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Glossary

Recurring terms in Arvel and these docs.

Term Meaning
Application The framework's root object. Holds the container and config, runs providers, and produces the ASGI app. Built via Application.configure(...). See lifecycle.
Service container The dependency-injection registry. Binds types to implementations and resolves them, wiring constructor dependencies automatically. See service container.
Service provider A class that registers bindings and boots a feature. Providers are the unit of framework extension. See service providers.
Facade A static-method proxy to a container-bound service (e.g. Cache, Auth). Sugar over container.make(...). See facades.
Binding / resolve "Bind" registers how to build a type; "resolve" (make / amake) produces an instance.
Scope A binding's lifetime: singleton (one per app), scoped (one per request), or transient (new each time).
ASGI Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface — the Python async web server contract. Arvel produces an ASGI app you serve with uvicorn.
Arvent Arvel's Eloquent-style ORM: active-record models on top of SQLAlchemy. See models.
Model An Arvent class mapped to a table, with CRUD, relationships, and a query builder.
Query builder The fluent API (where, order_by, get, …) for building SQL without writing it. See query builder.
Migration A versioned schema change, written with the Schema/Blueprint DSL. See migrations.
Seeder A class that inserts development/test data.
Cast An automatic conversion between a stored column value and a Python type. See casts.
Form request A typed request object (FormRequest[T]) that validates input before your handler runs. See validation.
Resource A transformer (JsonResource) that turns a model into a JSON response shape. See resources.
Middleware Code that runs around a request — route middleware (per route/group) or app/ASGI middleware (whole app). See middleware.
Guard An authentication strategy: how a request's user is identified (session, JWT, token). See authentication.
Gate / Policy Authorization. A Gate holds named abilities; a Policy groups a model's rules. See authorization.
Job A unit of background work, dispatched to a queue and run by a worker. See queues.
Event / Listener An event is a thing that happened; listeners react to it. See events.
Broadcasting Pushing events to clients over WebSockets/pub-sub. See broadcasting.
Mailable A class describing one email (envelope() + content()). See mail.
Notification A message sent over one or more channels (mail, database, broadcast). See notifications.
Disk A configured storage location (local, S3, GCS, Azure). See storage.
OIDC / OAuth OAuth2 is delegated authorization; OIDC adds an identity layer for login. See arvel-oauth.
PKCE Proof Key for Code Exchange — a security extension to the OAuth authorization-code flow.
Provider (OAuth) An external identity service (Google, GitHub, …). Distinct from a service provider.
APP_KEY The application key used for encryption, signed URLs, and encrypted cookies. Generated by arvel key:generate.