Glossary
The terms are in alphabetical order. For the ideas behind them, read Concepts.
A
Account
A person's sign-in on the server: a name of 3 to 64 characters and a password of 12 to 128 characters. Group grants give an account access to repositories. See Accounts and access.
Action
One exact right on a repository, such as upload.create or content.read. Service keys carry actions, and the API reference names the actions each operation needs. See Authentication.
Administrator
An account that manages accounts, groups, updates and backups. An administrator does not read a repository's files unless a group also grants that access. See Accounts and access.
Admission
The limit on how many requests and transfers the server handles at the same time. Above it, a transfer waits briefly and then the server answers 503 with the code busy and a Retry-After header. See Rate limits and busy servers.
Artifact
One immutable stored file with its SHA-256. New content makes a new artifact. See Concepts.
Attachment
A link from a build to another artifact of the same repository: a manifest, an SBOM, a signature, a report or another file. A build has up to 32 attachments. See Concepts.
B
Backup
A scheduled copy of the database and all published content into the vault. See Backups.
Backup agent
The service that makes the copies, verifies them and applies retention to the restore points. See Backups.
Bearer token
The way every client sends a credential to /api/v1: the header Authorization: Bearer <credential>. See Authentication.
Binding
One entry of a service policy: a repository and the list of actions allowed on it. A policy has up to 64 bindings. See Authentication.
Build
The output of one CI run, stored as an artifact or as a package version. See Packages.
C
Catalog
The list of artifacts in a repository, with their names, sizes, labels and stages. See Artifacts reference.
Ceiling
The limit of a delegation: the repository actions that an operator may put into the policies and keys of the accounts it administers. The operator cannot go beyond its ceiling. See Authentication.
Checksum
The SHA-256 that proves the bytes are the expected ones. Uploads declare it before the bytes arrive, and the server and the clients verify it. See Transfers.
Cleanup
Also called physical cleanup. It frees the disk space of deleted content in the background, in small batches. See Storage.
Collection
A named set of artifacts. A collection is part of an artifact's annotations. See Concepts.
Compare-and-swap
A change that names the revision it expects, such as expectedRevision. If another change came first, the server answers 409 with the reason revision_mismatch and changes nothing. See HTTP API overview.
Completion job
A background job of the worker that checks and publishes a large upload. You follow it with GET /api/v1/jobs/{id}. Its status is queued, running, completed or failed. See Uploads reference.
Console
Arkvory's web interface, served at /console/. See The web console.
CORS
The browser rule for pages that call an API at another address. A page from another origin works only if the administrator lists that origin in ARKVORY_CORS_ORIGINS. See Environment variables.
Cursor
The value next in a page of results. Send it back as after to read the next page; when next is null, the list is complete. See HTTP API overview.
D
Delegation
A grant from the recovery key to an operator key: it may administer named service accounts, with named administration actions, within a ceiling. See Authentication.
Digest
A container image's content address, written sha256:…. See Container images.
Download link
A time-limited link that downloads one artifact without a key. It lives from 60 seconds to 24 hours (1 hour by default), and nobody can revoke it before it expires. See Authentication.
E
ETag
The validator of a download: the strong value "sha256:<hex>" of the artifact. Use it with If-Range to resume safely and with If-None-Match to skip a repeated download. See HTTP API overview.
F
Failover
Moving clients to a mirror when the source is lost. The operator detaches the mirror, and it becomes an ordinary repository that accepts changes. Nothing switches by itself. See Mirrors.
Feedback
A report with screenshots and logs that a signed-in user sends to ProAnimaStudio from the console. The console shows what is attached before it sends anything. See The web console.
File by path
A file addressed by a path in the repository, such as builds/game/Setup.exe, that keeps its earlier revisions. See Files and paths.
File key
A secret whose SHA-256 is listed in the server's keys file (ARKVORY_KEYS_FILE). The recovery key is a file key. See Authentication.
G
Grace period
The time that deleted content stays on disk before cleanup removes it: 24 hours by default. See Storage.
Group
A set of accounts that share repository access. A group gets read or write ("Read and write") access per repository. See Accounts and access.
H
History
The earlier revisions of a file by path, or of an attachment set. See Files and paths.
Hub
The ProAnimaStudio service at https://hub.proanima.net that announces stable releases and receives feedback. See Updates.
I
Idempotency key
The Idempotency-Key header: a value of 1 to 128 characters that makes a repeated request take effect once. See HTTP API overview.
Image
A container image stored in the built-in registry. See Container images.
Installation root
The folder with the data, configuration and logs: C:\ProgramData\ProAnima\Arkvory on Windows and /opt/proanima-arkvory on Linux. See Choose an installation.
L
Label
A short tag on an artifact, such as nightly or tested. An artifact has up to 32 labels. See Concepts.
Lease
A claim that a process holds for a short time and has to renew, so that only one process does a job. The backup agent holds a lease of 60 seconds by default, so two agents never run at once. See Environment variables.
Liveness
The answer of GET /health/live: the process runs. It is public. See System reference.
Lock
A Git LFS file lock that stops two people from changing the same binary file. See Git LFS.
M
Maintenance hour
The hour of the day in UTC in which automatic updates may install. The default is 03:00. See Updates.
Metadata
Key/value text fields of an artifact: up to 32 fields, with values of up to 1,024 characters. See Concepts.
Mirror
A read-only copy of a repository that a second installation keeps by following the source. See Mirrors.
Mirror source
The installation that a mirror copies from. The mirror signs in to it with a read-only key. See Mirrors.
Move
A promotion that also removes the build from the source repository. See Promotion.
O
Onboarding
The first steps after installation, shown in the console under the Getting started section. See Quick start.
OpenAPI
The machine-readable description of the HTTP API, served at /api/v1/openapi.json. See HTTP API overview.
Owner
The first account, created during installation. It is an administrator and a member of the group arkvory-owners, which can write to releases. See Concepts.
P
Package
A versioned UPack package with a group, a name and a SemVer version. See Packages.
Package group
The first part of a package's name. Packages with the same name in different groups are different packages. See Packages.
Part
One piece of a large file that is sent as its own request. A part is at least 8 MiB, except the last one, and at most 1 GiB. See Transfers.
Permission
The right to do one action. People get read or write through groups; service keys get exact actions. See Authentication.
Personal access token
A person's secret for scripts and the command line. It starts with pat_, expires after 90 days by default (365 at most) and is either read-only or read and write. See Authentication.
Pin
To keep something from automatic deletion, such as a restore point. See Backups.
Policy
The saved rules of a service account (its bindings), of a repository (its storage policy) or of the backup plan. See Authentication.
Promote
The verb of promotion: publish a build in another repository, or mark it with a stage. See Promotion.
Promotion
Publishing a build in another repository without uploading it again. See Promotion.
Q
Quota
The most space that a repository may use. A new upload that would pass it is refused with 507 and the reason storage_quota. See Storage.
R
Range
The HTTP header Range: bytes=start-end that asks for part of a file. Downloads support one range per request, which is what resuming needs. See HTTP API overview.
Rate limit
A limit on how often something may be tried. Arkvory limits sign-in, registration, password and feedback attempts, and answers 429 with Retry-After. See Authentication.
Read gateway
An extra download-only API process on the same storage. It answers GET and HEAD and refuses changes with 405. See Read gateways.
Readiness
Whether the server can do its work. GET /health/status is public and answers {"status":"ready"} or unavailable; GET /health/ready needs a credential and gives details. See System reference.
Recovery key
Also called the bootstrap key. The installation's secret in config/bootstrap-token.txt: it creates the owner, manages service accounts and recovers access. See Authentication.
Registry
A server that clients such as Docker or npm push to and pull from. Arkvory has a container registry (/v2/) and an npm registry (/npm/). See Clients and protocols.
Repository
A named space for content with its own access rules and storage policy. See Repositories.
Request ID
The identifier of one request, sent back in the X-Request-Id header and in every error. Give it to support. See HTTP API overview.
Resolve
To find the build that a stage and a version range point to. See Promotion.
Restore
To make an earlier revision of a file current again, which adds a new revision. Also to recover the whole installation from a restore point. See Files and paths and Backups.
Restore point
One complete backup that can be restored. See Backups.
Resume
To continue an interrupted upload or download from where it stopped. See Transfers.
Retention
The rules for how long content or backups are kept. See Storage.
Retention policy
The saved retention rules of a repository: how many builds to keep, which labels to protect and how old a build must be before removal. It is off until an administrator turns it on. See Storage.
Retry-After
The header, and the retryAfterSeconds field of an error, that says how many seconds to wait before trying again after a 429 or a 503. See HTTP API overview.
Revision
A numbered version of a file by path, of an artifact's annotations or of a setting. Revisions count up from 1. See HTTP API overview.
Revoke
To cancel a key or a token for good. See Authentication.
Rollback
Returning to the previous version after an update that did not start. See Updates.
Rotate
To replace a key with a new one while the old one still works. Activating the new key limits the old one to 24 hours. See Authentication.
S
SBOM
A software bill of materials: the list of components of a build. You can attach it to a build. See Concepts.
Self-healing
The services restarting by themselves after a crash or a hang. See Self-healing.
SemVer
Semantic Versioning: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, with an optional pre-release part, such as 1.4.2 or 2.0.0-rc.1. See Packages.
Service account
An account for CI or automation. It has a policy and signs in with keys. See Authentication.
Service key
The secret that a service account signs in with. It starts with arkvory_, is shown once and has to be activated. See Authentication.
Session
A signed-in console session. It starts with dps_ and lasts 12 hours. See Authentication.
SHA-256
The hash function that Arkvory uses for artifacts, parts and releases. It is written as 64 lowercase hexadecimal digits. See Transfers.
Stable release
A release that ProAnimaStudio has approved for installations on the stable channel. See Updates.
Stage
A mark on a build such as qa, release or prod. See Promotion.
Surface
One of the six groups of API operations: discovery, identity, catalog, transfers, administration and operations. See HTTP API overview.
T
Tag
A container image's name for a version, such as latest or 1.4. See Container images.
U
UPack
The package format that Arkvory registers: an archive with a manifest named upack.json that gives the group, the name and the version. See Packages.
Update
A newer stable release of Arkvory, and installing it. See Updates.
Upload
The act of sending a file to the server. The word also names the upload session that reserves the file. See Transfers.
Upload session
A reservation for one file. It lives for 7 days and is completed once every byte has arrived. See Uploads reference.
V
Vault
The backup storage: a folder on another disk or a network share. See Backups.
Version
A SemVer version of a package, such as 1.4.2. See Packages.
Version range
A set of versions, such as ^1.4. See Packages.
W
Worker
The service that finishes large uploads and synchronizes mirrors. See Choose an installation.
Writer
The API process that accepts changes, as opposed to a read gateway. See Read gateways.