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Version: 1.x

Glossary

Core wasmCloud terminology​

The following is a glossary of important or frequently used terms. These terms may have meanings or assumed context outside wasmCloud, and so these definitions should help to clarify how wasmCloud defines them.

Built-in provider​

Built-in providers are functionalities exposed by the wasmCloud host, such that the host itself can fulfull a component's imports on certain interfaces. Built-in providers may be linked with components. This limited set of functions for capabilities such as logging represents wasmCloud's trusted compute base.

For more information, see Providers.

Capability​

An abstraction for a given functionality (such as key-value storage or connection over HTTP), usually facilitated by a provider. For this reason, providers are sometimes called "capability providers."

Component​

Components are portable, interoperable WebAssembly binaries that implement stateless logic. Components are .wasm files that include interface definitions which define the contracts through which they may relate to other entities.

For more information, see Components.

Host​

A wasmCloud host is a runtime environment node consisting of a WebAssembly runtime (Wasmtime) and additional layers of security and functionality. Multiple hosts may run on a single machine and hosts are meant to be ephemeral.

For more information, see Hosts.

Interface​

Interfaces are contracts that define the relationships between entities like components and providers, often defining functionalities like HTTP or key-value storage at a high and vendor-agnostic level. Interfaces describe a component or provider's requirements ("imports") and exposed functions that may be used by other entities ("exports"). Interfaces are defined in WebAssembly Interface Type (WIT) files.

For more information, see Interfaces.

Lattice​

The lattice is a self-forming cluster of wasmCloud nodes. Each lattice is uniquely identified by a name, which is used to differentiate traffic from other lattices. Membership within a lattice requires a secret key for signing invocations and the ability to trust a specific set of public keys from other hosts.

For more information, see Lattice.

A link is a connection between a component or provider's requirements ("imports") and the exposed functions (or "exports") of another entity.

For more information, see Linking Components.

NATS​

NATS is the connective technology for distributed systems used to form the wasmCloud lattice. NATS is governed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

For more information, see the NATS documentation.

Provider​

Providers are executable host plugins that implement longer-lived processes, typically providing reusable capabilities (such as key-value storage). Providers are written in Rust or Go, may be linked to one or more components, and interact with components according to defined interfaces.

For more information, see Providers.

Provider Archive​

A provider archive is a compressed file containing a provider's binary (or multiple binaries if multiple architectures are supported) and any other necessary files for distrubution such as claims. Provider archives are used to distribute providers to wasmCloud hosts.

wadm​

wadm is shorthand for wasmCloud Application Deployment Manager, the part of the wasmCloud platform that manages declarative application deployments.

For more information, see wasmCloud Application Deployment Manager.

wash​

wash is shorthand for wasmCloud Shell, the primary CLI tool for interacting with the wasmCloud platform. Using wash, you can build components, view component interfaces, start a local instance of wasmCloud, and more.

For more information, see wasmCloud Shell.

Wasmtime​

Wasmtime is the WebAssembly runtime utilized by the wasmCloud host. Wasmtime is maintained by the Bytecode Alliance and may be used as a standalone tool.

For more information, see the Wasmtime documentation.

wRPC​

wRPC stands for "WIT over RPC"—or if you want to decode it completely, WebAssembly Interface Type over Remote Procedure Call. wRPC is an RPC protocol for communicating according to WIT definitions over a transport layer; this is the means by which wasmCloud can dynamically link distributed WebAssembly components at runtime over the lattice.

For more information, see Linking at Runtime.

General WebAssembly terminology​

The following are common terms in the WebAssembly ecosystem that will come up frequently when working with wasmCloud.

The Component Model​

The Component Model is a specification for WebAssembly binaries that enables them to interoperate—meaning that a component written in one language (Rust, for example) can communicate with a component written in another language (such as Go) using shared types and functions. When we talk about components in wasmCloud, we are simply talking about standard WebAssembly components conforming to the Component Model, which may run anywhere else that runs components.

For more information on components and the Component Model, see Components or the Component Model documentation.

Module​

WebAssembly modules are units of code conforming to the core WebAssembly specification. These are sometimes contrasted with components, but components are modules with an additional layer of specification to the Component Model.

For more information, see the WebAssembly core specification.

Wasm​

Wasm is shorthand for WebAssembly.

WebAssembly​

WebAssembly is a bytecode format paired with a virtual instruction set architecture that can serve as a compilation target for any language. Developers can compile code from a given language to a very small binary that runs on what is essentially a tiny virtual machine, enabling that code to run in any environment, including browsers, servers, edge devices, clouds, and more.

For more information, see WebAssembly.org.

WebAssembly Interface Type (WIT)​

WIT stands for "WebAssembly Interface Type." WIT is an interface description language used to define the high-level interfaces used by components, such as the APIs included in WASI. In wasmCloud, all interfaces are defined in WIT.

For more information on WIT, see the Component Model documentation.

WebAssembly System Interface (WASI)​

WASI stands for "WebAssembly System Interface" and refers to a group of standard APIs for use by WebAssembly binaries. WASI is developed and maintained by the WASI Subgroup in the W3C WebAssembly Community Group. WASI interfaces are sometimes called "proposals" as they move through a multi-stage proposal process before being accepted as a standard. You may see the second major WASI release referred to variously as WASI 0.2, WASI P2, or WASI Preview 2.

For more information, see WASI.dev.

WIT​

See WebAssembly Interface Type.

WASI​

See WebAssembly System Interface.

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