Glossary

Short definitions for terms used across the Faberio documentation and protocol specifications. Normative detail lives in the linked specs.

Term	Definition
Administrator	A privileged participant in an information space who approves nodes and users and manages membership and related trust decisions. See Identity Model and Node Discovery.
Always-on server / node	A node expected to remain online for extended periods (home server, VPS, on-prem). Optional but improves sync, onboarding, and availability. See Server-optional Architecture.
Background replication	Automatic synchronisation of state between peers without user-initiated cross-node requests.
Community Hub	Short for Federated Community Hub — the reference validation application category. See Application Examples.
CRDT	Conflict-free replicated data type — merge strategy for concurrent updates during replication. See Distributed Database.
Data access control (DAC)	Policy evaluation that authorises reads and writes to database and file objects. Enforced on the source Runtime. See Data Access Control.
Data decoupling	Application logic is separated from data custody; state lives on participant- and operator-controlled nodes, not a vendor SaaS backend. See Platform goals.
Device	A concrete machine that hosts a Runtime and a local replica (phone, laptop, server). A user may use multiple devices.
Distributed database	Platform service for structured application records with replication across nodes. See Distributed Database.
Distributed file storage	Platform service for files and attachments with replication across nodes. See Distributed File Storage.
Ed25519	Public-key signature scheme used for node and user cryptographic identity. See Identity Model.
External application	An application that runs outside the Runtime and accesses state via the HTTP API or native access (Phase 4 for the external HTTP API in the reference cycle). See Development Model.
Faberio Protocol	The open, implementation-neutral specification that Runtimes must follow to interoperate.
Faberio Runtime	An execution environment on a node that hosts applications and provides platform services (identity, discovery, connectivity, database, file storage, access control).
Faberio SDK	Language-specific library for in-runtime applications. The reference cycle uses a Laravel SDK.
Federated Community Hub	Coordination application for communities and organisations (participants, events, documents, etc.) on Faberio nodes. Reference validation demo in the current roadmap.
Group	Named collection of users used as a subject in access policies. Optional in the reference MVP. See Identity Model.
HTTP API	Runtime HTTP interface for external applications to access database and file storage. Deferred to Phase 4 in the reference MVP.
Information space	A trust boundary formed by approved nodes and users that share replicated state and policies. Spaces are independent of one another.
In-runtime application	An application that runs inside the Runtime and uses the Faberio SDK (for example the Community Hub demo).
Messaging	Runtime-internal change notifications and sync signalling between peers — not an end-user chat protocol. See Messaging.
Native access	Direct use of a database client or filesystem against Runtime-backed storage, subject to access control. See Development Model.
Node	A Runtime instance that participates in discovery, connectivity, and replication within one or more information spaces.
Node-level replication	Replication between server (or always-on) peer nodes authenticated as nodes. Validated in the reference MVP before user-device replication.
Object identifier	UUIDv7 used as the primary identifier for stored protocol and application objects. See Object Identifier.
Peer snapshot recovery	Recovering missing or divergent state from a peer via RPC snapshot mechanisms. See RPC.
Reference MVP	The current development cycle: Laravel Runtime, NixOS/container deployment, and Federated Community Hub validation (milestones M1–M3). See Implementation Roadmap.
RPC	Runtime-internal remote procedure calls used for fetch, snapshot, compare, and related sync operations. See RPC.
Source-side authorization	Access decisions enforced on the Runtime that serves or sends data, not only on the client. See Data Access Control.
User	A participant registered in an information space with a cryptographic key pair and administrator approval status.
User-level replication	Replication involving user devices authenticated as users. Planned for Phase 4 (Flutter Runtime).
Vertical SaaS	A product category where one vendor bundles application, data, and hosting. Faberio targets the same categories without that custody model. See Application Examples.

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