Glossary¶

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Core Terms¶

Foundation¶

The infrastructure library (provide.foundation) that provides configuration management, structured logging, cryptography utilities, and rate limiting for Pyvider RPC Plugin.

gRPC¶

Google Remote Procedure Call - A high-performance, open-source RPC framework that uses Protocol Buffers for serialization and HTTP/2 for transport.

Handler¶

The class that implements your plugin's business logic, processing incoming RPC requests and returning responses.

Host Application¶

The main program that launches and communicates with plugins via RPC.

A shared secret string used during the handshake process to authenticate that a plugin connection is legitimate and trusted.

mTLS¶

Mutual Transport Layer Security - A security protocol where both client and server authenticate each other using X.509 certificates.

Plugin¶

A separate process that provides specific functionality to a host application via RPC communication.

Protocol¶

The interface definition that specifies what RPC methods are available and how messages are structured.

Protocol Buffers (protobuf)¶

Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral mechanism for serializing structured data, used to define RPC services and messages.

Pyvider RPC Plugin¶

The complete framework for building RPC-based plugin systems in Python, built on top of Foundation.

RPC¶

Remote Procedure Call - A protocol that allows a program to execute procedures in another address space (typically on another machine).

Transport¶

The underlying communication mechanism used for RPC (Unix domain sockets or TCP sockets).

Configuration Terms¶

Environment Variable¶

Configuration values set in the system environment, following the pattern PLUGIN_* for Pyvider RPC Plugin settings.

RPCPluginConfig¶

The configuration class that extends Foundation's RuntimeConfig to provide type-safe access to plugin configuration.

RuntimeConfig¶

Foundation's base configuration class that provides validation, type conversion, and environment loading.

Transport Terms¶

TCP Socket¶

Transmission Control Protocol socket - Network communication protocol that works across machines and networks.

Unix Domain Socket¶

Inter-process communication socket that works only on the same machine but offers better performance than TCP for local communication.

Transport Layer¶

The abstraction layer that handles the actual network communication between host and plugin.

Security Terms¶

Certificate¶

X.509 digital certificate used for authentication in mTLS connections.

Certificate Authority (CA)¶

An entity that issues and validates digital certificates.

Handshake¶

The initial connection process where host and plugin authenticate each other and negotiate communication parameters.

Private Key¶

The secret cryptographic key used with a certificate for authentication and encryption.

Process Isolation¶

Running plugins as separate OS processes to prevent crashes or security issues from affecting the host application.

Development Terms¶

Async/Await¶

Python's asynchronous programming model used throughout Pyvider RPC Plugin for concurrent operations.

Factory Function¶

Helper functions like plugin_server() and plugin_client() that simplify creating server and client instances.

Service¶

A collection of related RPC methods defined in a Protocol Buffer file.

Servicer¶

The gRPC term for a class that implements the server-side logic for a service.

Stub¶

The gRPC client-side proxy that provides methods for calling remote procedures.

Lifecycle Terms¶

Graceful Shutdown¶

The process of cleanly stopping a plugin or host, ensuring all resources are properly released.

Health Check¶

A mechanism to verify that a plugin is running and responsive, using the gRPC Health Checking Protocol.

Hot Reload¶

The ability to update and restart plugins without stopping the host application.

Subprocess Management¶

The system for launching, monitoring, and terminating plugin processes.

Performance Terms¶

Batch Processing¶

Processing multiple requests together for improved efficiency.

Connection Pool¶

A cache of reusable connections to improve performance and reduce overhead.

Rate Limiting¶

Controlling the rate of requests using Foundation's token bucket algorithm to prevent overload.

Streaming¶

Sending or receiving data in chunks rather than all at once, supported by gRPC for large datasets.

Error Handling Terms¶

Circuit Breaker¶

A pattern that prevents cascading failures by stopping requests to a failing service.

Retry Logic¶

Automatic retry of failed requests with configurable backoff strategies.

Structured Logging¶

Foundation's logging system that includes contextual information with every log message.

Timeout¶

Maximum time allowed for an operation before it's considered failed.

Usage Conventions¶

Consistent Terms¶

Use "magic cookie" (not "magic cookie value" or "authentication secret")
Use "Unix domain sockets" (not "Unix sockets")
Use "TCP sockets" (not "TCP transport")
Use "Foundation" (capitalized when referring to the library)
Use "Pyvider RPC Plugin" (full name for the framework)

Configuration Format¶

Environment variables with JSON arrays must be properly quoted:

# Correct
export PLUGIN_SERVER_TRANSPORTS='["unix", "tcp"]'

# Wrong
export PLUGIN_SERVER_TRANSPORTS=["unix", "tcp"]
export PLUGIN_SERVER_TRANSPORTS="unix,tcp"

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