Glossary¶

Common terms used in Aksara documentation. Read the application boundaries for how these terms fit together, and stability for their supported scope. AI development tools below remain experimental; a glossary entry is not a stability promise.

A¶

Action¶

A ViewSet action is a custom endpoint defined with @action, operating on an object or collection. A durable action is a separately registered DurableAction with a name/version, effect class, handler and policy. Registering one does not automatically turn a ViewSet action into durable execution.

Approval¶

Recorded intent to permit a particular invocation or Operation to proceed. It is not permanent permission: current authorization still applies. Synchronous MCP grants and durable Operation decisions have different storage/replay boundaries.

Attempt¶

One physical execution claim for a durable Operation. A retry or replacement worker creates a new Attempt; the logical Operation remains the same.

AI Mode¶

Experimental planning, structured query plans, code generation and debugging assistance; separate from stable backend and MCP execution. Aksara does not itself turn arbitrary natural language into authorized database queries.

Agent¶

A machine actor represented by a server-owned Principal when it invokes an application tool. Experimental Agent Mode can assemble context, prompts, playbooks, and ordered development-workflow data; Aksara v0.7 does not provide an autonomous multi-step agent runtime. See Agent Runtime.

Annotation¶

Adding computed values to queryset results, typically using aggregate functions like Count, Sum, Avg.

Authentication¶

The process of verifying identity. Application credential verification supplies a server-owned Principal; account/session primitives do not automatically install login routes.

B¶

Backend¶

A component that supplies a particular service, such as a storage or email backend. It can also mean the application server as a whole; the surrounding context should distinguish them.

Bulk Operations¶

Database operations that affect multiple records at once (bulk_create, bulk_update).

C¶

Cache¶

Temporary storage used to avoid repeated work. Internal schema/content caches do not imply a supported general-purpose Redis cache service.

Codegen¶

Experimental generation of code artifacts. Some handlers are deterministic templates; generated code still requires review and tests.

Context Engine¶

Component that gathers relevant code context for AI operations.

CRUD¶

Create, Read, Update, Delete — the four basic operations for persistent storage.

D¶

Decorator¶

A Python pattern that wraps functions or classes. Aksara uses decorators such as @action and @task; this does not imply a public cache decorator or signal-decorator API.

Defer¶

A term for omitting fields from a query in some ORMs. Aksara does not expose a QuerySet defer() method; use the documented projection methods instead.

Durable Operation¶

A persisted logical application command with identity, bounded retention and authoritative execution state. It can survive request or worker loss. It is not a generic workflow graph. See Durable Operations.

DurableStep¶

An evolving higher-level workflow/checkpoint abstraction. It does not inherit v0.7 Operation ownership, authorization and recovery guarantees merely because its name includes "durable."

Detail Route¶

A ViewSet endpoint that operates on a single object, using the lookup field (usually id).

E¶

Eager Loading¶

Loading related objects along with the main query to avoid N+1 queries. See select_related and prefetch_related.

Endpoint¶

A URL path that accepts HTTP requests and returns responses.

F¶

Fence¶

A monotonically increasing ownership value for an Operation claim. When a newer Attempt owns the Operation, a stale worker cannot write through the supported guarded mutation/finalization boundary.

Field¶

A class that defines a database column and its behavior. Examples: String, Integer, ForeignKey.

Filter¶

Constraining queryset results based on field values.

FilterSet¶

A class-based filter configuration concept used by some frameworks. Aksara does not provide a public FilterSet class; see its filtering reference.

Foreign Key (FK)¶

A database relationship where one model references another model's primary key.

G¶

Generator¶

A Python construct that yields values lazily. Do not infer support for asynchronous QuerySet iteration from this term; execute documented terminal methods.

H¶

Handler¶

A function that responds to events (signals) or processes requests.

Hook¶

A point in the lifecycle where custom code can be executed. Example: pre_save, post_delete.

I¶

Idempotency¶

For durable admission, a scoped identity makes repeated identical submissions return the same Operation during its window. Reusing the identity with changed input conflicts. It is not unlimited deduplication or exactly-once external delivery.

Index¶

A database structure that improves query performance on specific columns.

Instance¶

A single object of a model class.

Installed Apps¶

The list of applications registered in Aksara settings.

J¶

JSON Field¶

A field that stores JSON data, allowing nested structures.

JWT¶

JSON Web Token — a compact, URL-safe token format used for authentication.

K¶

Key (Primary)¶

The unique identifier for a model instance, usually a UUID.

L¶

Lease¶

Temporary worker ownership measured against database time. Expiry permits recovery; it does not kill an old process. Fencing rejects the old owner's writes.

Lazy Loading¶

Deferring data loading until needed. Aksara forward foreign-key attributes expose stored IDs, not lazily fetched objects.

List Route¶

A ViewSet endpoint that operates on the entire collection of objects.

Lookup¶

A query operator that specifies how to match values. Example: exact, contains, gt.

M¶

Manager¶

A class that provides the database query interface for a model (Model.objects).

Many-to-Many (M2M)¶

A relationship where multiple instances of one model can be related to multiple instances of another.

Meta¶

An inner class on models and serializers that defines configuration options.

Middleware¶

Code that processes requests and responses globally, before and after view handling.

Migration¶

A file that describes database schema changes, allowing version control of the database structure.

Model¶

A Python class that represents a database table.

ModelAdmin¶

Configuration class for displaying a model in the admin interface.

ModelSerializer¶

A serializer that automatically generates fields from a model definition.

ModelViewSet¶

A ViewSet that provides complete CRUD operations for a model.

N¶

N+1 Problem¶

A performance issue where querying N related objects results in N+1 database queries instead of 1-2.

O¶

Operation¶

See Durable Operation. Use "operation" generically only where it cannot be confused with this persisted application command.

Outbox¶

Transactional export intent recorded with a durable state change. An exporter delivers it to an application-owned destination. It is not an indefinite, tamper-resistant audit archive.

ORM¶

Object-Relational Mapping — the system that maps Python objects to database tables.

Only¶

Loading a model instance with only specific fields, ignoring others.

P¶

Pagination¶

Dividing large result sets into smaller pages.

Patch Engine¶

Experimental AI development component for proposing/applying code changes. It is outside the stable backend contract.

PolicyEngine¶

The shared application policy surface for resource decisions, query filtering and field read/write rules. Applications supply their business policy and must invoke it through the supported entry points.

Principal¶

Server-owned identity and authority context used for permission decisions. It can represent a human, service or agent; client-supplied roles are not authority. A durable PrincipalReference is a locator for resolving current identity, not a persisted credential or permanent permission.

Permission¶

A class that determines whether a user can perform an action.

Loading reverse foreign key or many-to-many relations efficiently using a separate query.

Primary Key (PK)¶

The unique identifier field for a model instance.

Q¶

Query¶

A request to retrieve or modify data in the database.

Query Engine¶

Aksara's experimental structured AiQueryPlan executor. It does not export a QueryEngine class or parse natural language; application authorization is required before use.

QuerySet¶

An object describing a database query. Chain supported builders, then await a terminal method such as all(); do not await QuerySet itself.

R¶

Read-Only¶

A serializer or field that can only output data, not accept input.

The attribute name for accessing related objects from the reverse side of a relationship.

Request¶

An object containing information about an HTTP request (method, headers, body, user).

Response¶

An object containing information about an HTTP response (status, headers, body).

Routing¶

The process of connecting ViewSets to the application. In Aksara, this is done via urlpatterns lists in urls.py and include_viewset(app, ViewSet) — there is no separate Router class.

S¶

Schema Doctor¶

AI tool that analyzes database schema and suggests improvements.

Requesting batched loading of foreign-key/one-to-one objects after the parent query. Use the documented all() path; it is not a single-JOIN guarantee.

Serializer¶

A class that converts between Python objects and JSON (and validates input).

Signal¶

A notification sent when certain events occur, allowing decoupled code to respond.

Slug¶

A URL-friendly string, typically derived from a title (e.g., "hello-world").

T¶

Task¶

Queued background function execution. Ordinary task records retain tenant context, not a complete requester Principal. A task may be explicitly linked to an Operation; queue scheduling alone is not durable authorization.

Tenant¶

An organization or customer in a multi-tenant application.

Throttling¶

Rate limiting to prevent abuse of API endpoints.

Through Model¶

An intermediate model in a many-to-many relationship for storing extra data. Custom through models remain outside Aksara's declared supported relation contract.

Token¶

A string used to authenticate API requests.

Transaction¶

A group of database operations that succeed or fail together.

U¶

UUID¶

Universally Unique Identifier — Aksara uses UUIDs as default primary keys.

V¶

Validation¶

Checking that data meets required criteria before processing.

ValidationError¶

An exception raised when data fails validation.

ViewSet¶

A class that groups related API endpoints (list, create, retrieve, update, delete, custom actions).

W¶

Worker¶

A process or component that claims and executes work. TaskWorker runs ordinary tasks; DurableOperationWorker executes registered Operations for an explicitly selected tenant. They are not interchangeable names for an AI agent.

Write-Only¶

An input-only field concept. Aksara ModelSerializer does not support a write_only_fields option; explicitly select safe output fields instead.

Other execution terms¶

MCP tool: a callable exposed through the Model Context Protocol. Aksara's stable synchronous transport is Streamable HTTP at /mcp/; the inspection catalog is a different endpoint. Tool registration is not blanket authorization.

Cancellation: a recorded request to stop future eligible work, not undo of committed database changes or external effects.

External outcome unknown: the provider effect cannot safely be classified as confirmed or absent. Preserve uncertainty and reconcile; do not blindly retry.