Glossary & Key Terminology

• Environment: A fully configured, operational instance comprising a database and a Niksphere Engine.
• Engine: The Niksphere backend core server handling business logic, layer merging, data persistence, and events.
• Platform: The complete ecosystem including Engine, CLI tools, and VS Code Extension.
• App: A collection of entities, fieldsets, pages, APIs, and event handlers defined in a manifest (nikapp.yaml).
• Entity: A business data object containing a collection of fields mapped to persistence.
• FieldSet: A reusable blueprint for a logical group of fields (e.g., address, contact details).
• Field: An individual data attribute within an Entity or FieldSet.
• Page: A user interface definition mapped to an Entity and composed of Controls.
• Control: A UI element (e.g., repeater, input box, dropdown, button).
• Action: A menu item or button on a Page that triggers business logic or navigation.
• IDP Broker: Identity Provider broker service providing authentication across Niksphere Engine and Niksphere Cloud.
• Self-Hosted: Deployment model where the customer operates the Niksphere Engine on their own infrastructure (Docker container, standalone native binary, or private cloud VM).
• Niksphere Cloud (Fully Managed): Deployment model where the Niksphere Engine and PostgreSQL database are fully hosted, managed, patched, and scaled by Niksphere.