name: Dapr Vocabulary
description: >-
  Shared vocabulary of terms used across Dapr building block APIs covering
  state, pub/sub, service invocation, bindings, secrets, actors, workflows,
  configuration, distributed locks, cryptography, jobs, health, and metadata.
terms:
  - term: Building Block
    definition: >-
      A pluggable Dapr API such as state management, pub/sub, or workflow that
      provides a portable abstraction over backing components.
  - term: Component
    definition: >-
      A YAML-defined implementation of a building block that binds it to a
      concrete provider such as Redis, Kafka, or AWS S3.
  - term: Sidecar
    definition: >-
      The Dapr runtime process co-located with an application that exposes
      Dapr APIs locally over HTTP and gRPC.
  - term: State Item
    definition: >-
      A key/value record managed through the Dapr state management API.
  - term: CloudEvent
    definition: >-
      The CloudEvents 1.0 envelope used by Dapr pub/sub for messages.
  - term: Topic
    definition: >-
      A named channel through which Dapr publishes and subscribes to events.
  - term: Subscription
    definition: >-
      A declarative or programmatic registration that routes topic events to a
      consumer endpoint.
  - term: Binding
    definition: >-
      An input or output integration that lets applications receive events
      from or send events to external systems.
  - term: Service Invocation
    definition: >-
      Direct, named, mTLS-secured request/response calls between Dapr-enabled
      services.
  - term: Actor
    definition: >-
      A virtual actor with single-threaded execution, durable state, timers,
      and reminders, addressed by type and id.
  - term: Workflow
    definition: >-
      A long-running orchestration of activities and child workflows managed
      by the Dapr workflow engine.
  - term: Secret Store
    definition: >-
      A configured component that backs the Dapr secrets API with providers
      such as Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, or Azure Key Vault.
  - term: Configuration Item
    definition: >-
      A versioned configuration value that applications can read and watch.
  - term: Distributed Lock
    definition: >-
      A lease-based lock used to coordinate exclusive access to a shared
      resource across application instances.
  - term: Job
    definition: >-
      A scheduled task triggered by cron expression or duration.
  - term: Health Check
    definition: >-
      Readiness and liveness endpoints exposed by the Dapr sidecar.
  - term: Metadata
    definition: >-
      Runtime information about the sidecar, components, subscriptions, and
      endpoints.