name: Retrofit Vocabulary
description: >-
  Domain vocabulary for the Retrofit type-safe HTTP client library for Android
  and JVM, covering annotations, converters, adapters, and HTTP client concepts.
version: 1.0.0
created: '2026-05-02'
modified: '2026-05-02'

terms:
  - term: Retrofit
    definition: >-
      A type-safe HTTP client for Java and Kotlin that translates annotated
      interface methods into HTTP API calls. Built on top of OkHttp, Retrofit
      eliminates boilerplate code for making REST API calls by generating
      concrete implementations at runtime.
    tags:
      - Core Concept

  - term: Service Interface
    definition: >-
      A Java or Kotlin interface annotated with Retrofit HTTP method annotations
      that describes the API's endpoints. Retrofit creates an implementation of
      this interface that executes the corresponding HTTP calls.
    tags:
      - Core Concept
      - API Design

  - term: Call
    definition: >-
      The default return type of a Retrofit service interface method representing
      an HTTP request that can be executed synchronously (execute()) or
      asynchronously (enqueue()). Only one execute() or enqueue() call may
      be made per Call instance.
    tags:
      - Core Concept
      - Async

  - term: Converter
    definition: >-
      A pluggable component that serializes request bodies and deserializes
      response bodies. Retrofit supports converters for Gson, Moshi, Jackson,
      Kotlinx Serialization, Protocol Buffers, JAXB, and plain strings/bytes.
    tags:
      - Extensibility
      - Serialization

  - term: Call Adapter
    definition: >-
      A pluggable component that transforms the default Call type into
      alternative async frameworks. Adapters are available for RxJava
      (v1/v2/v3), Java 8 CompletableFuture, Guava ListenableFuture,
      and Scala Future.
    tags:
      - Extensibility
      - Async

  - term: "@GET"
    definition: >-
      An annotation indicating that the annotated method should make an HTTP
      GET request to the relative URL specified in the annotation value.
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - HTTP Methods

  - term: "@POST"
    definition: >-
      An annotation indicating that the annotated method should make an HTTP
      POST request.
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - HTTP Methods

  - term: "@PUT"
    definition: >-
      An annotation indicating that the annotated method should make an HTTP
      PUT request.
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - HTTP Methods

  - term: "@DELETE"
    definition: >-
      An annotation indicating that the annotated method should make an HTTP
      DELETE request.
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - HTTP Methods

  - term: "@PATCH"
    definition: >-
      An annotation indicating that the annotated method should make an HTTP
      PATCH request.
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - HTTP Methods

  - term: "@Path"
    definition: >-
      An annotation that substitutes a named path parameter in the URL.
      The method parameter's value replaces the matching {name} segment
      in the URL template.
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - Parameters

  - term: "@Query"
    definition: >-
      An annotation that appends a query parameter to the URL. Can be applied
      to method parameters to add key-value pairs to the query string.
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - Parameters

  - term: "@Body"
    definition: >-
      An annotation that designates a method parameter as the request body.
      The annotated object will be serialized using the registered converter
      and sent as the request body.
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - Request Body

  - term: "@Header"
    definition: >-
      An annotation that adds a named header to the request. Can be applied
      as a method annotation (static header) or parameter annotation (dynamic header).
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - Headers

  - term: "@Multipart"
    definition: >-
      An annotation indicating the request should use multipart encoding.
      Used with @Part annotations to upload files or form data.
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - File Upload

  - term: "@FormUrlEncoded"
    definition: >-
      An annotation indicating the request body should be sent as form
      URL-encoded data. Used with @Field annotations for form submission.
    tags:
      - Annotation
      - Forms

  - term: OkHttp
    definition: >-
      The underlying HTTP client library that powers Retrofit. OkHttp handles
      connection pooling, transparent GZIP, response caching, and retry logic.
      Retrofit delegates actual HTTP execution to OkHttp.
    tags:
      - Dependency
      - Infrastructure

  - term: Interceptor
    definition: >-
      An OkHttp mechanism for observing, modifying, and short-circuiting requests
      and responses. Used with Retrofit for authentication, logging, caching,
      and request transformation.
    tags:
      - OkHttp
      - Extensibility

  - term: Suspend Function
    definition: >-
      A Kotlin coroutine function that can be suspended and resumed. Retrofit
      supports suspending service interface methods natively for Kotlin coroutine
      integration, eliminating the need for a call adapter.
    tags:
      - Kotlin
      - Async