Definitions of the terms used throughout these docs, grouped by the part of the product they belong to. Where a term has a page of its own, it is linked.

Packages and editions

Term	Meaning
chaicore	The open-source core: the pure editor component plus a basic Next.js website builder with SQLite page storage and page rendering.
chaipro	The paid package: the core plus the Pro plugins. This is what the starter installs.
Editor	ChaiBuilderEditor, the framework-agnostic React component that does visual editing and nothing else. Blocks in, blocks JSON out.
Website builder	ChaiWebsiteBuilder, the editor plus pages, SEO, publishing, storage, and rendering.
Starter	The public Next.js + Payload CMS template with the builder pre-installed and wired up.
chaibuilder-app	The open-source CLI that scaffolds a new project locally. See CLI.
License key	The environment variable that unlocks chaipro after the 30-day trial. See Trial & Licensing.

Content

Term	Meaning
App	One site. A row in the apps table that scopes its pages, assets, and content. One database can hold many.
Page	A visually built page: a slug, SEO metadata, and a tree of blocks.
Block	The unit of composition on a page. A registered React component plus a props schema the builder renders a settings panel from. See Blocks.
Blocks JSON	The serialised block tree that is a page's actual content.
Global block	A block tree built once and reused on many pages: header, footer, CTA band. A page with no slug, referenced from consuming pages and inlined at render time. See Global Blocks.
Partial	The internal name for a global block. Same thing; prefer "global block" in writing.
Reference	The placeholder block on a consuming page that points at a global block. Holds no content of its own.
Page type	A page that acts as the layout for many records, resolved by a dynamic segment and a data provider. See Page Types.
Identifier	What a page type's data provider looks a record up by. Often the same string as the slug, deliberately not required to be.
Collection	A set of same-shaped structured records. In the starter these are Payload collections.
Structured content	Content defined by typed fields rather than layout: blog posts, legal pages, jobs.
Draft	The working version of a page. Only visible in the builder and in preview.
Published	The live version of a page, the only one public visitors see.
Publish	Copying the draft to the published version and invalidating that page's cache.
Revision	A stored snapshot of a page's blocks. Restoring replaces blocks only, and does not publish. See Revisions.
Language page	A translation of a primary page. Holds translated text and shares the primary page's structure. See Multilingual.
Trash	Soft deletion. Deleted pages and assets are recoverable until purged.
Redirect	A managed source-to-destination rule, edited in the builder rather than in code.

Design

Term	Meaning
Design token	A named bundle of Tailwind classes applied as a unit. Not a CSS variable. See Design Tokens.
Theme	The site's design values: heading and body fonts, border radius, and a fixed palette of colors, each with a light and a dark value. See Theming.
Preset	A ready-made set of theme values you can apply and then adjust.
Canvas	The editing surface in the builder where blocks are arranged and previewed.
Panel	A region of the builder UI. Registerable, so you can add your own.
Library	The palette of blocks and prebuilt sections an editor can drop onto a page.

Data

Term	Meaning
Data binding	{{ }} expressions that pull values into block props at render time. See Data Binding.
Repeater	A block that renders its children once per record in a collection.
Data provider	A server function that supplies data to a render. Three kinds: global, page-type, and block. See Data Providers.
Global data provider	The provider whose result is available on every page as global.*. Site name, socials, tracking.
Page-type data provider	The provider that turns a URL segment into the record a page type renders.
Block data provider	A provider bound to a block type, resolved per block instance. Its output overrides props of the same name set in the panel.
Conditional visibility	A per-block condition evaluated at render time. A hidden block is absent from the HTML, not merely invisible. See Conditional Visibility.
Asset	An uploaded file in your object storage, with metadata in your database.
DAM	The digital asset manager: the media library UI for browsing, uploading, and searching assets.

Platform

Term	Meaning
Plugin	A feature, shipped in two halves: a server plugin (actions, permissions, data) and a client plugin (UI). Registering it turns the feature on.
Action	A named server operation the builder dispatches - load, save, publish, upload, restore. Permission-checked, and extensible with your own.
Request context	What the server resolves per request: which site, which user, their permissions, draft state, and the site URL.
Permission	A single capability, such as publishing a page. Grouped into roles.
Role	A named set of permissions assigned to a user.
App membership	A user's association with a site. Logging into the CMS does not by itself grant builder access.
Admin route	The path the builder and CMS live under. /admin by default, relocatable. See Admin Route.
Action endpoint	The single server route the builder posts every action to.
Draft mode	The Next.js mechanism preview uses to render draft content uncached.
ISR cache	Where rendered pages are stored between visits. Invalidated on publish. See Caching & Revalidation.
Cache tag	A label attached to cached output so a content change can invalidate exactly what it affects.
Revalidation	Invalidating cached pages so the next visitor triggers a fresh render.
Schema hook	The Payload hook that merges ChaiBuilder's tables into Payload's schema, so one migration pipeline covers both.
Agency branding	Setting your own logo and colors inside the builder. Included with the Agency license, and distinct from the White Label Solution.

Related

• Architecture Overview - how these pieces fit together.
• Pages vs CMS - the two content models.
• Blocks / Page Types / Global Blocks / Data Providers - the building blocks in depth.
• Rendering Model - how a page becomes HTML.
• Configuration - where most of these are configured.