name: ZenML Vocabulary
description: >-
  Domain vocabulary for the ZenML MLOps and LLMOps platform, covering
  pipelines, stacks, components, runs, artifacts, models, deployments,
  schedules, secrets, projects, service connectors, and the broader ZenML
  governance and integration concepts.
modified: '2026-05-03'
terms:
  - term: Pipeline
    definition: A directed acyclic graph (DAG) of steps that processes data and produces artifacts and models.
    related: [Step, PipelineRun, Stack]
  - term: Step
    definition: A single, decorated Python function that becomes a node in a pipeline DAG.
    related: [Pipeline, Artifact, Materializer]
  - term: PipelineRun
    definition: An execution instance of a pipeline against a specific stack at a specific time.
    related: [Pipeline, Stack, Status]
  - term: Stack
    definition: A configurable collection of stack components used to execute a pipeline against target infrastructure.
    related: [StackComponent, Orchestrator, ArtifactStore]
  - term: StackComponent
    definition: An individual capability registered against a stack, such as an orchestrator, artifact store, or experiment tracker.
    related: [Stack, Flavor]
  - term: Orchestrator
    definition: A stack component that schedules and runs the steps of a pipeline (Kubernetes, Airflow, SageMaker, Vertex, etc.).
    related: [StackComponent]
  - term: ArtifactStore
    definition: A stack component that persists artifacts produced by pipeline steps (S3, GCS, Azure Blob, local).
    related: [StackComponent, Artifact]
  - term: ContainerRegistry
    definition: A stack component that hosts container images used by the orchestrator and step operators.
    related: [StackComponent]
  - term: ExperimentTracker
    definition: A stack component that records run metadata, metrics, and parameters (MLflow, W&B, Neptune, Comet).
    related: [StackComponent, PipelineRun]
  - term: ModelDeployer
    definition: A stack component responsible for serving registered models behind real-time or batch endpoints.
    related: [StackComponent, Model]
  - term: Artifact
    definition: A typed, materialized output of a step, persisted to the configured artifact store.
    related: [Materializer, ArtifactStore]
  - term: Materializer
    definition: A serialization/deserialization adapter that defines how an artifact type is read and written.
    related: [Artifact]
  - term: Model
    definition: A registered ML or LLM model in the ZenML Model Control Plane, with model card metadata and a chain of versions.
    related: [ModelVersion]
  - term: ModelVersion
    definition: A specific iteration of a model, tagged with a stage (none, staging, production, archived).
    related: [Model, Stage]
  - term: Stage
    definition: The lifecycle stage of a model version (none, staging, production, archived).
    related: [ModelVersion]
  - term: Deployment
    definition: A serving deployment that exposes a pipeline or a model behind an endpoint.
    related: [ModelDeployer, Pipeline]
  - term: Schedule
    definition: A cron- or interval-based trigger for repeatedly running a pipeline.
    related: [Pipeline, PipelineRun]
  - term: Secret
    definition: An encrypted credential or configuration value stored in the ZenML server.
    related: [ServiceConnector, Stack]
  - term: ServiceConnector
    definition: A reusable, scoped credential and configuration bundle for connecting to external infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure, Kubernetes).
    related: [Secret, Stack]
  - term: Project
    definition: A workspace boundary within a ZenML server for organizing pipelines, models, and runs.
    related: [Pipeline, Model]
  - term: Trigger
    definition: An external event source that initiates a pipeline run (webhook, schedule, manual).
    related: [Schedule, PipelineRun]
  - term: ControlPlane
    definition: The ZenML server component that hosts metadata, governance, and orchestration coordination.
    related: [Stack, PipelineRun]
  - term: Flavor
    definition: A specific implementation of a stack component type (e.g. kubeflow, sagemaker, mlflow).
    related: [StackComponent]
  - term: ZenMLPro
    definition: The managed ZenML control plane offering with multi-tenant governance, RBAC, and audit logs.
    related: [ControlPlane]