Glossary

Every term Orbit uses, written for someone who has not seen it before. Start typing to filter, narrow by category, or jump to a letter. Each term has its own page with the longer explanation, when you would use it, and the terms next to it.

329 terms published 19 categories 22 learning paths in the Atlas

Search terms

Filter by category

Showing all 329 terms.

0-9

.gitignore Git fundamentals

A plain text file that specifies intentionally untracked files that Git should ignore and never commit to the repository.

A

A/B testing Concepts and methodology

A user-experience research methodology where two or more variants of a page or feature are shown to random users to statistically determine which performs better.
Access Tokens Orbit-internal concepts

Tokens generated for mobile PWA access and remote connections. Each can be scoped (read-only, queue-only, full access) and revoked individually.
Adalo No-code / low-code platforms

A no-code app builder that allows users to design and publish native mobile applications directly to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Adobe XD Design and creative tools

Adobe's vector-based UI/UX design and prototyping tool, which is currently in maintenance mode with no new active development.
Agentic loop AI agents and harnesses

The continuous cycle where an AI agent observes its environment, makes a plan, executes a tool, evaluates the result, and decides what to do next.
Aider AI agents and harnesses

A highly popular open-source AI pair programming tool that runs in your terminal, connecting multiple LLMs directly to your local codebase and Git repository.
Airtable No-code / low-code platforms

A cloud collaboration service that combines the simplicity of a spreadsheet with the complexity and power of a relational database.
Angular Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A comprehensive, opinionated, TypeScript-based web application framework maintained by Google, heavily favored for large-scale enterprise development.
Anthropic AI providers and models

An AI safety and research company that develops the Claude family of large language models. They focus on building helpful, harmless, and honest AI systems.
Apache license Concepts and methodology

A permissive open-source license similar to MIT, but with explicit rules protecting users from patent infringement lawsuits related to the software.
API Misc tech terms

A set of rules and protocols that allows two completely separate software systems to communicate and share data with each other seamlessly.
Apollo Orbit Tools

Orbit's built-in AI assistant. It runs in a floating window, knows your project state in real time, and handles operational tasks via natural language.
Approval Gate Orbit Tools

A required user approval step before a queued prompt executes. Prevents AI from running anything against your codebase without your explicit go-ahead.
Asana Version control and collaboration

A versatile work management platform designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work across various departments, not just engineering.
Astro Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A web framework optimized for content-driven sites that ships zero JavaScript to the browser by default using an "Islands Architecture."
Auto Review Orbit-internal concepts

An automatic AI review of a queued prompt before approval, run on the configured review model (default Gemini Flash via Sivants subscription).
AWS Hosting, infrastructure, databases

The world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud computing platform, offering hundreds of fully featured services from data centers globally.
Azure Hosting, infrastructure, databases

Microsoft's comprehensive cloud computing platform, heavily integrated into the enterprise software ecosystem and the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI's frontier models.

B

Base44 AI agents and harnesses

A vibe coding platform that allows users to build and deploy full-stack applications with built-in autonomous AI superagents, without writing syntax.
Bash Operating systems and shells

The classic, ubiquitous command-line interface and scripting language that serves as the default shell for most Linux distributions.
Bikeshedding Software culture & jargon

Spending far too much time debating a small, easy-to-understand detail instead of the harder, more important decision.
Bitbucket Version control and collaboration

A Git-based code hosting and collaboration platform owned by Atlassian, designed specifically for professional teams using Jira and other Atlassian tools.
Blue/green deployment Software culture & jargon

Running two identical production environments and switching traffic from one to the other when the new version is ready.
Bolt AI agents and harnesses

A browser-based AI app generator that runs a full Node.js environment natively in the browser via WebContainers, allowing instant full-stack execution.
Branch Git fundamentals

A parallel version of a repository. It allows you to develop features, fix bugs, or experiment safely without affecting the main codebase.
Bridge Orbit Tools

Orbit's inter-instance relay surface for understanding and managing communication between connected Orbit nodes.
Brownfield Software culture & jargon

Building new functionality on top of an existing system, especially one with old code, constraints, and established behavior.
BSL license Concepts and methodology

A software license that makes source code publicly available but restricts production use until a specified date, after which it converts to an Open Source license.
Bubble No-code / low-code platforms

A highly advanced no-code platform that enables the visual development of complex, fully functional web applications, complete with customized databases and backend workflows.
Bun Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

An incredibly fast, all-in-one JavaScript runtime and toolkit designed as a drop-in replacement for Node.js, featuring built-in bundling and testing tools.
BYOK Orbit-internal concepts

Using your own API key (stored in the Vault) for a provider, instead of routing through Sivants infrastructure. Bypasses Sivants Credits entirely.

C

Canary release Software culture & jargon

Releasing a change to a small group of users first so the team can catch problems before the change reaches everyone.
Canva Design and creative tools

A highly accessible, template-driven online design platform that empowers non-designers to create professional graphics, presentations, and social media content.
Capacitor Build/deploy tooling

A cross-platform native runtime that allows developers to build iOS, Android, and web apps using standard web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Chat model AI providers and models

An AI model optimized for rapid, natural back-and-forth dialogue and immediate task execution, without an extended internal reasoning phase.
Cherry-pick Git fundamentals

The act of selecting a single, specific commit from one branch and applying it independently to another branch.
Chroma Hosting, infrastructure, databases

An open-source, embedding database optimized specifically for developer experience and rapid integration into local AI applications.
CI/CD Build/deploy tooling

A set of automated practices where code changes are frequently built, tested, and securely deployed to production without manual human intervention.
Claude (model family) AI providers and models

A family of large language models developed by Anthropic, heavily utilized for coding, agentic orchestration, and complex analysis due to their deep reasoning capabilities.
Claude Authentication Orbit-internal concepts

A setting determining whether Claude Code runs via OAuth subscription (Claude Max/Pro) or via API key from the Vault. Per-installation, not per-project.
Claude Code AI agents and harnesses

An autonomous agentic coding assistant built by Anthropic that operates directly within the terminal to read codebases, edit files, and execute commands.
Cline AI agents and harnesses

An open-source AI coding agent that runs as an IDE extension or CLI, managing complex tasks with a strict human-in-the-loop approval system for ultimate safety.
Cloudflare Pages Build/deploy tooling

A JAMstack platform for frontend developers to collaborate and deploy websites directly to Cloudflare's global edge network.
Coda No-code / low-code platforms

A powerful document-based platform that blends the flexibility of a text editor with the power of a relational database and interactive applications.
Codeium AI agents and harnesses

A fast, widely-used AI coding assistant providing highly accurate autocomplete and chat features, operating as the underlying technology that powers the Windsurf IDE.
Codex CLI AI agents and harnesses

[needs verification — recent product] An official terminal-based AI coding agent from OpenAI that reads local repositories, edits files, and executes commands autonomously.
Coding Agent Orbit-internal concepts

An external CLI tool (Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI) registered with Orbit to actually execute queued prompts. Configured per complexity tier.
Cody (Sourcegraph) AI agents and harnesses

An AI coding assistant heavily powered by Sourcegraph's enterprise-grade code search, allowing it to accurately query and understand massive, fragmented enterprise codebases.
Cohere AI providers and models

An AI platform focused specifically on enterprise use cases, specializing in data retrieval, RAG architectures, and highly accurate search models.
ComfyUI Image, video, audio AI

A powerful, node-based graphical user interface for designing complex, highly customizable image and video generation workflows using models like Stable Diffusion.
Commit Git fundamentals

A saved snapshot of your project's files at a specific point in time. It permanently records changes made to the codebase along with a descriptive message.
Compiler vs interpreter Concepts and methodology

Two distinct methods for translating human-readable code into machine code: compilers do it all at once before running, while interpreters translate and execute it line-by-line.
Completion AI providers and models

The text or code that an AI model generates and returns in response to a user's prompt.
Completion Log Orbit Tools

A permanent audit trail of every prompt that has shipped, stored as `COMPLETION_LOG.md` at each project's root. Append-only — never overwritten.
Complexity Tier Orbit Tools

A complexity classification (low / medium / high) on each prompt that determines which model and agent runs it. Configurable in Settings.
Component Design / UI

A reusable, self-contained UI element — like a button, card, or modal — that can be composed to build larger interfaces.
Conflict Git fundamentals

An event that occurs when Git cannot automatically merge two branches because the exact same lines of code were modified differently in both.
Connections Orbit Tools

Orbit's Settings area for attaching external MCP servers and selectively enabling their tools for Apollo.
Context files Orbit-internal concepts

Markdown files containing project-specific or global information that Orbit injects into AI sessions automatically. Replaces re-explaining context every time.
Context injection Orbit-internal concepts

Apollo's automatic insertion of live Orbit state (queue, server status, recent completions, etc.) into every conversation turn before the AI sees it.
Context window AI providers and models

The maximum amount of text (measured in tokens) an AI model can process and remember in a single interaction.
Continue AI agents and harnesses

An open-source, IDE-agnostic AI assistant that brings chat, autocomplete, and automated pull request reviews into your editor while allowing you to plug in any LLM.
Conventions Orbit-internal concepts

A panel that renders the global `workflow.md` file as formatted HTML with a TOC and search. Acts as Orbit's central in-app convention reference.
Convex Hosting, infrastructure, databases

A reactive backend-as-a-service that replaces the database, server, and state management layers with a single, real-time TypeScript platform.
Cookie Misc tech terms

A tiny piece of data sent from a website and stored directly in the user's web browser, used primarily to remember stateful information or track browsing activity.
Coordinator Mode Orbit Tools

A mode for running complex multi-phase builds as parallel subtasks with human review gates. Decomposes a large task into independent worktrees.
CORS Misc tech terms

A strict web security mechanism enforced by browsers that dictates whether a frontend application hosted on one domain is legally allowed to request data from an API hosted on a different domain.
Cumulative Diff Orbit-internal concepts

A unified view of all changes accumulated across a sandbox session, showing what would happen if you Promoted. Helpful for review before commit.
Cursor AI agents and harnesses

An AI-first code editor built as a fork of VS Code, famous for pioneering deep codebase understanding and real-time inline AI code generation.

D

DALL-E Image, video, audio AI

OpenAI's flagship text-to-image generation model, deeply integrated with ChatGPT and famous for easily understanding complex, conversational prompts.
Decompose Orbit-internal concepts

The Coordinator Mode action that breaks a high-level task into parallel subtasks with dependency ordering. Powered by `orbit_decompose`.
Deep Review Orbit-internal concepts

A more thorough AI review of a queued prompt, typically run on Opus high-effort or another premium model. Used when stakes warrant extra scrutiny.
Deepnote Notebook environments

A cloud-based data notebook platform optimized for real-time collaboration, managed infrastructure, and seamless integration with modern data stacks.
DeepSeek AI providers and models

An AI research lab known for releasing highly capable, highly capable open-weight models that match frontier performance at significantly lower inference and training costs.
DeepSeek-R1 AI providers and models

A specialized reasoning model from DeepSeek designed to "think" via internal chain-of-thought processing before outputting a final answer, rivaling proprietary reasoning models at lower costs.
DeepSeek-V4 AI providers and models

An advanced Mixture-of-Experts model from DeepSeek that leverages high-efficiency memory compression to make ultra-long context windows economically viable for production workloads.
Deno Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A secure, modern JavaScript and TypeScript runtime created by the original designer of Node.js to fix Node's foundational security and architecture flaws.
Deploy Health Orbit-internal concepts

A panel in Vercel- or Railway-linked projects showing live deployment status, with a colored dot in project lists indicating the latest deploy state.
Design handoff Design / UI

The process of delivering finalized designs from a designer to a developer, including specs, assets, and context needed to build them accurately.
Design system Design / UI

A collection of reusable components, design tokens, and documented rules that define how a product looks and behaves consistently.
Design token Design / UI

A named variable that stores a design decision — like a color, spacing value, or font size — so it can be reused consistently and changed in one place.
Devin AI agents and harnesses

An autonomous, cloud-based software engineering agent designed to plan, execute, and resolve complex, long-running coding tasks entirely in the background.
Diffusion model Image, video, audio AI

A class of AI models that generate images, video, or audio by taking random digital noise and gradually refining it into a clear, structured output based on a prompt.
Discard (Sandbox) Orbit-internal concepts

The action that throws away an entire sandbox session — all worktrees, branches, and committed work disappear. Requires confirmation.
Discord Version control and collaboration

A voice, video, and text chat application originally built for gamers that has become the primary community hub for open-source software and Web3 projects.
DNS Misc tech terms

The "phonebook of the internet" that translates human-readable website names (like google.com) into the numerical IP addresses required by computers to locate servers.
Docker Build/deploy tooling

A platform that packages software and its dependencies into standardized, isolated units called containers, ensuring the application runs identically on any computer.
Docker Compose Build/deploy tooling

A tool used to define and run multi-container Docker applications using a single YAML file, simplifying the orchestration of complex local environments.
Dockerfile Build/deploy tooling

A plain text file containing the step-by-step instructions and commands needed to assemble a Docker image.
Dogfooding Software culture & jargon

Using your own product inside the company before releasing it to customers, so the team experiences the same product issues users would see.

E

Effective Position Orbit Tools

The live waitlist rank shown after someone joins Orbit's landing waitlist, including referral effects and shareable position pages.
Electron Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A framework that allows developers to build cross-platform desktop applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux using standard web technologies.
ElevenLabs Image, video, audio AI

The leading AI audio platform specializing in incredibly natural, emotive text-to-speech generation and highly accurate voice cloning.
Embedding AI providers and models

A numerical representation of text, images, or audio that captures the underlying semantic meaning of the data, allowing computers to understand relationships between concepts.
Exit Sandbox Orbit-internal concepts

An emergency escape hatch from Sandbox Mode when it freezes or breaks. Available as a titlebar button, sidebar banner button, and `Ctrl+Shift+X` keyboard shortcut.
Expo Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

An open-source platform and framework built around React Native that heavily simplifies the process of developing, testing, and deploying mobile apps.

F

Fable AI providers and models

The frontier-class model in the Claude family, representing the highest tier of intelligence and reasoning capability.
FAILURE CONDITIONS Orbit-internal concepts

A required final section in Orbit prompts listing specific, verifiable, binary criteria that constitute prompt failure. Catches incomplete or wrong implementations.
Fastlane Build/deploy tooling

An open-source tool suite that automates the tedious processes of building and releasing iOS and Android apps, such as generating screenshots and managing certificates.
Feature flags Concepts and methodology

A software development technique that allows you to turn specific features of an application on or off dynamically without deploying new code.
Fetch Git fundamentals

The act of downloading the latest history and changes from a remote repository without automatically merging them into your current work.
Figma Design and creative tools

The industry-standard, browser-based collaborative interface design tool used by teams to create wireframes, UI/UX designs, and interactive prototypes.
Fine-tuning AI providers and models

The process of taking a pre-trained AI model and training it further on a specific dataset to permanently alter its behavior, style, or specific knowledge.
Firebase Hosting, infrastructure, databases

A comprehensive app development platform backed by Google, providing a NoSQL real-time database, authentication, hosting, and analytics primarily for mobile and web apps.
Flaky test Software culture & jargon

A test that sometimes passes and sometimes fails without any code changes, making it hard to trust the result.
Flash Orbit Tools

Orbit's lightweight Gemini model path for background work such as prompt reviews, drift checks, auto-titles, handoff summaries, and completion validation.
FlutterFlow No-code / low-code platforms

An advanced low-code platform built on top of Google's Flutter framework, allowing developers to visually build native iOS, Android, and web apps while exporting clean code.
FLUX Image, video, audio AI

An open-weight image generation model developed by Black Forest Labs, known for exceptional prompt adherence, high visual fidelity, and accurate text rendering.
Fly.io Build/deploy tooling

A platform that deploys applications close to users globally by wrapping Docker containers in secure, lightweight microVMs for extreme performance.
Footgun Software culture & jargon

A feature or tool that is easy to misuse in a way that causes a serious mistake, even when the person did not mean to do harm.
Framer Design and creative tools

A visual web building platform that allows designers to design, animate, and publish high-performance websites directly from a freeform canvas, without writing code.
Function calling AI agents and harnesses

A specific type of tool use where an AI model is provided with a list of programming functions and intelligently generates the exact JSON arguments needed to execute them.

G

GAN Image, video, audio AI

An older class of generative AI architecture where two neural networks—a generator and a discriminator—compete against each other to create realistic synthetic data.
Gate 1 Orbit Tools

The first review gate in Coordinator Mode: you review and approve the proposed task decomposition before any code is written.
Gate 2 Orbit Tools

The second review gate in Coordinator Mode: you review the full merged diff from all subtasks before anything lands on main.
GCP Hosting, infrastructure, databases

Google's suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure Google uses internally for its end-user products.
Gemini (model family) AI providers and models

Google's flagship family of multimodal AI models, built from the ground up to natively understand and process text, code, audio, and video simultaneously.
Gemini CLI AI agents and harnesses

An open-source terminal interface from Google that brings the power of Gemini models and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) directly into the local command line.
Gemma Local models and inference

A family of lightweight, open-weight models built by Google using the same research and technology used to create the flagship Gemini models.
GGUF Local models and inference

A highly optimized file format specifically designed for storing and loading quantized large language models rapidly on consumer hardware.
Git MCP tools Orbit-internal concepts

Read-only git helpers exposed via Orbit's MCP surface — status, diff, log, show. Let AI sessions inspect repository state without manual git commands.
Git worktree Git fundamentals

A feature allowing you to have multiple working directories attached to a single Git repository, meaning you can check out multiple branches simultaneously.
GitHub Version control and collaboration

The world's largest web-based platform for software development, providing cloud hosting for Git repositories, issue tracking, and CI/CD automation.
GitHub Actions Build/deploy tooling

An automation platform built directly into GitHub that allows developers to create custom CI/CD workflows triggered by repository events.
GitLab Version control and collaboration

A comprehensive DevSecOps platform delivered as a single application, integrating source code management, robust CI/CD, and security testing.
GitLab CI Build/deploy tooling

The powerful, built-in continuous integration and continuous deployment engine natively integrated into the GitLab platform.
Glide No-code / low-code platforms

A no-code platform that instantly turns spreadsheets (like Google Sheets or Excel) into fully functional, mobile-friendly applications and portals.
Global Context Orbit-internal concepts

Context files stored in `~/.orbit/global/` that apply to all Orbit usage, not specific projects. User files override installer defaults completely (no merging).
Google (AI) AI providers and models

The artificial intelligence research division of Google, responsible for developing the Gemini family of multimodal models, open-weight Gemma models, and video generation models like Veo.
Google Colab Notebook environments

A free, hosted Jupyter notebook service provided by Google that requires no setup and provides free access to computing resources including GPUs and TPUs.
GPL Concepts and methodology

A strict "copyleft" open-source license ensuring that any software derived from GPL code must also be released openly under the exact same GPL terms.
GPT (model family) AI providers and models

The foundational series of large language models created by OpenAI, driving ChatGPT and widely integrated into developer tools and enterprise APIs.
Grandma rubric Orbit-internal concepts

Sivants' UX principle that interfaces should be understandable to non-technical users. Specific rules govern button labels, status messages, error copy, and more.
GraphQL Misc tech terms

A flexible API query language developed by Meta that allows clients to request exactly the specific data they need, and nothing more, in a single request.
Greenfield Concepts and methodology

A software project built from scratch with no existing codebase, dependencies, or legacy constraints.

H

Haiku AI providers and models

The fastest, most compact model in the Claude family, designed for near-instant execution of high-volume, low-latency tasks.
Happy path Software culture & jargon

The best-case user journey where everything works as intended, with no errors, delays, or unusual edge cases.
HEAD Git fundamentals

A special pointer in Git that indicates the currently checked-out branch or specific commit you are viewing in your working directory.
Hex Notebook environments

A collaborative data workspace that combines SQL, Python, and no-code UI building into a single environment for advanced analytics and sharing.
Hotfix Software culture & jargon

An urgent fix deployed directly to production outside the normal release schedule to address a serious problem quickly.
HTTP/HTTPS Misc tech terms

The foundational communication protocol used to transmit data securely across the internet between a web browser and a server.
Hugging Face Hosting, infrastructure, databases

The central collaborative hub for the machine learning community, hosting hundreds of thousands of open-weight models, datasets, and AI applications.

I

Icon Gen Mode Orbit-internal concepts

Image Studio's production pipeline for app icons and UI icons at scale. Multi-pass generation, side-by-side comparison, winner selection, and export.
Image Mode Orbit-internal concepts

Image Studio's creative exploration mode. Enter a prompt, choose a model, generate. Iterate by tweaking the prompt or generating variations.
Image Studio Orbit-internal concepts

Orbit's built-in image and video generation workspace. Three modes: Image (creative), Icon Gen (batch icon production), Video (short clips).
Imagen Image, video, audio AI

Google's advanced proprietary text-to-image diffusion model, known for high photorealism, safety guardrails, and deep integration into the Google Cloud ecosystem.

J

Jira Version control and collaboration

The enterprise industry standard for agile project management, issue tracking, and workflow customization.
JSON Misc tech terms

A lightweight, incredibly common plain-text format used for structuring and transferring data between a server and a web application.
Jupyter Notebook environments

An open-source web application that allows you to create and share documents that contain live code, equations, visualizations, and narrative text.
JWT Misc tech terms

A compact, cryptographically signed token used to securely transmit information (like user identity and permissions) between a client and a server.

K

Kubernetes Build/deploy tooling

An open-source system developed by Google for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across massive clusters of servers.

L

Latent space Image, video, audio AI

A compressed, mathematical representation of data where AI models process and manipulate concepts before expanding them back into human-readable text or images.
Learning Atlas Orbit Tools

Orbit's built-in interactive knowledge map — a searchable, visual glossary of AI and software development terms organized into category clusters.
Linear Version control and collaboration

A fast, keyboard-centric issue tracking and project management tool designed specifically to streamline modern software development workflows.
Linting Concepts and methodology

A specific type of basic static analysis that flags stylistic errors, formatting inconsistencies, and suspicious constructs in source code.
Linux Operating systems and shells

A highly customizable, open-source operating system kernel that serves as the foundational infrastructure for the vast majority of web servers and cloud environments globally.
Llama (model) Local models and inference

A dominant family of open-weight foundational models developed by Meta, serving as the backbone for much of the open-source AI ecosystem.
llama.cpp Local models and inference

A highly optimized, bare-metal C/C++ library designed to run AI model inference efficiently on consumer hardware, particularly MacBooks and standard CPUs.
LM Studio Local models and inference

A desktop graphical user interface (GUI) application that allows users to easily search, download, and chat with open-weight models locally.
LoRA AI providers and models

A highly efficient technique for fine-tuning AI models that updates only a tiny fraction of the model's parameters, significantly reducing computing costs and memory requirements.
Lovable AI agents and harnesses

A fast, browser-based full-stack app builder that generates complete, working applications from natural language, specializing in integrating databases and authentication.

M

macOS Operating systems and shells

Apple's proprietary, Unix-based operating system that powers Mac computers, highly favored by web and software developers for its stability and native command-line tools.
Make (Integromat) No-code / low-code platforms

A highly visual workflow automation platform that connects thousands of different apps and APIs to transfer data and automate complex, multi-step business processes.
Marimo Notebook environments

A next-generation, reactive Python notebook designed to solve the hidden state problems of Jupyter by automatically re-running dependent cells.
Markdown Misc tech terms

A lightweight markup language that uses simple plaintext formatting syntax (like asterisks for bolding) to easily create beautifully formatted web documents.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) AI agents and harnesses

An open standard protocol that enables AI models to securely connect to and interact with external custom tools, local filesystems, and enterprise data sources.
MCP Tool Orbit Tools

A callable operation exposed through Model Context Protocol so an AI client can read Orbit state, queue work, or call approved integrations.
MDX Misc tech terms

An advanced extension of Markdown that allows developers to seamlessly embed interactive React components directly within standard text documents.
Memory bandwidth (in inference context) Local models and inference

The speed at which data can be read from and written to a GPU's memory. It is the primary bottleneck for how fast an AI model can generate text.
Memtrace Orbit Tools

A third-party code intelligence tool integrated with Orbit that indexes your codebase for fast semantic search, symbol lookup, and compressed source reading â€” reducing token cost when navigating large files.
Merge Git fundamentals

The process of combining the code from one branch into another. It takes independent lines of development and integrates them into a single unified history.
Midjourney Image, video, audio AI

A highly popular proprietary AI image generator renowned for its exceptional artistic quality, cinematic aesthetics, and rich textures.
Mission Control Orbit-internal concepts

The main Orbit dashboard view. It shows projects, the queue, the pipeline, and provides the central UI surface for all Orbit operations.
Mistral AI providers and models

A European AI company known for producing highly efficient, open-weight large language models that punch above their parameter class.
MIT license Concepts and methodology

A short, highly permissive open-source software license that allows users to do almost anything they want with the code, including using it in closed-source proprietary software.
Mixtral Local models and inference

A highly efficient open-weight model developed by Mistral AI that utilizes a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture to deliver massive performance with low active compute costs.
Mobile Setup Orbit-internal concepts

Settings panel for setting up the mobile PWA. Shows a QR code and upload token used to install Orbit's mobile interface on your phone.
Mockup Design / UI

A high-fidelity static representation of a UI that shows visual design — colors, typography, and layout — without any interactivity.
Multi-Node Orbit Tools

Orbit's alpha system for routing prompt execution and MCP tool calls across multiple machines signed into the same Sivants account.
Mythos AI providers and models

A frontier-class model in the Claude family with domain-specific safety safeguards removed, reserved for specialized restricted domains.

N

Neon Hosting, infrastructure, databases

A fully managed, serverless PostgreSQL database that separates storage from compute to offer instant branching, bottomless storage, and scale-to-zero capabilities.
Netlify Build/deploy tooling

A unified cloud platform that builds, deploys, and scales modern web applications and static sites, heavily championing the decoupled Jamstack architecture.
New Prompt Orbit-internal concepts

A modal in the Pipeline panel for queueing prompts directly without going through Claude Chat. Auto-fills routing tags from pasted content.
Next.js Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A full-stack React framework built by Vercel that enables server-side rendering, static site generation, and powerful routing out of the box.
Nix Build/deploy tooling

A powerful, purely functional package manager and build system that guarantees highly reproducible, isolated software builds across different machines.
Node.js Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

An open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that executes JavaScript code outside of a web browser, typically used for building backend servers.
Notion No-code / low-code platforms

A highly flexible, all-in-one workspace tool combining notes, docs, wikis, and highly customizable databases to organize team knowledge and project management.
Notion AI Design and creative tools

An integrated AI assistant within the Notion workspace that helps users write, summarize, brainstorm, and query information directly across their documents and databases.
Nuxt Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

The leading meta-framework for Vue.js, providing server-side rendering, static site generation, and file-based routing to build production-ready Vue applications.

O

OAuth Misc tech terms

An industry-standard protocol that allows a user to securely grant a third-party application limited access to their data without ever sharing their actual password.
Observability Concepts and methodology

The ability to understand the internal state and health of a complex software system strictly by analyzing the external telemetry data it emits.
Observable Notebook environments

A collaborative, reactive web-based notebook environment specifically built for data exploration and interactive data visualization using JavaScript.
Ollama Local models and inference

A lightweight, user-friendly tool that allows developers to easily download, run, and manage large language models locally on their own hardware.
On-call Software culture & jargon

Being the designated person or team member who responds to production problems during a specific time window, often outside normal working hours.
OpenAI AI providers and models

A leading AI research and deployment company that created the GPT family of models and ChatGPT. They provide highly capable generalized models via API.
OpenHands AI agents and harnesses

An open-source framework and SDK designed for building, running, and scaling secure, model-agnostic autonomous coding agents for enterprise environments.
Opus AI providers and models

The largest, most intelligent model in the Claude family, designed to handle the most highly complex, cognitively demanding tasks.
Orbit Orbit-internal concepts

A desktop app for managing AI-assisted software development. It sits between you and your AI coding agents to give you a single dashboard to control everything.
Orbit Chat Orbit-internal concepts

Orbit's full chat interface for extended planning sessions, distinct from Apollo's quick floating window. Better suited to deep work and longer conversations.
OrbStack Build/deploy tooling

A fast, lightweight, Mac-native alternative to Docker Desktop for running Docker containers and Linux machines locally.

P

Pareto frontier Concepts and methodology

In optimization, it is the set of all optimal solutions where no single variable can be improved without degrading another variable.
Penpot Design and creative tools

A free, open-source design and prototyping platform built on open web standards (SVG), bridging the gap between designers and developers.
Phi Local models and inference

A family of small language models (SLMs) developed by Microsoft, specifically engineered to deliver high reasoning capabilities from very small parameter counts.
Pick Winners Orbit-internal concepts

The Icon Gen Mode sub-tab where you review all generated icons in a grid and select the ones you want to keep.
Pika Image, video, audio AI

An AI video platform designed for speed and creative flexibility, allowing users to animate images, generate videos, and add cinematic effects effortlessly.
Pinecone Hosting, infrastructure, databases

A fully managed, serverless vector database purpose-built to store, search, and manage high-dimensional embeddings for AI applications.
Pipeline Orbit Tools

A live feed of everything currently running and recently completed across all your projects. Distinct from the Queue, which shows what's waiting.
PlanetScale Hosting, infrastructure, databases

A highly scalable, serverless MySQL database platform built on Vitess, designed for extreme scale and non-blocking schema changes.
Play Store internal testing Build/deploy tooling

A fast, lightweight distribution track in the Google Play Console used to instantly push Android app updates to a small group of trusted internal testers.
PocketBase Hosting, infrastructure, databases

An open-source, lightweight backend-as-a-service consisting of a single compiled file that includes an embedded SQLite database, authentication, and a real-time API.
Podman Build/deploy tooling

A daemonless, open-source container engine developed by Red Hat that serves as a highly secure, drop-in replacement for Docker.
Poker night Orbit-internal concepts

An after-hours backdrop for Mission Control, turned on and off by typing the dealer's word on that view. The dealer's word is written in the sky: find The Dealer in the Planetarium and read its stars in order.
Postmortem Software culture & jargon

A blameless review written after an incident to explain what happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again.
PowerShell Operating systems and shells

A powerful, object-oriented command-line shell and scripting language developed by Microsoft, designed specifically for system administration and automation.
Pre-pull error recovery Orbit-internal concepts

Orbit's safety mechanism that detects unresolved git conflict markers before pulling, preventing the queue from running on a broken working tree.
Promote (Sandbox) Orbit-internal concepts

The action that merges all changes from a sandbox session into your project's default branch. Cannot be undone, so requires confirmation.
Prompt Queue Orbit Tools

A list of prompts waiting to run, one at a time, in order. Nothing executes until you approve it. The queue is per-project — each project has its own.
Prompt Review Orbit-internal concepts

The Settings panel that controls when prompts get AI-reviewed before approval. Configurable per complexity tier (Auto, Manual, or Skip).
Prototype Design / UI

An interactive, clickable simulation of a UI used to test flows and gather user feedback before writing code.
Pull Git fundamentals

The act of downloading the latest changes from a remote repository and immediately merging them into your current local branch.
Pull request Git fundamentals

A formal request to merge your branch's code into the main repository. It provides a dedicated space for team members to review and discuss the proposed changes.
Push Git fundamentals

The act of uploading your local repository's committed changes to a remote repository server.
PWA Orbit-internal concepts

Orbit's progressive web app for mobile devices. Provides queue and project status access on your phone via your home screen.

Q

QA Intelligence Orbit-internal concepts

Automated scripts that run after prompts ship to verify nothing broke. Per-project scripts plus universal cross-project checks; results in the QA tab.
Quantization Local models and inference

A technique used to compress the massive size of an AI model by reducing the precision of its mathematical weights, making it faster and cheaper to run.
Qwen Local models and inference

A powerful family of open-weight large language models developed by Alibaba Cloud, known for particularly strong coding and multilingual capabilities.

R

RAG AI providers and models

An architecture that improves AI responses by searching an external database for relevant facts and inserting them into the prompt before the model answers.
Railway Build/deploy tooling

An infrastructure platform designed to instantly provision and deploy backend services, databases, and full-stack applications without writing complex configuration files.
Rate limit Concepts and methodology

A deliberate restriction put in place by an API provider to cap the number of requests a user or system can make within a specific timeframe.
React Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A widely used, open-source JavaScript library developed by Meta (Facebook) for building interactive user interfaces using reusable, encapsulated components.
React Native Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

An open-source framework by Meta that allows developers to build native mobile apps for iOS and Android using React and JavaScript.
Reasoning model AI providers and models

A specific type of AI model that generates internal chain-of-thought tokens to plan, verify, and self-correct before outputting a final response.
Rebase Git fundamentals

A method of integrating changes from one branch to another by moving or combining a sequence of commits to a new base commit.
Refs Git fundamentals

Internal pointers that map human-readable names, like branch names or tags, to the underlying complex, cryptographic commit hashes.
Relay Orbit-internal concepts

A connection between your local Orbit instance and the Sivants relay network. Enables remote access (mobile, other machines) and cross-machine prompt routing.
Remix Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A full-stack web framework focused on web fundamentals, utilizing standard HTTP protocols and nested routing to deliver highly resilient, fast user experiences.
Remote Git fundamentals

A version of your project that is hosted on the internet or network, used for syncing code and collaborating with other developers.
Render Build/deploy tooling

A unified cloud platform to host static sites, backend APIs, Docker containers, and fully managed databases with automatic SSL and continuous deploys.
Replit AI agents and harnesses

A cloud-based, browser-native collaborative development environment featuring deeply integrated AI tools for generating, debugging, and hosting code instantly.
Repository Git fundamentals

A centralized storage location where your project's files and their entire revision history are kept. It acts as the single source of truth for a project's codebase.
Reset Git fundamentals

A command that permanently moves the current branch pointer backward to a previous commit, effectively erasing the commits that came after it from the branch's history.
REST Misc tech terms

A standard architectural style for designing APIs, using predictable URLs and standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to manage data.
Retool No-code / low-code platforms

A low-code platform specifically designed for developers to rapidly build robust internal tools, admin panels, and dashboards by connecting visual UI components to any database or API.
Revert Git fundamentals

A safe way to undo a specific commit by creating a brand new commit that performs the exact opposite actions of the original.
Rubber duck debugging Software culture & jargon

Explaining a problem out loud, step by step, often to an inanimate object, to notice mistakes that were easy to miss while thinking silently.
Run In selector Orbit-internal concepts

A radio in the New Prompt modal letting you choose whether to queue against your live Orbit instance or the Server Sandbox sidecar.
Runbook Software culture & jargon

A step-by-step guide for handling a specific operational situation, such as a service outage, deployment issue, or routine maintenance task.
Runway Image, video, audio AI

A suite of AI tools for professional filmmakers, featuring the Gen-3 Alpha model which generates highly realistic, temporally coherent video from text and images.

S

Sad path / unhappy path Software culture & jargon

The parts of a flow where something goes wrong, including errors, invalid input, missing data, timeouts, and other exceptions.
Sandbox Orbit Tools

A safe testing space where prompts run on a sandbox branch without affecting your main code. Promote to live or discard the whole session.
Sandbox cleanup Orbit-internal concepts

A Settings panel showing orphaned sandbox worktrees, branches, or session rows. Lets you Clean Up (delete) or Ignore (hide) each card.
Sandbox Pipeline Orbit-internal concepts

A panel that polls the Server Sandbox sidecar's queue and pipeline, showing prompts running on the sandbox instance separately from live Orbit.
Sandbox session Orbit-internal concepts

A specific instance of a sandbox in Orbit. Each session has its own branch, its own worktree, and its own collection of prompts.
Seed AI providers and models

A specific number passed to an AI model to make its generated output more deterministic and reproducible across multiple identical requests.
Seedance Image, video, audio AI

A multimodal generative AI model from ByteDance that creates high-fidelity, synchronized video and audio directly from text, image, and audio inputs.
Self-hosted inference Local models and inference

The practice of running and managing AI models on your own servers or local hardware, rather than sending data to external providers like OpenAI.
Send to Apollo Orbit-internal concepts

A Pick Winners action that sends selected images to Apollo with their file paths, triggering Apollo's embedding or further-action workflow.
Server Sandbox Orbit-internal concepts

A separate Orbit server child process running on its own port and config — a fully isolated Orbit instance for risk-free local experimentation.
Service Registry Orbit-internal concepts

A built-in mapping of vault key names to known MCP server URLs. When you add a recognized key, Orbit shows the corresponding MCP URL automatically.
Session Misc tech terms

A temporary, secure storage mechanism that keeps a user logged in and tracks their continuous interactions with a website over a specific period of time.
shadcn/ui Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A collection of accessible, customizable React components that developers copy and paste directly into their source code rather than installing as a dependency.
Sivants AI Engine Orbit-internal concepts

The default AI tier covered by your Sivants subscription. Uses Gemini Flash and DeepSeek for Apollo conversations, prompt review, and other lightweight operations.
Sivants Credits Orbit-internal concepts

A prepaid balance for AI features routed through Sivants infrastructure. Used primarily for image, video, and premium model calls when no BYOK key is present.
Sivants Subscription Orbit-internal concepts

The recurring subscription that covers the Sivants AI Engine and includes a Sivants Credits balance. The standard managed tier is $14.99/month.
Sketch Design and creative tools

A native macOS vector graphics editor highly popular for UI/UX design, wireframing, and creating comprehensive design systems.
Skip-risk reordering Orbit-internal concepts

A prompt-writing convention where the feature most likely to be skipped or de-prioritized goes first in a multi-feature prompt.
Slack Version control and collaboration

A ubiquitous channel-based messaging platform designed to align teams, integrate software tools, and streamline corporate communication.
Solid Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A declarative JavaScript framework that looks almost identical to React but offers significantly higher performance by completely omitting the virtual DOM.
Sonnet AI providers and models

The balanced middle tier of the Claude model family. It is widely considered the sweet spot for agentic coding and general enterprise workloads.
Sora Image, video, audio AI

A text-to-video model developed by OpenAI, capable of generating highly realistic, extended video scenes that accurately simulate physical world dynamics.
Spike Software culture & jargon

A short research task with a fixed time limit, used to learn enough to make a confident plan before committing to full development.
Spline Design and creative tools

A browser-based, collaborative 3D design tool that makes it easy to create and embed interactive 3D web experiences without writing complex WebGL code.
SSE (Server-Sent Events) Misc tech terms

A lightweight protocol that establishes a one-way connection, allowing a server to push continuous real-time updates to a client browser.
Stable Diffusion Image, video, audio AI

A foundational, open-weight text-to-image model by Stability AI that made it possible for anyone to generate and fine-tune AI imagery locally.
Staging area Git fundamentals

A middle ground where you prepare and gather specific modified files before wrapping them up into a permanent commit.
Stash Git fundamentals

A temporary storage area for incomplete changes. It allows you to quickly set aside modified files without committing them, so you can work on something else.
Static analysis Concepts and methodology

The automated process of inspecting source code to find bugs, security vulnerabilities, or anti-patterns without actually executing the program.
Style guide Design / UI

A documented set of visual and written standards for a product — covering typography, color, iconography, tone of voice, and usage rules.
Suno Image, video, audio AI

A powerful AI music generation platform that can compose highly realistic, full-length songs with vocals and instrumentation from simple text prompts.
Supabase Hosting, infrastructure, databases

An open-source alternative to Firebase that provides developers with a dedicated Postgres database, authentication, instant APIs, and edge functions.
Svelte Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A radical frontend framework that shifts the heavy lifting of UI updates from the browser to a compilation step, resulting in smaller, faster code.
SvelteKit Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

The official full-stack meta-framework for building Svelte applications, providing routing, server-side rendering, and API endpoints.

T

Table stakes Concepts and methodology

The minimum features a product must have just to be considered by users. They don't win anyone over — their absence simply disqualifies you from competing.
Tabnine AI agents and harnesses

An AI coding assistant focused squarely on enterprise security, compliance, and strict code privacy, offering fully air-gapped and self-hosted deployment options.
Tags Git fundamentals

Static labels attached to specific, important commits in a repository's history, typically used to mark release versions like v1.0.
Tailwind CSS Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A highly popular utility-first CSS framework that allows developers to style websites rapidly by composing small, descriptive classes directly in their HTML.
Tauri Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

A modern, highly secure framework for building tiny, fast desktop applications using web technologies and a Rust backend.
Technical debt Software culture & jargon

Shortcuts taken now that make future changes slower, harder, or riskier, like borrowing time from the future to move faster today.
Telemetry Concepts and methodology

The automated collection and transmission of data (metrics, logs, and traces) from remote applications or systems back to a central monitoring platform.
Temperature AI providers and models

A parameter that controls the randomness and creativity of an AI model's output.
TestFlight Build/deploy tooling

Apple's official platform for distributing beta versions of iOS apps to internal team members and external testers before they are published to the public App Store.
The Handoff Orbit-internal concepts

A document Orbit generates capturing full project context: status, recent completions, queue, and context files. Drop it into any AI chat for instant continuity.
Toil Software culture & jargon

Repetitive manual work that does not build lasting value and could usually be reduced or automated.
Token AI providers and models

The fundamental unit of data processed by an LLM, roughly equivalent to a word or part of a word in English.
Token budget Concepts and methodology

The strict allocation and monitoring of how many API tokens an AI agent or application is allowed to consume during a specific task or workflow.
TOML Misc tech terms

A straightforward configuration file format designed to be exceedingly easy for humans to read and simple for machines to parse definitively.
Tool loop exhaustion AI agents and harnesses

A failure state where an AI agent gets stuck repeatedly executing the exact same incorrect tool actions until it runs out of its allowed token budget or context window.
Tool use AI agents and harnesses

The capability of an AI model to interact with external software, APIs, or scripts to perform actions it cannot do through text generation alone.
Top-p AI providers and models

A parameter that controls output randomness by restricting the AI to only choose from a subset of the most probable next tokens.
Transformer Image, video, audio AI

A revolutionary neural network architecture that processes entire sequences of data simultaneously using "attention" mechanisms, serving as the foundation for modern LLMs and video models.
Trello Version control and collaboration

A visual, highly intuitive project management tool based on the Kanban board system, organizing tasks into columns representing different stages of a workflow.
Trunk-based development Software culture & jargon

A workflow where everyone integrates changes into the main branch frequently, usually with very short-lived branches or none at all.
Tunnel Orbit Tools

Orbit's remote-access path for reaching a machine through its assigned `orbit.sivants.com` subdomain and relay infrastructure.
Turso Hosting, infrastructure, databases

A globally distributed edge database based on libSQL (a fork of SQLite), designed to push data incredibly close to end-users for near-zero latency.
Type-checking Concepts and methodology

The process of verifying that the data types used in a program (like ensuring a number isn't treated as text) are strictly correct, preventing runtime crashes.

U

Udio Image, video, audio AI

An advanced AI music generator recognized for its exceptional audio fidelity, vocal realism, and precise control over musical structure and instrumentation.
Universal QA Orbit-internal concepts

QA scripts shipped with Orbit that run against every project's codebase, regardless of project type. Project-agnostic, discovers entry points at runtime.

V

v0 AI agents and harnesses

An AI generative user interface tool built by Vercel that turns text prompts and images into production-ready React and Tailwind CSS components.
Vault Orbit Tools

Encrypted local storage for API keys and secrets. Keys are AES-256-GCM encrypted, never sent to Sivants servers, and available across all your projects.
Vercel Build/deploy tooling

A cloud platform specialized in hosting frontend frameworks and static sites, providing seamless serverless deployment and global edge network delivery.
Video Mode Orbit-internal concepts

Image Studio's video generation mode. Short clips via Kling 3.0 (standard), Veo 3.1 (premium), or Wan 2.2 (budget). Credit-intensive.
vLLM Local models and inference

A high-throughput, open-source library for serving LLMs in production, famous for pioneering PagedAttention to efficiently manage memory during text generation.
Vue Browsers, runtimes, frameworks

An approachable, performant, and versatile JavaScript framework for building web user interfaces, known for its gentle learning curve and elegant reactivity system.

W

War room Software culture & jargon

An emergency coordination space where the relevant people gather quickly to diagnose and fix a major production problem.
Weaviate Hosting, infrastructure, databases

An open-source, AI-native vector database that allows developers to store data objects and vector embeddings and seamlessly search through them.
Webflow No-code / low-code platforms

A professional visual web development platform used to design, build, and launch custom, responsive websites and CMS-driven content without writing code.
WebSocket Misc tech terms

A persistent, two-way communication protocol that allows a web browser and a server to send messages back and forth instantly in real-time.
Windows Operating systems and shells

The dominant proprietary operating system developed by Microsoft, widely used in corporate environments and PC gaming.
Windsurf AI agents and harnesses

An AI-native IDE by Codeium that combines a highly collaborative local agent with background cloud agents to autonomously write, test, and deploy code.
Wireframe Design / UI

A low-fidelity visual blueprint of a screen or interface that shows layout, structure, and element placement without colors, fonts, or real content.
WKWebView Build/deploy tooling

Apple's modern iOS framework component used to display interactive web content natively within a mobile application.
Working directory Git fundamentals

The actual files and folders you see and edit on your computer's file system for a specific Git repository.
Worktree Orbit Tools

Separate git working copies Orbit creates for parallel work — Coordinator subtasks, Sandbox sessions, Benchmark runs. Auto-managed without manual git commands.
WSL Operating systems and shells

A compatibility layer in Windows that allows developers to run a genuine Linux environment natively, without the overhead of traditional dual-booting or bulky virtual machines.

Y

Yak shaving Software culture & jargon

Doing a long chain of prerequisite tasks before you can start the real task, often in a way that feels increasingly indirect.
YAML Misc tech terms

A highly human-readable data serialization format that relies on strict indentation (spaces) rather than brackets to define structure, widely used for configuration files.

Z

Zapier No-code / low-code platforms

The most widely recognized no-code automation tool, allowing users to easily connect web apps and automate workflows using simple "If this, then that" logic.
Zsh Operating systems and shells

A highly customizable, modern command-line shell that acts as an extended, more interactive version of Bash, serving as the default shell on macOS.