and-ledger

See also Ledger, Verifier, Audit trail

A PayPal authorization for the bidder's ceiling. A promise that the money is there, not a payment: nothing is charged until capture.

In the product the words paid, deposit and spent are never used for a hold. Held means authorized; charged means captured.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/registration-and-holds

See also Authorization, Ceiling, Capture, Void

How long PayPal promises to honor a capture on an authorization. GAVEL's 3 day figure is an assumption of its fake PayPal, still unverified on the real sandbox (G3).

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/honor-period

See also Reauthorization, G3

A deterministic request id sent with each PayPal call, so a repeat of the same call is answered once instead of acting twice.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/idempotency

See also Settlement saga, Journal

The settlement saga's saved state, written before and after each PayPal call, so a restart can resume without charging twice.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/crash-recovery

See also Settlement saga, Truth read

A key-less demo auction a judge can start from the /try page. It runs on the PayPal sandbox and needs the host flag JUDGE_ROOMS switched on.

Explained in /docs/start/demo

See also Sandbox, Scripted demo

The hash-chained record of an auction's accepted events, in order. It is what the audit trail and the replay are built from.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/engine-and-ledger

See also Hash chain, Audit trail, Replay

One item up for bid. Lots open one at a time, in lot order, and move from pending to open, closing, settling and done.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/auction-states

See also Hammer, Soft close

The median: half of the measured runs were at or under this time.

Explained in /docs/proof/latency

See also p95

The 95th percentile: 95 percent of measured runs were at or under this time. The docs quote p95 for latency, with the sample size next to it.

Explained in /docs/proof/latency

See also p50

A bidder's number in the room, as in an auction paddle. A spoken bid names the paddle that was heard, and the bidder of a spoken bid comes from that paddle.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/voice-and-confirm

See also Confirm prompt, Bid

Asking PayPal to renew an authorization that has aged. Only useful for auctions that run for days; GAVEL ships with it off, pending gate G3.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/honor-period

See also Honor period, G3

The settlement document shown after the hammer. It carries a share link and QR code, has a print layout, and opens one read-only view for one bidder.

Explained in /docs/start/demo

See also Hammer, Settlement

Rebuilding an auction by running its recorded events back through the engine. The same events always give the same result.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/engine-and-ledger

See also Engine, Ledger

One live auction as the server holds it: the bidders, the lot, the ledger and the screens for each role.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/engine-and-ledger

See also Auctioneer console, Judge room

PayPal's test environment. Everything GAVEL does with PayPal runs here, and no real money moves.

Explained in /docs/run/sandbox

See also Fake PayPal, Gate

A recorded room played back in your browser at /demo/scripted. It makes no server connection and no PayPal calls.

Explained in /docs/start/demo

See also Judge room, Simulated

What happens after the hammer: the winner's price is captured and every other hold is voided, so only the winning price is ever charged.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/settlement-walkthrough

See also Settlement saga, Capture, Void

The step-by-step job that settles a lot after the hammer: read the truth from PayPal, capture the winner, void the rest. Each step is journaled so a crash can resume.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/settlement-saga

See also Journal, Truth read, Idempotency key

Run by GAVEL's code against a model of PayPal on a fake clock. A simulation is not a result from the real sandbox.

Explained in /docs/proof/simulation

See also Fake PayPal, Sandbox

A rule that a bid placed near the end of a lot extends it, so the auction cannot end on a last-second bid. Extensions are capped.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/auction-states

See also Hammer, Lot

Speech-to-text: turning spoken audio into a transcript. GAVEL reads spoken bids from a transcript with rules and always confirms them.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/voice-and-confirm

See also Confirm prompt, G5

Asking PayPal what it knows about a hold before acting on it. The saga does this first on every run.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/crash-recovery

See also Settlement saga, Journal

The check that walks a ledger export and reports ok, or the first bad entry and why. verifyPublicExport runs in code; verify-ledger runs it from the command line.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/engine-and-ledger

See also Hash chain, Ledger

Releasing an authorization so it is never charged. Every hold except the winner's is voided at settlement.

Explained in /docs/how-it-works/settlement-saga

See also Hold, Capture, Settlement

A message PayPal sends to GAVEL when something happens, such as a capture completing. Its signature is verified before it is trusted.

Explained in /docs/safety/webhooks

See also G4