Terminology

2185 terms, tools, patterns and metrics an architect is expected to use precisely. Each one gets a short explanation of what it is, and — where it matters — what it is commonly confused with. Search filters as you type; the column headers sort.

All areas2185 Architecture Fundamentals77 Distributed Systems107 Data Architecture110 Cloud Architecture89 Networking88 API & Integration Architecture82 Reliability & Resilience75 Observability70 Performance & Capacity Engineering72 Security Architecture81 Cost Architecture & FinOps66 Business Architecture67 Architecture Communication67 Enterprise Architecture66 Legacy Modernization66 AI-Era Architecture69 Software Architecture & Engineering71 Architecture Patterns71 Architecture Decision-Making63 The Architect's Meta-Skills61 Delivery & Release Engineering66 Platform Engineering & Developer Experience70 Testing & Quality Architecture66 Data Platform Architecture64 Streaming & Real-Time Data69 Data Governance & Semantics69 Frontend & Experience Architecture66 Edge, Mobile & IoT68 Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture65 Assurance, Audit & Model Risk64

Kind Any concept785 practice729 pattern362 metric125 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

6 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Amazon 2002: The API Mandate Bezos Mandate	case-study	API & Integration	A directive that all teams expose functionality only through service interfaces, with no back doors, is widely credited with making both Amazon's architecture and AWS possible.
LinkedIn and the Origin of Kafka	case-study	API & Integration	Kafka was built to replace point-to-point data integration between many systems with a single durable log that any system could publish to and any number could read.
Stripe Webhooks: Delivering to Systems You Do Not Control Signed Webhooks	case-study	Webhooks	Outbound event delivery to arbitrary customer endpoints requires signing, retries over days, explicit at-least-once semantics and a replay interface.
Stripe's API Versioning	case-study	API & Integration	Stripe pins each account to the API version current when it integrated and transforms requests and responses between versions internally, so integrations never break and the core stays modern.
Stripe: Idempotency Keys as a Public API Contract Idempotency-Key Header	case-study	Idempotency Keys	Stripe made safe retry a documented, client-controlled property of its API, which is why network failures during payments do not produce duplicate charges.
Stripe: Versioning by Account Pinning Stripe API Versions	case-study	API Versioning	Stripe pins each account to the API version it first integrated against and maintains compatibility transformations, so integrations built years ago continue to work unchanged.