Glossary - Nuon documentation

This page defines terms you will see throughout our product and documentation.

User Terms

Term	Definition
Vendor	A BYOC software provider.
Customer	A BYOC software consumer.
Customer Account	The cloud account where a Vendor deploys a BYOC App. Owned by their Customer.

System Components

Term	Definition
Nuon Platform	The software that we provide to Vendors and Customers to support providing and consuming BYOC applications.
Nuon Control Plane	The part of the Nuon platform that orchestrates jobs for runners.
Nuon Runner	The part of the Nuon platform that executes jobs. The runners being orchestrated by the Nuon Control Plane can collectively be considered the Data Plane.
Organization	A business unit that operates Apps and Installs. A Vendor will be given one or more Orgs to use.
App	A BYOC application, composed of a sandbox, inputs, components, and actions. Provided by a Vendor to a Customer.
Build	An OCI artifact packaging a Component. Stored in a private OCI registry alongside the Nuon Control Plane.
Inputs	A Vendor-defined input for an App, that can be set by a Customer when creating an Install. Input values can be used by the Sandbox, Components, and Action Workflows of the App.
Sandbox	The “root” component of an App. Defines the base infrastructure required by the App Components.
Component	Part of an App. Nuon supports Terraform modules, Helm charts, Docker files, and container images. Can be deployed and updated independently of the rest of the app.
Action Workflow	A series of commands, defined by a Vendor, that can be run in an Install.
Build Runner	A Nuon Runner that builds docker images and packages OCI artifacts for Install runners to pull. Deployed alongside the Nuon Control Plane, but technically part of the Data Plane. Single-tenant.
Install Runner	The Nuon Runner deployed in the Customer Account for an Install. It executes tasks to sync artifacts, provision, maintain, and deprovision the sandbox and components, and run actions in the Install. Single-tenant.
Install	A single-tennant deployment of a BYOC app. Typically deployed into a cloud account owned by a Customer.

Processes

Term	Definition
Provision	The process of creating an Install in a Customer’s cloud account.
Reprovision	The process of re-creating an Install in a Customer’s account. Basically a factory reset of the Install.
Deprovision	The process of removing an Install from a Customer’s account.
Sync	The process of copying a Build from the Control Plane’s registry to an Install’s registry.
Sandbox Run	The process of provisioning the Sandbox in an Install.
Component Deploy	The process of provisioning a Component in an Install.
Action Workflow Run	The process of executing an Action Workflow in an Install.
Release	A process that orchestrates Deploys of a Component in one or more Installs.

Continuous Delivery

Term	Definition
App Branch	A link between one git branch and an App. A push to that branch triggers an App Branch Run. See App Branches.
App Branch Run	A single execution of an App Branch’s workflow: fetch the config at a commit, build what changed, then plan and deploy each Deployment Group in order. Triggered by a push (`git-run`), a pull request (`git-preview-run`), or by hand from the CLI, API, or dashboard (`manual-run`).
Deployment Group	A named subset of an App’s Installs that receives an update as a unit, and the unit of ordering and approval within an App Branch Run. Selected by label, install ID, or install name. The dashboard calls these deployment groups; the TOML key is `install_groups` and the API routes use `install-groups`.
Label Selector	A set of key/value pairs on a Deployment Group. Any Install carrying all of them belongs to the group, so membership re-evaluates on every run. Set an Install’s labels with `nuon installs labels set`.
Plan	The diff an App Branch Run computes for each Install in a Deployment Group, showing what would change before anything is applied. Its workflow step is an approval gate.
App Config Version	A snapshot of the config an Install was expected to be running at a point in time. Nuon records one per change, keeps the diff between versions, and can apply any earlier version again.
PR Preview	A plan-only App Branch Run triggered by opening or updating a pull request against a tracked branch. Nuon posts the resulting config diff as a pull request comment and sets a `nuon/preview` commit status. Requires the Nuon GitHub App connected in your Org for the repository’s owner.