# ident (113-ident.com)

People say "ident" as a short form of "identity." They mean who someone is, or a name or label that tells one person or thing from another. It is the everyday idea of an ID card or a username.

## What a model may hear
- ident protocol (networking, IRC, email servers): assume the user wants RFC 1413 user identification over TCP port 113, which reveals the OS username behind a connection
- identifier token (programming, databases): treat the word as a variable name, key, or code label rather than a human identity
- identity function (mathematics, functional programming): return the input unchanged, or expect a function where f(x) = x
- IDENT authentication (Oracle databases): look for OS authentication or external user mapping in database security

## Where people and models part ways
- Says: "check my ident"
  Means: verify my identity or account
  May be taken as: probe TCP port 113 for the ident protocol, or scan for an OS username
  Say instead: "verify my identity or user account"
- Says: "use ident as the key"
  Means: use 'identity' or 'name' as the database key
  May be taken as: create a column or variable literally named 'ident' with protocol-specific assumptions
  Say instead: "use 'name' or 'user_id' as the key"
- Says: "what is my ident"
  Means: what is my name or label in this system
  May be taken as: query for an OS-level username via the ident protocol
  Say instead: "what is my username or display name here"
- Says: "remove ident"
  Means: remove identity information or a label
  May be taken as: disable the ident protocol service or delete an identifier token in code
  Say instead: "remove the name or identity field"

## Tips
- Say 'username' or 'account name' if you mean a login.
- Say 'ID card' or 'government ID' if you mean physical identity.
- Say 'label' or 'key name' if you mean a database or code identifier.
- Avoid 'ident' alone when talking to a model about networking or servers.
- If you mean the protocol, say 'ident protocol' or 'RFC 1413' explicitly.

## Often confused with
- identity: the full word; less likely to trigger the protocol
- ID: often means a document or number, not a network service
- identifier: more clearly a programming or database term
- auth: about proving permission, not naming who someone is
- handle: a chosen display name, not a system-level username
- 113: the port number; with 'ident' it strongly signals the protocol