§ 114.001.Definitions

Three definitions, and each one narrows the chapter.

"Adjudication" means bringing a civil suit and prosecuting it to final judgment in county or state court. Federal court is absent from the definition, and Section 114.007 says so directly.

A "contract subject to this chapter" must be written, must state the essential terms, and must be properly executed on behalf of the agency. An agreement signed by someone without authority is outside the chapter.

It must be an agreement for providing goods or services to the state agency. The state is the buyer in every contract this chapter contemplates.

One contract type is carved out by cross-reference — a contract subject to Section 201.112 of the Transportation Code, which carries its own dispute procedure.

"State agency" is drawn as widely as state government goes: an agency, department, commission, bureau, board, office, council, court or other entity in any branch, created by the constitution or a statute, including a university system or a system of higher education.

Local government is excluded in terms. A county, municipality, court of a county or municipality, special purpose district or other political subdivision is not a state agency here.

That exclusion sends local contract disputes elsewhere, to the local government contract statutes and, for one narrow class of water supply agreements, to Chapter 113.