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Glossary

This page defines terms used throughout the Confii documentation.

Term Meaning
Application config Values consumed by your application and decoded into Config[T]
Candidate A private configuration state prepared by startup, reload, extension, mutation, override, refresh, or rollback before publication
Composition Processing _include, _defaults, and _merge_strategy directives before merge
Config[T] The published configuration object, parameterized by your typed model
Control plane Confii's own settings: sources, environment selector, providers, validation, timeouts
Environment The active name such as development or production
Environment file A named-file override such as config/production.yaml
Environment section A top-level map such as production: inside a sectioned file
Hook A transformation callback that runs before validation and publication
Layer One source contribution in the ordered merge stack
Loader Interface that reads one configuration source into map[string]any
Materialization Expansion, type casting, secret resolution, and hook processing that creates effective values
Named files Environment model using default.yaml plus <environment>.yaml
Publication Atomic replacement of the visible snapshot after a candidate succeeds
Secret provider A named declarative secret backend in .confii.yaml
Secret resolver Component that replaces ${secret:...} placeholders through a store
Secret store Backend implementation that reads and writes secret values
Sectioned file Environment model using one file with default and environment sections
Self-config .confii.yaml and optional .confii.<environment>.yaml files that configure Confii
Snapshot The complete effective configuration visible to readers
Source A file, environment prefix, HTTP endpoint, cloud object, or custom loader
SourcePlan The resolved environment model and ordered source/layer plan
Validator Application rule that accepts or rejects a materialized candidate

Common Distinctions

Do not confuse With
.confii.production.yaml config/production.yaml
env_prefix loader sysenv_fallback read fallback
Hook Validator
Typed() shared snapshot TypedCopy() detached copy
Reload existing sources Extend with a new source
Redacted diagnostics Application access to the resolved value