Glossary

The words these docs use with a precise meaning, in alphabetical order. Each links to the page that teaches it.

Access level

One of three levels on the Management API and the dashboard: viewer reads, developer also applies and rolls back, admin also changes the access block, the people and the AI connection. The descriptor’s access block maps roles to levels, and the highest match wins. For coding agents

Access profile

The CEL profile of the access block’s three levels: a boolean over @user alone, with no row and no tenant. CEL in Alvo

After-hook

An action that runs after a write has committed, delivered from the outbox: a webhook or an e-mail. It may reach the network and is retried, so its receiver must tolerate a repeat. After-hooks, events and webhooks

Apply

Making a descriptor the running one: validate it, plan the migration from the schema applied last, run it, and record a new revision. It happens on boot, through the Management API, or from the dashboard; a dry run does everything but the last two steps. Apply and evolve your descriptor

Before-hook

A reject or mutate action that runs inside a write’s transaction, before the row is stored. Nothing a descriptor can express in it reaches the network (a function a host registers in C# is host code and the exception), and if it refuses or fails, nothing is written. Validate and transform writes (before-hooks)

Bootstrap administrator

The first dashboard account, created once from configuration rather than from the descriptor. It always holds the admin level, so a project can never lock everyone out. Authentication and API keys

CEL profile

The set of CEL constructs an expression may use, decided by where it stands in the descriptor. There are five: Rule, Computed, Condition, Mutate and Access. CEL in Alvo

Computed field

A field whose value the database derives from the same row, written in the Computed profile; callers cannot write it. Computed fields and rollups

Computed profile

The CEL profile of a computed field: a value the database computes from the same row, with no caller context, and the only profile with the ? : conditional. CEL in Alvo

Condition profile

The CEL profile of a hook’s condition: a boolean that sees the row before and after the write (old., new.) and may call changed(field). CEL in Alvo

Descriptor

The one JSON document that defines a backend: entities, fields, rules, hooks, derived values and management access, never infrastructure or credentials. The project descriptor

Dry run

An apply that stops before changing anything (?dryRun=true on the Management API): it answers with the plan, or with the refusal a real apply would give. Apply and evolve your descriptor

Embedded

Running Alvo as NuGet packages inside your own ASP.NET Core app, beside your own endpoints and users. Standalone and embedded

Entity

One kind of record the descriptor declares, such as tickets: a table in the database and its own routes in the Data API. Entities and fields

Honoured

A descriptor block this build runs as documented. The others are warned or refused. Capabilities in this build

Mutate profile

The CEL profile of a before-hook’s mutate values: a value a field can hold, computed from the row, functions and arithmetic. CEL in Alvo

new, old

In a hook, the row as it will be stored (new.status) and as it was before the write (old.status). Only the Condition and Mutate profiles can read them. Validate and transform writes (before-hooks)

Outbox

The table every write appends its event to, in the same transaction as the row, so there is no change without an event and no event without a change. After-hooks are delivered from it. Architecture

Problem type

The slug at the end of a refusal’s type (https://alvo.dev/errors/forbidden) that names its kind. Clients branch on it, never on the prose in detail. Problem types

Refused

A descriptor feature the schema allows but this build rejects at apply, with a reason and a fix, because accepting it would silently do something other than what it says. Capabilities in this build

Revision

One entry in a project’s append-only descriptor history: the descriptor, its number, who applied it, when and why. Every apply adds one, a rollback included, and none is rewritten. Do not confuse it with apiVersion, the format’s version. Apply and evolve your descriptor

Role

A name a caller holds, such as agent, that rules test with 'agent' in @user.roles. The descriptor declares its roles in auth.roles; anon, authenticated and admin are built in. A key carrying a role the descriptor does not declare authenticates nothing. Authentication and API keys

Rollup

A field that aggregates related rows, such as the sum of an order’s lines, kept up to date inside the same transaction as the change. Computed fields and rollups

Rule

A CEL expression per entity operation (list, get, create, update, delete) that decides which rows a caller may reach: rendered into the SQL that reads rows, and checked against the row a write would store. An operation without one is refused. Access rules

Rule profile

The CEL profile of rules and of hidden and readOnly flags: a boolean over the current row, @user and @tenant, with no arithmetic. CEL in Alvo

Scope

A limit written on an API key, <entity|*>:<read|write>, that narrows what the key reaches on the Data API whatever the rules allow. Scopes do not limit the Management API, where a key reaches what its roles reach. Authentication and API keys

Standalone

Running Alvo as a container image driven by a mounted descriptor, with the dashboard and an API browser included. Standalone and embedded

Tenant, @tenant

The customer or organisation a caller acts for, at most one per caller. On a tenant-scoped entity every row belongs to one tenant, and @tenant.id is the caller’s tenant in a rule. Multi-tenancy

@user

The caller in an expression: @user.id and @user.roles, and nothing else. An expression that reads @user.id refuses a caller with no identity. Access rules

Warned

A descriptor block this build parses and accepts but does not run. The apply succeeds, and the dashboard and the capabilities answer say what does not happen. Capabilities in this build

Working copy

The dashboard’s one unapplied draft of the descriptor, which every screen and the schema assistant edit. Nothing changes until you preview and apply it. The admin dashboard