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Terminology

An overview of the terminology used in Ory Cloud documentation.
If you think a term is missing here, please let us know.

Ory Cloud terms​

Ory Cloud Project​

A single deployment of Ory Cloud. Each project runs its own copy of the Ory services. Learn more about Ory Cloud Projects.

Ory Cloud Project settings​

The configuration for each individual Ory Project Cloud can be changed in the Ory Project Settings.

Ory Cloud Console​

The graphical user interface that can be used to administer and manage Ory Cloud Projects. You can it at https://console.ory.sh/.

Ory SDK URL​

The environmental variable ORY_SDK_URL specifies where the Ory instance is available. It can be found in the "API & Services" section of your Ory Cloud Console.

Identity Schema​

The JSON Schema that defines an identity in an Ory Cloud Project.

Ory Login Session​

A cookie or token that's stored in the users' Browser or API Client. It represents a successful Login Flow and lets the user access the authenticated identity.

Ory Project Slug​

A generic identifier for each Ory Cloud project. It has the format adjective-name-randomstring for example: suspicious-curran-y23rz7k2t.

Ory Project Public API​

The Ory Kratos endpoint for accessing your project's public API, it's composed like so: https://$ORY_PROJECT_SLUG/api/kratos/public.

Ory Project Admin API​

The Ory Kratos endpoint for accessing your project's administrative API, it's composed like so: https://$ORY_PROJECT_SLUG/api/kratos/admin.

Basics​

End-User​

The person who actually uses a Web-App, SPA, or mobile App that uses Ory Cloud.

Identity​

The "who" of the application. This can be an employee, customer, external developer, or a programmatic identity like an IoT device, application, or another kind of machine actor. Other often used aliases include "user", "account", or "user account".

Self-services​

Interfaces and flows in Ory Cloud that allow end-users to consume services without the direct involvement of service employees. A common example would be when someone signs up for a service without interacting directly to support.

Browser Client​

End-user side. A browser client refers to the Web browser in the user's machine or mobile device.

API Client​

End-user side. A browser client refers to the Web browser in the user's machine or mobile device.

Web App​

A web application is a server-side application that renders HTML; often written in PHP, Java, Go, Express.js, etc... Also called "server-side browser client", since most of the application logic is performed on the server-side.

Single Page Application​

A Single Page Application (or SPA) is a web application that dynamically rewrites the current web page with new data; often written in React, Angular, Next, etc... Also called "client-side browser client", since most of the application logic is performed in the end-users browser, so on the client-side.

Native App​

A native application is built for a specific device platform such as iOs, Android, Windows, smartTV, or others. Also called "client without browser", since the end-user doesn't use a browser directly, all flows go directly through the native app UI.

Self-Service Flows​

Registration Flow​

The path that a user has to take in order to create an identity at your application.

Login Flow​

The path that a user has to take in order to authenticate (i.e. prove they're a certain identity) at your application.

Recovery Flow​

The path that a user has to take in order to recover access to their account, for example through a verified email or other means.