Terminology

2205 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 areas2205 Architecture Fundamentals77 Distributed Systems107 Data Architecture110 Cloud Architecture94 Networking88 API & Integration Architecture82 Reliability & Resilience75 Observability70 Performance & Capacity Engineering72 Security Architecture86 Cost Architecture & FinOps71 Business Architecture67 Architecture Communication67 Enterprise Architecture66 Legacy Modernization71 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 concept794 practice734 pattern368 metric125 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

82 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Resource Modelling	practice	REST Design	Expressing an API as nouns with a consistent hierarchy rather than as verbs, so URLs are predictable and methods carry the semantics.
REST RESTful API	protocol	API & Integration	An architectural style for APIs built on resources identified by URLs, manipulated with uniform HTTP methods, and stateless requests.
Retry-After	protocol	Rate Limiting	A response header telling a client how long to wait before retrying, turning a rejection into actionable guidance.
Retryable Error	concept	API Error Handling	An error whose cause may resolve on its own, which a client may safely attempt again — as distinct from one that will fail identically.
Schema Registry	tool	Schema Registry	A central service holding message schemas with enforced compatibility rules, so a producer cannot publish a change that breaks its consumers.
Semantic Diffing of API Schemas	practice	Backward Compatibility	Comparing the published contract between builds and failing the build on a breaking change, so compatibility is mechanical rather than remembered.
Semantic Versioning SemVer	practice	API Versioning	A version scheme where the number itself states the compatibility promise — major for breaking, minor for additive, patch for fixes.
Shared Database Integration Integration Database	concept	Legacy Integration	Two or more applications reading and writing the same database directly — the most damaging integration pattern and the hardest to unwind.
Spec-First Development Design-First	practice	API Documentation	Writing and reviewing the API specification before implementing, so the contract is designed deliberately rather than emerging from code.
Stable Event Identity Immutable Event ID, Delivery Deduplication Key	pattern	Webhooks	An event identifier that is identical across every delivery attempt of the same event - the single property that makes at-least-once delivery usable, and the one most often broken by regenerating the ID on retry.
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.
Subject Naming Strategy	concept	Schema Registry	How schemas are keyed in a registry — per topic, per record type, or both — which determines whether one topic may carry several event types.
Token Bucket	pattern	Rate Limiting	A rate-limiting algorithm holding a replenishing allowance of tokens, permitting controlled bursts while bounding the sustained rate.
Tolerant Reader	pattern	Backward Compatibility	A consumer that ignores fields it does not recognise and depends only on what it actually needs, so a producer can add to a contract without breaking it.
Version Transformation Layer Version Shim, Compatibility Transform, Request/Response Rewriting	pattern	API Versioning	Implementing an API once against its current shape and expressing every historical version as a pair of request and response transformations, so supporting an old version costs a small testable function rather…
Webhook	pattern	API & Integration	An HTTP callback from a provider to a consumer-supplied URL when an event occurs, replacing polling with push.
Webhook Reliability	practice	Webhooks	The delivery, retry, ordering, verification and replay concerns that separate a production webhook system from a fire-and-forget HTTP POST.
Webhook Retry Policy	concept	Webhooks	The provider's schedule for re-attempting failed deliveries, and the contract the receiver must be built against.
Webhook Signature	practice	Webhooks	An HMAC over the raw request body using a shared secret, letting a receiver verify a webhook genuinely came from the provider.